INACIO LOPEZ

THE SCHOOL and SOCIETY 4111

FINAL PAPER

In this final paper I will discuss what the school to prison pipeline is and how it

contributes to unequal education within our public school system, who it directly attacks/affects

and how, and lastly why it is important for us as a nation to take recognition of the pipeline. The

school to prison pipeline is a system that was created through unequal education within the

United States educational system. It affects students-of-color and minorities, these students

receive an inferior quality of education versus their white counterpart students. The school to

prison pipeline I am identifying as an educational problem predominantly affects minority

populations such as the poor, students of color, mostly males, and all underprivileged and not-in-

power within our American (United States) social structure. I will unpack problematic aspects of

unequal education. I will discuss how the pipeline is a result of inequality in our public school

system and how it further causes inequality in education. In this paper I will examine who is

directly being affected and how the pipeline affects us as a nation and as a whole unit. The

school to prison pipeline is an important issue that is often disregraded and over looked by our

nation. However overlooking the pipeline and ignoring it will not make it go away or resolve it.

The pipeline is an issue that will have a countless negative affect on all Americans in the United

States not just people of color and minorities. Not only is the school to prison pipeline morally

and ethically wrong, it is unjust, promotes inequality, and poses the question about whether all

Americans are truly receiving their civil rights.

School-to-prison pipeline is basically the discipline shift from schools to law

enforcement. Schools will bypass detention and counseling and instead will resort to law

enforcement, suspension, and expulsion to punish students. There are several organizations that

have taken on the fight of researching and challenging the school-to-prison pipeline such as:

American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU), New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Legal Defense

and Educational Fund (LDF). The ACLU identifies the school to prison pipeline as a disturbing

national trend that guides students out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice

systems. The ACLU describes that many of the children being affected by the pipeline have

learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse or neglect. They also state that these students

would benefit from additional educational and counseling services instead of being isolated,

punished and pushed out by "Zero-tolerance" policies. The ACLU describes Zero-tolerance

policies as criminalizing students for minor infractions of school rules; students are being

criminalized for behaviors that should be disciplined in school not by cops. And it is students of

color who are “especially vulnerable to push-out trends and the discriminatory application of

discipline.” https://www.aclu.org/school-prison-pipeline

What zero tolerance policies do is take minor disciplinary issues and turn them into

suspensions, expulsions, citations, arrests, and juvenile and criminal charges. The NYCLU states

that these rules and types of policies (1) “Originally meant to address only the most serious

violent behavior, these rules now unreasonably target normal, non-violent adolescent behavior.”

(2) “Zero tolerance policies move youth directly into the juvenile and criminal justice systems by

involving police personnel in minor disciplinary matters. Criminal charges are often brought

against students for actions that would never be considered a criminal if committed by an adult.”

Set students up for being unsuccessful in the near future by being excluded from school and

excluded from proper consequences of their actions. Policies such as these are helping maintain

the school to prison pipeline and will only harm our students and nation if they continue.

Education, especially public schools, should be a place for all students to be safe and accepted

not pushed out. http://www.nyclu.org/files/school_prison_toolkit.pdf

Free and compulsory public education in the United States is to be available to everyone.

This means to each and every person and not just to a privileged few. Segregation has hindered

the “promise” of the education to all. Segregation is also the cause of the vast inequality

pervasively existing in our societies. Heitzeg discusses the “School to Prison Pipeline” saying

that the pipeline is a plight for poor students, students with disabilities, and students of color.

She then addresses how these targeted students are suspended and expelled at high rates “despite

comparable rates of infraction” (Witt 2007). Policies such as zero tolerance are literally pushing

kids out of school, turning minor infractions into major infractions and then criminalizing the

students for them. These policies are carefully monitored and enforced at high-risk (low

performing) schools. What used to be considered minor issues at school are now manifesting as

crimes. Students are now being reported to the police for their minor infractions or even arrested

on the school grounds. Due to these circumstances students of color and of lesser-privileged

backgrounds are not receiving equal educational opportunities. Almost 6.2 million students in

the U.S. between the ages of 16 and 24 in 2007 dropped out of high school, adding to what a

report released Tuesday May 5, 2009 called "a persistent high school dropout crisis."

WASHINGTON (CNN). It is unacceptable for us to allow and be at ease with such a high rate

of dropouts. It is absolutely ludicrous that we, as a nation, can allow so many students to be

pushed out of our school systems instead of giving them equal opportunities.

