Initiative 42: Disparity In Public Schools

My final point is that, instead of helping the situation, restorative justice has actually been proven to make things even worse. Earlier, I stated that if somebody knows that they won’t get in trouble for doing something wrong, they will just continue to do it. There are hundreds of examples all around the United States of where kids took advantage of Restorative Justice and did this exact thing. According to the New York Post, everywhere it’s been tried, this softer approach has backfired. They say that may districts are seeing even more classroom disruptions and violence. Lincoln, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and Syracuse schools have all discovered that, since implementing the new restorative justice programs, kids have just become more apt to fight, with increasingly violent

Zero-tolerance policies developed to prevent drug abuse and violence in school in 1990 in the U.S. Even if those behaviors or small things minor offenses were done by accident or unconsciously, students get prosecuted and sent into the juvenile justice system as a punishment. Schools create disciplines for suspending and expelling students when they break certain rules. For example, if a student brings a weapon to school, including items that may not hurt anyone like nail clippers and toy guns, if a student has drugs, including medications or alcohol on campus, if a student says anything that someone could get as a threat, if a student does not obey teacher’s instruction, if a student fights with other students, the student would be given punishment with no choice. After adopting this policy, the number of school suspensions and dismissals increased, and the number of students who send into the prison also increased as well. Therefore, the school to prison pipeline became an issue in the education system.

The school-to-prison pipeline in the United States is a figure of speech used to describe the increasing patterns of interaction students have with the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems as a consequence of procedures used by many school systems. A specific procedure would be the zero tolerance policies and the use of officers in schools. Currently in today’s American schools many children of color are being unfairly judged and treated by the public school systems zero tolerance policies. Zero tolerance policies have been implemented in schools in the last 20 years that include inserting school resource officers in schools and cracking down on all behavior that any authority figure may deem as a form of bad behavior. The policy is based upon deterring future misbehavior and is central to the philosophy of zero tolerance, and the effect of any punishment on future behavior is what defines effective punishment (Skinner, 1953). Zero tolerance policies causes the school environment to feel more like a prison and ultimately leads to black and Latinos being judged and guided to the prison system. A zero-tolerance policy orders predetermined penalties or punishments for specific wrongdoings.

In the most recent years, the relationship between educational institutions and the juvenile justice system which was once created to protect children, has displayed an ultimatum for minors through “zero tolerance” policies which results in sending individuals through the school to prison to pipeline. Studies have shown that these zero tolerance policies are not beneficial to students or the educational environment that should be guaranteed to children. Opponents argue that the policies promote safety, but through this research it can be concluded the policies actually increase danger. Studies demonstrate the factors that affect the enforcement of these policies which include media, the sociopolitical atmosphere, and the racial disproportionality, yet there are valid solutions for this issue that can be explored.

Education and economic justice were two forms of systemic inequalities that make inequality difficult to talk about. Education is a requirement if someone wishes to have a better life, but not everyone has access to quality education. In the U.S there has always been a battle, people of color have fought to be able to access quality education, (Philips, 2016: 130) they are constantly attending inferior and ineffective school where there are many distractions for students to be fully successful in the classrooms. Often these schools where children of color attend lack quality facilities, educational resources, and qualified teachers. Someone can’t help to notice that in general such unqualified schools are mostly in color people’s neighborhoods.

The term “zero tolerance” emerged from the get-tough rhetoric surrounding the war on drugs (McNeal, 2016). In the 1990’s, the term moved to into the educational vernacular due to a mass fear of violence in schools, particularly in reference to firearms. The Gun Free Schools Act of 1994, solidified the implementation of these get-tough policies (McNeal, 2016) and by 1998, the rehabilitative behavioral processes on most campuses across the country were replaced with zero tolerance policies (Rodríguez, 2017). Although they were implemented to combat school violence, school related deaths, despite the perception, have actually decreased since the 1990s (Welch & Payne, 2010). However, zero tolerance policies are still becoming more and more prevalent in schools. These policies have

Incarceration has negative effects on the education of black students. According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, it shows that elementary and high schools receive about 73 percent of their state funding from a discretionary fund, the exact same fund that colleges and universities count on for half of their budgets. However, $9 out of every $10 that support imprisonment come from the same pot of money. With tons of billions of dollars in prison spending annually, states are finding that there is simply less voluntary money available to invest in education, especially in these lean economic times. The school districts that are considered failing schools, which house a majority of minority students, are significantly impacted. Consequently, education systems for black students are designed to continue the school to prison pipeline. These despairing injustices do not end with the education systems, they are also prevalent in the job force.

Zero tolerance policies are the catalyst for the School-to-Prison pipeline. The problem with zero tolerance policies rely on several different factors. Even though, the vision for zero tolerance policies is clear in the sense that safety is a main priority, A ten year study of zero tolerance policies conducted by the American Psychological Association concluded that the use of these overly harsh policies "did not improve school safety." Since these policies are not increasing school safety it is a clear indicator that change in disciplinary methods is necessary. Additionally, these overly harsh policies create racial disparities mainly focused on minorities. The reason for these racial disparities particularly arise from implicit bias. Unfortunately, student of color and minorities are disportionately represented in suspensions, expulsions, and arrests. Exclusionary discipline principles disproportionately lead the youth, particularly minorities, from classrooms to court and prisons. Racial disparities within school’s disciplinary actions is clear when looking at discipline rates. The Civil Rights Data Collection, gathered by the US Department of Education, graphed suspension rates and disparities in a national test sample during 2012. Figure 1 portrays the ratio of white students that constitute for a little more than half of students enrolled in school while black and hispanic students constitute for less than

