Suspensions Stories: Challenging the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track in Our Own Words
“He who opens a school door closes a prison.” Victor Hugo
It has long been believed that the best way to prevent future incarceration is to invest in a good education on the front end.
Since Fall 2009, the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team (YWAT) has partnered with Project NIA to collect stories about students’ experiences of being suspended and/or expelled from school.
Over the past few years, some of YWAT’s members have complained about the harsh discipline policies that exist at their schools. Members are concerned about youth in their community and how they are being “pushed out” of school because of the zero tolerance policies being adopted by many schools. They believe that there is a need for youth voice to “talk back” to the educational system and to show how these policies are actually harming children.
Suspension Stories is a youth-led participatory action research project that incorporates survey research, interviews, storytelling, popular education and art.
Ultimately the results of all of our efforts will lead to the creation of an interactive website that can serve as platform for organizing against school to prison pipeline.
It is our belief that harsh disciplinary policies, such as zero tolerance, contribute to the school to prison pipeline by criminalizing students and pushing them out of school. Restorative practices, on the other hand, offer an opportunity to repair & move forward after a problem arises, keeping more students engaged in their education. We call for more restorative justice in our schools.
The project’s goals are to:
1. Develop and administer a survey about suspensions, expulsions, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track to students across Chicago.
2. Collect and circulate many stories from different youth in Chicago about suspensions, expulsions, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track.
3. Learn from the surveys and the stories about what can be done to decrease suspensions and expulsions.
4. Solicit and create art (visual and writing) that illustrates the connections between schools and jails and compile all of our information to create an interactive website.
5. Increase our collective ability as youth to challenge the schoolhouse to jailhouse track in Rogers Park.
Suspension Stories is coordinated by YWAT Leadership Core member and Project NIA advisory board member Lillian Matanmi. In addition, volunteer Chanell Marshall and Project NIA advisory board member Naomi Milstein also contributed their skills to this project. Mariame Kaba, Project NIA founder and director, provided technical assistance and support to the group of YWAT members who developed Suspension Stories. The “Suspension Stories” project officially kicked off with a youth-led event on April 17th 2010 at Depaul University.
