Brenda Reyes

School to Prison Pipeline

The school to prison pipeline is a phenomenon wherein students are funneled out of public schools and into the hands of the criminal justice system. In The School- to - Prison Pipeline.  “Structuring Legal Reform," is states that this issue is a result of the failure of educational institutions meeting the educational and social development needs in lower socioeconomic areas. With inadequate educational services such as: 

1. overcrowding
2. racially and socioeconomically isolated environments (discrimination, red zoning),
3. lack of effective teacher and school leaders with proper training 
4. insufficient funds for additional support such as: counselor, special ed, therapists

The youth that are most effected by this issue are students of lower SES, students or color, students of disability and students of sexual minorities. Many of theses children would benefit from educational and counseling services but instead they are isolated, punished and pushed out of the educational system

With alarming facts like these makes you wonder what educational institutions are really doing to help our minority students.

1. black students are three times more likely to be suspended compared to white counterparts
2. twenty percent of middle school suspensions are minorities
3. 2011-2013 3.45 million students were suspended at least once and 130,000 students were expelled during this time period

The reason I choice this issue was because one day I want to become a teacher and I would like to best prepare myself when I do. This is a potential issue I will encounter in my teacher career. Not only that I want to be the most inclusive teacher I can be. I want to be that teacher you can go to whenever you need to talk or even just hangout. I believe that schools are a place for growth and security not a place student should feel timid about.

Another reason I choose this topic was because growing up, my mother decided to take me to school out of my district to what she told me were the "better schools." I always went to school outside of my district and I never understood why until I got older and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18. When I came to Los Angeles I met a lot of people who hadn't graduated high school. From where I came from it was a big deal if you didn't graduate, everyone in school would know you didn't graduate and would stigmatize and label you silently. This was the complete opposite to LA, I met countless people who hadn't graduated high school and it was almost a normal occurrence. This got me thinking about the way I grew up, compared to the student in Los Angeles. The school I attended was predominately whites and we had many available resources to us all the time. We had mentors and teacher aids that would help motivate us to finish work and do good in school. This is not the case in schools in Los Angles, where the diversity is very wide and the resources and support available are slim. Again of course, only depends on what area of Los Angeles you went to school in. This made it click in my head that schools are not equal!!! 

This civic engagement project was made for us to approach our community in a helpful way.There can be many facets to it, and it can be very board but as long as it is helping the community in a specific problem they are having; in some shape or form it is considered civic engagement. My civic engagement was to go out and inform my community of an issue that is affect our future citizens and society. Civic engagement can be describe as “doing (self-efficacy) becoming (participation) and engaging (advocacy), as stated by Timothy Ball.

I talked to fellow Los Angeles Unified School District students and asked them if and facets of the school to prison pipeline ever affected their experience in school.

This is Shareen Gamez and what she expressed about her experience in school:

"My school was in South Central and my assigned counselor had to many students to handle. She was also African American which was surprising to me because she didn't take the time to mediate situations, she would automatically send both parties to admin to be dealt with. She did favor athletes compared to most students, it felt like. I had an incident at school were a teacher grabbed me by the ear and said "I'm going to discipline you since you don't get disciplined at home." This was extremely shocking to me because I knew that teachers weren't allowed to do this. Most of the teachers at the school never wanted to work out classroom problems instead they just sent you to the office and label you a troublemaker. The teacher also belittled us students because we are only kids. I stand with making a change in schools to become more equal, we need it for our future!"

After stating the statistics to Ivana Ezerol here is what she had to say:

"It's sad that this is happening in school. I have never personally experienced it going to Van Nyus High school. I did see a police officer when senior came around but I never knew anyone personally affected by this. But I can see what you mean. Here at this school this students decide to act silly because they are unable to express how they really feel! Luckily our school is trying to work out conflicts by talking it out. I think we are going a step further!"

This is Heleodoro Sanchez and this is what he had to say about his schooling experience:

" I got suspended for wearing a shirt with Popeyes decorated in sequins and jewels, apparently it school appropriate.  I got suspended for being brown. It's crazy that even our own people sometimes go against us instead of helping us. The system is messed up! Even in middle school I got a ticket from a cop that is my own race because I was late to school. But the white and Armenian students in front of me only got a tardy slip. Out of all the students there this cop decided to only give me a ticket."

Resources

Kim, Catherine Y. Losen, Daniel J & Hewitt, Damon T. The School- to - Prison Pipeline. “ Structuring Legal Reform” New York. New York University Press. 2010. 

Ball, Timothy C., et al. “Civic Engagement and a Communication Research Agenda.” Communication Education, vol. 65, no. 4, Oct. 2016, pp. 490–492. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/03634523.2016.1206658.

"ACLU."American Civil Liberties Union. 2018. https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/school-prison-pipeline-infographic.