According to national data, students who come from low-income families are more likely

to drop out of school than students whom come from middle-income families and high-income

families. Some of the characteristics of students who drop out are: students with disabilities,

learning disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, and occupational aspirations. From childhood

(elementary school) to adolescence (middle school) to juveniles (high school) to dropout, to jail;

this is the setup for students at high-risk high schools. Basically the inequality in our school

systems set up the disabled, low-income and ethnic minority groups to become part of the

“School to Prison Pipeline”. All children, adolescents, and teenagers deserve the right to equal

education instead of incarceration. The school to prison pipeline does just the exact opposite of

that, punishing those students instead of teaching them. When students act out or do something

that school authorities consider “acting out” they should be sent to the principals office,

detention or after school work not sent to juvenile delinquent centers or jail or to the police.

When did society decide that imprisoning and arresting students for any infraction was ok? The

school to prison pipeline enforces these types of behaviors and attitudes towards students. It

cripples the education system from understanding and helping students. Instead of school

systems taking the time out to understand what the needs of their students are and why certain

students act or do the things they do, school principals and teachers would rather just arrest them.

In low funded schools and over populated schools the school to prison pipeline affects the “at-

risk” students. Schools become a place of risk versus a safe haven for students. Because of this

students at low funded, at risk schools, are no longer able to truly receive an equal opportunity in

public school education and most students end up dropping out due to these circumstances. “In

these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is

denied the opportunities of an education.  Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to

provide it, is a right that must be made available on equal terms” Chief Justice Earl Warren,

Brown v. Board of Education (1954). In 1954 Chief Justice Earl Warren was aware of the

importance and need of education for all and how much opportunity comes about from

education, it is heart wrenchingly sad to realize that even today in 2013-2014 we still need to

fight for equal opportunity in our public schools system.

The school-to-prison pipeline is a main factor and contributor to unequal education. The

unequally educated ones are left to suffer the extremities of deficit views from the schoolteachers

and administrators. They are left to be part of the “pipeline”. They are left to become

stereotyped and not given the opportunity to truly receive an equal or above par formal

education. If they were offered the same educational opportunities as middle income and high

income students, then they would be able to receive the “American Dream” education and not

end up as high school drop outs.

Now that I have expressed what the school to prison pipeline is and how it is a cause for

unequal opportunities in our education system I will discuss who it is directly affects and how.

The school to prison pipeline refers to the practices and policies that guide the schoolchildren of

our nation, United States of America, especially our most at-risk children toward incarceration in

disproportionate numbers. At–risk children are the children/students of color and minority, and

these students are the ones affected by the pipeline. They are pushed out of classrooms and into

the criminal and juvenile “justice” systems. Basically the pipeline attacks these students by

harassing them for minuscule infractions and denies them their rights to education.

This pipeline is a reflection of the priority of incarceration over education (Aclu.org

2013). Not only is it a reflection of incarceration over education but also a reflection of racism

and profiling that is still very domineering in our society and especially in our school systems.

According to Noah De Lissovoy (2013), racial profiling and such things as the school to prison

pipeline are used to control who has access to education in high school and higher education.

“Thus, the point of racial profiling or efforts to restrict the access of immigrants to public schools

and higher education is not only to protect the privileges of whites but also to injure those who

are vulnerable, those who are offered as targets for the drive for domination within the ‘predatory

identity’ of the majority (Appadurai, 2006). The pipeline manifests racial profiling; we are

allowing the pipeline to control who has the rights to education. All the while minority students

are being hindered by it because they are not allowed a way out and instead are being navigated

into jail cells.

Not only are students being pushed out of schools but also they are being assessed and

judged by where they come from, what they look like, and worst of all their family history. In an

excerpt from Pedro Noguera’s book City Schools and the American Dream: Reclaiming the

Promise of Public Education it starts out with the telling of a tour he did of an elementary school

in northern California escorted by the assistant principal. The assistant principal isolated a

young man saying that young man had a prison cell waiting for him in San Quentin. Noguera

asked the assistant principle how he was able to predict the future of such a young child to which

the reply was, “Well, his father is in prison, he’s got a brother and an uncle there too. In fact, the

whole family is nothing but trouble. I can see from how he behaves already that it’s only a

matter of time before he ends up there too.” Then Noguera asked “Given what you know about

him, what is the school doing to prevent him from going to prison?” I feel this is an excellent

example and catalyst of the insidiousness of deficit thinking, resulting in immediate negative and

unproductive disciplinary actions taken by administrators to tossing the students in the “pipe”

propelling them right to the prison cell. Furthermore this individual-asset-neglecting system

functions by eliminating “troubled” kids by utilizing an extreme form of punishment called

indefinite suspension from school. This form of punishment allows schools to remove “difficult”

kids to be schooled at the homestead and the schools continue to collect funds from the state for

their average daily attendance (Noguera, 2003). Now one observation perhaps begets an

explanation of other observations and actions concerning the youth, particularly males of color

within the educational systems. According to Noguera the brief evocative description of the

school tour is “indicative” of the ways schools deal with troubled students and disciplinary

actions taken against those students. In the United States, schools often punish students with

emotional, social, economic, and academic needs (Johnson, Boyden, & Pittz, 2001).