Rebecca London, a research professor at UC Santa Cruz, explains about how the zero tolerance policy plays a critical role in developing the school-to-prison pipeline. The zero tolerance policy was implemented in 1990 in hopes to reduce the amount of criminal related activity in schools (London 2017). Because of the policy, many minor or small infringement of the school rules criminalized at-risk students. For example, students were punished heavily for carrying nail clippers, having over the counter medications, and even cutting the lunch line (London 2017). Students who partake in any of the examples or anything similar will be suspended or face tougher consequences than normal discipline actions compared to a privileged school. By punishing

The School-to-Prison Pipeline refers to the school policies and procedures that drive many of our nation’s schoolchildren into a pathway that begins in school and ends in the criminal justice system. Behavior that once led to a trip to the principal’s office and detention, such as school uniform violations, profanity and “talking back,” now often leads to suspension, expulsion, and/or arrest. Today, largely as a result of “zero tolerance” policies that mandate harsh punishments for even minor misbehavior in

According to Marian Wright Edelman, “Education is a precondition to survival in America Today. Unfortunately, a good quality education that will ensure a successful and economically stable future for our children today is not available to all children, especially young Black males. According to Jenkins (2006) in the needs assessment for African American Men of Arizona State University (AAMASU) program, the university noted that Black males experience a high level of underachievement in the higher education arena, over involvement in the criminal system, and high rates of unemployment, poverty, and dying via homicide (Arizona State University, 2004). All too often African American males have been caught in a web of stereotyped notions of race and gender that place them at considerable disadvantages in schools and ultimately society (Howard, 2008). According to Hooks (2004) more than any other group of men in our society black males are perceived as lacking intellectual skills. The 1900 census reports that 57% of black males were illiterate. Now as we move onward in the twenty-first century, black males make up a huge percentage of those who are illiterate (Hooks, 2004). Society will looks at our young black men and label them as lazy, uneducated, underachievers, and highly involved in the criminal justice system, however at the same time, it overlooks how they got there. According to Jenkins (2006) this has not always been the case. Prior to the segregation of schools, young

Since the foundation of the police forces was to criminalize the experiences of communities of color, it is not surprising or a coincidence to see how those social conditions resemble among the prison system we have today. In the article “Black America’s state of surveillance” Malkia Amala Curis writes, “Black people alone represent 40 percent of those incarcerated “according to a study in 2012, black defendants are least 30 percentage more likely to be imprisoned than whites for the same crime” (Curis 33). African American and Latino males are overrepresented at every step in the criminal justice system, and not surprisingly are also overrepresented in the numbers of expulsions and suspension from school. In the article “Exclusion, Punishment, Racism and our schools: A critical Race Theory on school discipline David Simson writes “Equally as alarming as the general societal costs associated with school punitive school discipline outlined above is the fact that studies over the past thirty yeas suspensions, disproportionately affect minority youth, especial African American students” (Simson 522). Low-income communities of color are more likely to face unemployment, drug addition, mental illness, and homelessness than white people therefore they are easier to criminalize, not only in schools but society

“Zero-Tolerance Policy” is the leading cause of most disobedient students, the reason why most students drop out of school and the cause of insubordination among students. The Zero-Tolerance Policy is a policy that, like the name states, has zero-tolerance for anything. Anything seen as a threat or anything that sends an inappropriate message towards the community is considered bad and the student could get arrested, suspended and/or expelled. The Zero-Tolerance policy applies to any student, regardless if a student has any health problems and falls to any student between the ages of 4-18. It could also apply to a student who could have the lowest amount of infractions possible. They say that removing students is necessary for learning, but, in doing that, they hurt the student as well. Some places don’t provide alternative places for students to learn at, really taking away their education. If it really ensures a safe and orderly environment for children, then there should be proof. There is no actual proof that it makes students feel safer (Wahl, "School Zero Tolerance Policies Do Harm" par. 1). It alienates the student and makes the student feel as if they are the “odd-one out”. Due to the injustices that this creates, the Zero-Tolerance Policy is ineffective, because it teaches students injustice, lowers students academic rates and minor offences are punished.

The zero tolerance policy has become a national controversy in regards to the solid proven facts that it criminalizes children and seems to catch kids who have no intention of doing harm. Although, there has been substantial evidence to prove that the policies enforced in many schools have gone far beyond the extreme to convict children of their wrongdoing. The punishments for the act of misconduct have reached a devastating high, and have pointed students in the wrong direction. Despite the opinions of administrators and parents, as well as evidence that zero tolerance policies have deterred violence in many public and private schools, the rules of conviction and punishment are unreasonable and should be modified.

On Tuesday, October 17, I attended Dr. Wilcox, Dr. Linton, and Mr. Kriesch’s presentation on the use of restorative justice in the classroom. The presentation began by defining restorative justice and its history. Dr. Linton then took over the presentation by explaining that restorative justices is a Biblical concept. As a result, it is the most effective way to manage a classroom. The restorative justice approach has taken over the zero tolerance approach that was implemented after the multiple school shootings a few years ago. Restorative justice has proven to reduce the number of students who are being expelled from school The main component of this approach is building community. Furthermore, it recognized that when students misbehave it is because their needs are not being met. Mr. Kriesch concluded the presentation by saying that most of the time it is the teacher who has to change. Being taught in schools where zero tolerance was the only discipline procedure used, it can be hard for teachers to implement restorative justice practices in the classroom.