The Factors Contributing to The School to Prison Pipeline System

From a young age children are taught that they need to graduate high school and go to college. They are told that education is the key to success in this world and it will be much harder to obtain a good job with no degree. What they are not taught is that if a person is a minority their quest to further their education will become more difficult as time progresses. Black and brown teenagers are graduating high school at a disproportionate rate compared to their counterparts. Unforthunately this number continues to increase with. Rather than focusing on school work these teenagers are entering the school to prison pipeline system. The school to prison pipeline is a system that involves students from lower income neighborhoods emerging into a lifestyle of continousous incarceration and hardships.The education system has an important role in this transition. Teachers and administration play a critical position in whether students immerse in the school to prison pipeline system through the lack of minority teachers, bias, and behavioral reinforcements.

The lack of minority teachers play a critical role in students entering the school to prison pipeline.Currently the kindergarten through twelve education system is predominantly white males and females with less than 10% teachers being of color. Students learn better from teachers who look like them and receive less behavioral infractions. Black and other teachers of Color play a significant role in the achievement and social outcomes of students of color despite research studies and recommendations to diversify teacher education. In addition Neither are public K-12 schools making any special efforts to recruit, hire, and retain a more diverse teaching population. This continues the systematic cycle of school to prison because it creates room for racism and biases. By making an attempt to hire more minority teachers and staff, students will have a have much higher chance at obtaining success post high school because they will have seen people who mirror themselves in a position other than in prison. Black and brown students will also be able to gain insight from minority adults who may have been in their position as teenagers, resulting in a better understanding of how to avoid the prison to pipeline system as a whole.

Bias within the school community is a very important issue. Educational bias can start as young as pre school but will become much more prevalent by the transition of middle to high school. Students of color constantly face bias from faculty and admin whether it is intellectual or behavioral. Many teachers already have a pre concealed stigma against black and brown students. They are more likely to believe a student of color will not excel in studies or are automatically criminals. From a personal experience during my junior year of highschool my Afrocentric honors english teacher asked us all , “So who is the drug dealer? I had one of the biggest drug dealers in mu class when I taught at Hayward High”. Ms. Beck automatically thought someone had to be a drug dealer just because we were black . There were no signs amongst us all that pointed to drugs or any other criminal behavior.Teachers also have the misconception that students of color.do not have an adequate amount of support at home like other races do. Furthermore in that same Afrocentric class Ms. Beck implemented ‘Black to School Week’ with the assistance of school administration. It was a two day program in which students received extra credit for bringing their parents to school. The parents had to come on a block day where there were only three classes and stay for the entire time. She believed that our parents were not involved in our education and that we were suffering academically. Ms.Beck and the administration had an error in their judgement based off of skin color. They let their own bias reflect our capabilities before we could show them ourselves.

Bias also shows in students of color not being recognized when suffering from disabilities such as ADHD. ADHD is a disability that affects one’s behavior. Students with this disability suffer from hyperactivity, inattention, and and impulsivity. As stated by Moody, “ These children are at a higher risk for committing delinquent behavior in their adolescence and criminal activity in their adulthood, and they are more at risk for substance abuse at a young age”.Teachers are not acknowledging this impairment as it affects a student’s behavior. In addition, ADHD is being underdiagnosed throughout the black and latino community so it complicates the actions of teachers. Moreover students with disabilities have a higher retention rate of entering the school to prison pipeline , “An average of 33–40 % of students in juvenile incarceration have been identified with a disability.”  Faculty and staff are disregarding these students educational disadvantages rather than helping them. Alternately they are letting their biases affect a student’s learning. The bias created in and out of the classroom helps create a system of harsh punishments.

Following bias, behavioral reinforcements that administration implements play an important role in students entering the school to prison pipeline. School administration have implemented zero tolerance policies. Zero tolerance policies were developed to enforce rules effectively and prevent further behavioral issues. As a result of this policy students are being suspended or expelled for minor infractions such as non compliance and defiance. Teachers are now quick to send out students for inconsequential reasons specifically black and brown students. In an interview with Franco , a senior at Castro Valley High School he stated he received a three day suspension from art class because of tardies. This suspension caused a downward spiral of negative effects that included him failing the class with a D. The zero tolerance policy negatively affects students educational studies which causes them to fall behind. When students fall behind it becomes difficult for them to get back on track and becomes frustrating. This will result in low grades , failing , or soon dropping out.

Furthermore the zero tolerance policy is known for having biases against students of color with suspension and expulsion rates being three times higher than other races. As stated by Benjamin Justice, “[….] Combined with aggressive policing and dead-end juvenile justice alternatives, would pave the way for increasingly negative and disparate effects for children of color.” When black and brown students become suspended or expelled it allows for a higher chance at said students becoming a victim of the prison to pipeline system. Students school work can easily be negatively affected by an involuntary leave of absence. Unfortunately after once being suspended or expelled, a student is more susceptible to receive this type of penalty again. Once this pattern continues to happen it is very easy to become discouraged if a student is constantly behind and receiving punishment for it. This leads to students turning to other things such as substance abuse and other illegal activities. These actions will eventually result in dropping out and fully turning to the streets, speeding up the timeline of the prison to pipeline system.

The school to prison pipeline is a system that is forever growing. Parents place their children in school in hopes of them becoming successful one day, we learn that education is key in one’s life. Unfortunately, students of color will always have a much harder time in their quest. School admin continues to set a system in place based upon bias to keep minorities at a standstill, ultimately resulting in the untimely demise of black and brown students in relation to success. Minorities will forever face the school to prison pipeline system in its entirety due to the lack of black and brown teachers, bias , and behavioral reinforcement policies. 

Works Cited

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