Ronald Lospennato discourses even more proof that the pipeline fails minority students.

According to Lospennato (2009), the problem is that the school-to-prison pipeline is the product

of courts, the policies of school districts, and law enforcement agencies that criminalize in-

school behavior or push at-risk children, disadvantaged, and underserved children from

mainstream educational environments right into the juvenile justice system and, way too often,

into the criminal justice system. Lospennato goes on to state that, of the many factors

contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline, “zero-tolerance” policies are the main ones among

them. Such policies are misguided and harmful. The policies push children of color

disproportionately out of public education, falling short of achieving their purpose (Shi-Chang

Wu, 1982). Knowing that these things happen, and specifically target students of color and

minority we should be taking action against it, and putting an end to the school to prison

pipeline. No one, no child, no student, no person should ever have to be burdened with unequal

education.

Lospennato argues that America’s history of maintaining, the phrase coined by Kenneth

M. Stampp 1967, “peculiar institution” describing slavery as an oppressive institution, coincides

with today’s U.S. education and criminal justice systems. Fundamentally, Lospennato is saying

that our education system and criminal justice system are being used as tools of oppression, just

as slavery was used to do the same. The only difference is that schools are capable of oppressing

their students through zero-tolerance policies and the school to prison pipeline. Correlating with

Lospennato, Chauncee Smith also beliefs that today’s minority population is wreaked havoc

upon by two systems, the U.S. criminal justice and the educational system. The sociologist Loic

Wacquant (2001) proclaimed that, similar to slavery, ghettos and prisons are both peculiar

institutions that subdue and govern black people. So here we see the correlations of people of

color and institutions such as the educational and criminal justice systems. These institutional

systems hinder and set people of color—those that are of little privilege, power and influence,

and folks in low-income brackets—up for failure.

For example a student goes to school and is then exposed to a reactive environment and

system setting him/her up for success or failure contingent on so many factors out of his/her

control. Such factors as where to live, the level of education his/her parents posses, income, and

so on. I feel that a school environment should be a safe space for all students. A place where

students are to be met with love, guidance, inspiration, a sense of belonging, and the teachers are

to have an overwhelming passion for the art of teaching and inculcating the good stuff of life (a

great foundation for higher learning). The school to prison pipeline extracts all that should be

good and helpful for all students. Because of the pipeline and zero tolerance policies students,

specifically minorities, are no longer met with love or guidance or inspiration or passion or

belonging in schools, instead they are marginalized and criminalized for miniscule reasons.

Being a male of color and of a low-income background and now learning of all of these

statistics and facts intrigues me. I recall being in school and always getting into trouble. I was

also quite needy, requiring constant attention from the teachers. Coming from a very humble

background as, I mentioned above, and having parents from another country, with little formal

education to boot my grades were rarely ever up to par and I struggled to pay attention as well as

lacking the focus and/or discipline other “good” students seem to posses. In most districts and

schools, examining which students are most likely to be removed from the classroom for

punishment, expelled, or suspended, shows that minorities (particularly Latinos and Blacks),

males, and generally low achievers, are drastically overrepresented (Meier, Stewart, & England,

1989). I have been kicked out, suspended, done detention, Saturday school (another form of

detention), and A.C. (alternative classroom) I am now able to understand that because I am a

minority in many different aspects I was always being set up for failure instead of success, and

this is something other minority students must encounter and confront while at school because of

the school to prison pipeline.

Based on the information it is clear as to how and why children of poor backgrounds and

primarily children of color very rarely end up like President Obama and instead end up like

Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams. The evidence is overwhelming. The facts are constantly researched,

cited, presented, and stated. How many ways can the people in power and of great privilege find

to constantly hinder, breakdown, set back, and justify injustice? I feel that taking responsibility

of all our actions is a great place to start no matter the consequences or the great positive impact

and rewards that lay ahead for us all working together as a people and empowering all. As

American citizens it is our duty to bring awareness to the unjust that occurs in our nation and

especially the unjust that takes place within our school education system. Not only is it important

to bring awareness but then also make the changes necessary to bring quality education for all

students. The following is a metaphor of how the inner workings of the school to prison pipeline

works, no one takes accountability but all playing a crucial role in the overall process:

“A man working in a munitions factory explains that he is not killing; he's just

trying to get out a product. The same goes for the man who creates bombs in that

factory. He's just packaging a product. He's not trying to kill anyone. So it goes

until we come to the pilot who flies the plane that drops the bomb. Killing

anyone? Certainly not, he's just pushing a button. [Lastly] there is a Vietnamese

peasant, dead, but not killed, you might say. The consequence is there, but born of

a process so fragmented as not to register in the consciousness of those involved

in it” (Payne, 1984, p. 37).

