San Francisco Examiner: “Last year, my office handled 4,500 court appearances for kids accused of committing crimes in San Francisco. Most of our young clients landed in the juvenile-justice system after being funneled out of The City’s public schools — educational journeys long on punishment but short on help.
As public defenders, we try to disentangle them from their legal troubles, to pluck them from the school-to-prison pipeline even after they’ve gathered momentum. Ours is the only public defender’s office in California with a unit dedicated solely to educational advocacy. But the pipeline itself needs to be dismantled. Now, San Francisco is poised to take a big step toward keeping its youths in the classroom instead of the courtroom.”
Read the rest here.
