Zero tolerance policies are pushing our kids into prison
An African American male born in 1940 had an 8-percent chance of ending up incarcerated if he did not attend college. In 1970, that figure rose to 36 percent. Want to know the chance of an African American male born in 1970 ending up incarcerated if he didn’t graduate high school? Seventy percent. That’s 7 out of 10 black youth.
So, how many African American males are not graduating high school? As of 2013, the graduation rate was 59 percent. (Compare that to 65 percent for Latino males and 80 percent for white males). This begs the question—why are so many of these young men not graduating high school? Well, partially because they’re disproportionately pushed into prison due to overwhelmingly Draconian discipline policies, a phenomenon known as the school-to-prison pipeline.
On March 2, lawyers, advocates, law-enforcement officers, educators, students and social workers met at the Harvard Graduate School of Education to discuss these troubling statistics and offer solutions to the question, how can we end the school-to-prison pipeline? And how did the “school-to-prison-pipeline” become a concept in the first place?
Zero tolerance is zero intelligence
When did making adults mad become a crime? And when did throwing spitballs become equivalent to battery? These were the questions posed by Chief Judge Steven Teske of Clayton County (Ga.) Juvenile Court, the keynote speaker of the day. According to Judge Teske, the answers can be found in the late 1980s when zero-tolerance policies began. These policies minimize asking questions that could potentially unearth the cause of a student acting out. They mask the underlying issues that provoke acting out and criminalize normal juvenile behavior. In fact, juvenile brains are still developing until the age of 25. They are neurologically hard-wired to make mistakes. Yes, juveniles are supposed to make mistakes. That’s how young people learn what they like, what they don’t like and who they are. How many among us can say we walked a straight line and made no mistakes growing up?
Because of zero-tolerance policies, school resource officers (SROs) are now commonplace. These are usually local police responsible for preventing crime at schools. A well-intentioned policy, police presence creates a school environment akin to detention. With SROs roaming the halls, teachers and principals intervene less. The officers are viewed as the first line of defense. Too often, outbursts that could have been effectively handled through school disciplinary procedures, like a playground scuffle, get shuttled into the juvenile-justice system, contributing directly to the school-to-prison pipeline epidemic. The research shows that the likelihood of a student dropping out of school doubles with their first arrest. If they appear in court, the likelihood increases to four times.
A caveat, said Judge Teske, is that, yes, some kids do need to be removed from classrooms and schools—if a kid brings a gun to school, for example. But what good is having SROs if they are down at juvenile court for a disorderly-conduct charge when an active shooter is on campus? Shouldn’t we be reserving SROs for kids who pose a legitimate threat to their surroundings? In Massachusetts, the latest data shows that 72.2 percent of kids were punished for non-violent, criminal or drug offences. Only 1.2 percent were punished for weapon use.
A slow road to justice
Shocking statistics and disconcerting facts are one thing, but what can we do to bring about positive change? First and foremost, we cannot blame schools for these jaw-dropping statistics. One of the biggest takeaways from the day was the message that change is going to take time. The school-to-prison-pipeline is a multi-faceted problem that needs to be attacked in a multi-faceted way. Zero tolerance is a quick fix that makes us lazy to really fighting the underlying problems—the trauma that causes young people to act out in the classroom, and the poverty that perpetuates this cycle from one generation to the next. Finding a solution will require slowing down, thinking, and taking time. As U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said, “We can’t move the needle unless everyone works together.”
Judge Steven Teske at the MST pre-conference
If you are interested in being part of a positive change, consider joining Judge Teske, award-winning journalist Nell Bernstein, CEO of Children’s Village Jeremy Kohomban and others at the MST pre-conference on April 11. Solutions, like Multisystemic Therapy, will be discussed as well as how communities can fund treatment programs instead of jail.
We invite responses from anyone who would like to join the conversation. Please share your comments below or send blog responses to sophie.karpf@mstservices.com. Stay tuned for a response from an educator, coming soon.