Basically, no wants to take blame for the school to prison pipeline process. Teachers and

faculty do not handcuff, detain, fingerprint, and incarcerate the student/ “criminal” therefore they

feel disconnected from the process although they play a crucial role.

By this point I have addressed my first two topics of what the school to prison pipeline is,

and whom it directly affects and now I will focus on why we, as a nation and society should care.

Many people, especially those of upper class, may regard the school to prison pipeline, as a

suitable way to distinguish between “good” students and “bad” students but in reality this is

completely and utterly false. As stated through out my paper the pipeline and zero tolerance

policies attack and target students of color and minorities, and being a minority does not make

you “bad” and our school system should not deem it so either. The people in our society who are

not members of these minority groups may not feel the affects of the school to prison pipeline

now but they will in the future. The affects of the pipeline on our nation and society will be

monstrous if not dealt with and eliminated. By pushing our students out of school and into jail

we are setting our nation below in education, technology, reform and any other progression we

wish to make. Not only does the pipeline promote inequality, and pose the question about

whether Americans are truly receiving their civil rights but it also hinders any advancement we

want to make now and in the future.

While doing research I came across an article posted on the American Civil Liberties

Union (ACLU) website about a student (name not mentioned for protection, but in the article

was referred to as EB) and how the school to prison pipeline basically guided him into criminal

activity and how the pipeline attributed to his incarceration instead of an education. The story

takes place in Jackson, Mississippi and follows EB from fourth grade to high school. According

to the article, in fourth grade EB was a star student; he was very smart and was placed into the

talented and gifted program. While in the program, one of the teachers noticed signs of physical

abuse and reported it. After the report, EB’s family was split up and he was separated from his

siblings. EB then moved in with other relatives; the article stated that “In a state that has few

mental health resources and a foster care system in disarray, EB got little guidance, counseling or

comfort. Rather, he returned to school and began to act out” (Bowie and Oppenheim, 2012).

Although EB began to act out, the school had little concern as to why or how his life

circumstances could have come into play. He was eventually placed into Jackson’s alternative

school programs where he rotated between various youth jails, mental health institutions, and

alternative schools. For at least four years, EB was prevented from attendeing a typical

classroom education; with the help of ACLU advocates, EB was allowed to return to school in

2009 (Bowie and Oppenheim, 2012). Later, EB was accused of breaking into a middle school.

The ACLU stood for EB and pleaded with the Jackson Public School District not to expel him.

To the ACLU, expelling EB would push him out on the streets, possibly getting into trouble,

whereas staying in school would give him a chance at an education and a better life. “More

importantly, we asked the school district to look at what they had done with and for EB in the

five years prior to the expulsion. While our fight was worthwhile, it came too late” (Bowie and

Oppenheim, 2012). In January of 2012, EB pled guilty to a shooting that took place in Jackson,

Mississippi. Although EB must take accountability for his actions, our society and

school/education system can and should be held accountable as well. EB was a bright child with

a promising future that fell victim to unfortunate circumstances that forced him into a

bureaucratic system that forgot to consider the child’s overall well-being, or worse, EB was of

less value to the system than other students were. We could imagine that if EB had been able to

stay in school in the fifth grade and not sent through his rotations of youth jails, mental health

institutions, and alternative schools that the crime he committed may not have ever happened. In

this situation we, as a society from any social class, have failed EB and many other students just

like him.

“Had he been permitted to stay in school as a 5th grader, the awful crime that he

was sentenced for might not have occurred. Perhaps the school district could have

identified the emotional and physical pain he was suffering from and with

resources, addressed them at school rather than the already over-burdened youth

court system in Mississippi. Perhaps he should have been identified as a student

with special emotional needs instead of being placed in alternative school where

he knew, as a bright young man, he was not being taught anything but

compliance?” (Bowie and Oppenheim, 2012).

Cases such as EB’s and other students who have had similar experiences are proof that

the school to prison pipeline is failing our students here in the United States. It is negatively

affecting all Americans because instead of having one more educated American we are

imprisoning them and possibly even pushing students into criminal activity. This is affecting our

economy now and will continue to do so until all people from every social class are aware and

conscious of how its impact. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and

Development (OECD), out of 33 different countries, America ranks 33rd in reading, 27th in math

and 22nd in science. If we as a nation ever plan to surpass these rankings and other countries, the

school to prison pipeline needs to be addressed and terminated. Our rankings in education being

this low is due to zero tolerance policies and the school to prison pipeline, and if we continue to

allow the pipeline to spiral on we can be sure our ranking will continue to spiral down as well.

Civil rights are human rights and privileges that all people should have regardless of sex,

race, or religion. As Americans, we are all born with these valued rights; but, for minorities

(especially African-Americans), it wasn’t until the 13th and 14th amendments were created and

passed that they were able to receive the liberties of civil rights. And although these civil

liberties are still supposed to be active, the school to prison pipeline threatens and questions

whether minority students are truly able to practice their civil liberties. The school to prison

pipeline and policies such as the Zero Tolerance Policy attack students of color and minorities.

Based on statistics, students of color suffer from these policies and are disciplined more severely

than white students. The U.S. Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights did a

study on 7,000 districts and 72,000 schools (which is about 85% of the nation’s schools); the

schools ranged from kindergarten to high school. Based on the study, they found that among

those schools and districts that participated in the study, African American students made up

18% of the school body, but were 35% of students suspended once and 39% of all expulsions.

“One in five black boys and more than one in 10 black girls received an out-of-school

suspension. Over all, black students were three and-a-half times as likely to be suspended or

expelled than their white peers (Tamar Lewin, 2012).” An article written in the New York Times

in 2012 states that black and Hispanic students compose 45% of the student body in districts that

follow the zero tolerance policy, but they make up the 56% of the students expelled (Tamar

Lewin, 2012). These statistics and studies show the inequalities present in our school districts

and education system. They show just exactly how minority students are not being given their

civil rights through unequal disciplinary actions done by schools. “Education is the civil rights of

our generation. The undeniable truth is that the everyday education experience for too many

students of color violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise (Secretary

of Education Arne Duncan).” We as a nation should be proud of the liberties and rights we have,

we should also respect these privileges and be aware of when we are denying them to others. The

school to prison pipeline denies minority students from equality and ignores all of their civil

rights.  If we are “the land of the free” how can we live on and go on knowing that we are

prohibiting our future (children and students) from attaining the education they deserve? Not

only are we setting those students up for failure but we are also setting our country up for failure

as well. If we wish to be a strong, dominating and sucessful nation we must be aware of what is

happening and take responsibility for the school to prison pipeline and prevent it from growing

and extinguish it.

I feel that the pipeline alters the ‘melting pot’ theory.  We are supposed to be a ‘mixed’

society. I feel that whenever people are removed from the general population and stripped of

their inalienable rights, this in turn removes certain vital ‘ingredients’ from the ‘pot’. My

sentiments are that such systems and ideals such as democracy and capitalism are compromised.

These citizens, who fall victim to the great deficit-thinking/acting society that control the fates of

those specific citizens such as EB are dealing in a highly reactive system that should be

significantly more proactive in setting all citizens up for success. If we the people as a unit think

and act with a more global/universal mindset then we will certainly act differently as a nation

state unit. If the United States of America, within all its facets, becomes much more progressive

by revisiting the constitution, laws, policies, rules and regulations within most or all of our

institutions, public and private sectors, and in our own grass roots communities, I strongly

believe that the outcome will result in a much different place in which we live, work, play,

worship, and learn in. I would like to believe if folks truly networked towards the sake of living

the best quality of life in the utmost sustainable manner then we will see the fruition of many

great things to come - such as a different type of goods bartering system that is truly fair in its

trade, manufacturing, purchasing, distribution, advertising, sale, and handling of natural

resources.

I would not be too proud to plead with our nation to stop the madness of so many unjust

practices, laws, rules, regulations, policies and other behavioral guides. My plea as to why we

all as a unit should care about the school to prison pipeline and the folks being affected by it is as

follows: unjust, immoral, unequal, does not maximize the assets of all as individuals, displaces

the ‘melting pot’ as a whole fragmenting its ‘ingredients’ (gene pool, skills, intelligence,

perspectives, etc.), unfair, and awfully disproportionate to certain groups. I fear that if we

continue on this same path, our nation will end up with such a divide in all social statuses turning

into a clear cut caste system of the privileged, formally well educated, with the people in power

and ultimate control on one end and the dangerously marginalized poor stripped of what once

was seen as inalienable rights. I don’t mean to paint a utopian world but rather a healthier one

that we can all be at moral ease with.

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