Project NIA partnered with the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice at Roosevelt University to organize a panel of youth activists discussing the school to prison pipeline on October 16th 2010. This panel was part of a larger conference called the Cradle to College Summit. Youth activists represented several local organizations including Blocks Together, Chicago Freedom School, Gender Just, Korean American Resource and Cultural Center, and the Rogers Park Young Women’s Action Team. This video is 57 minutes and opens with performances from youth affiliated with Young Chicago Authors. This event was filmed by Free Spirit Media.
The Dignity in Schools Campaign provided the funding to make this video.
From the Washington Post, this report about the impact of reducing suspensions on the educational outcomes of young black men:
We have long known that excessive use of suspension and expulsion results in higher rates of school absence, academic failure and, eventually, quitting school altogether. Evidence also points to suspensions leading to higher incidence of arrests and juvenile detention. Once the commitment was made to address disruptive behavior in school, suspensions in the district were cut in half.
Consider: In the 2003-04 school year, fewer than one out of two black male students graduated. Baltimore schools handed out nearly 26,000 suspensions to a student body of just over 88,000 kids. Two-thirds were to boys and, reflecting the city’s population, nearly all were to black students.
Fast forward to the 2009-10 school year: Two out of three black male students graduated, while the District handed out fewer than 10,000 suspensions. Importantly, far fewer were longer than five days. You would be hard pressed to find other urban districts with that kind of progress.
Research has shown that out-of-school suspensions hurt academic progress; are a major factor in students’ dropping out; and because they don’t teach new behaviors, fail to improve school climates. These findings don’t mean that schools should ignore bad behavior. And dangerous behavior by students shouldn’t be tolerated. But the data show that most incidents do not fall into that “dangerous” category and that alternatives such as in-school suspension and mediation are much more effective.
Keeping more young people in school means more time for learning. When more learning happens, more students graduate. Black males are no exception to this simple fact.
We came across this terrific letter to the editor by Mark Roberts titled How times have changed. The letter used the terrific film “A Christmas Story'” to make a serious point about the current school to prison pipeline. We felt that it was worth sharing here.
I love the Christmas movie “A Christmas Story,” but I guess things have changed.
You see, Ralphie first got in trouble in a conspiracy to inflict bodily harm on a classmate in the infamous frozen flag pole case. Justice is tougher today, and he was convicted on circumstantial evidence. That got him in-school suspension.
It got worse though, when Ralphie was charged with attempted bribery of his teacher by bringing her an enormous fruit basket.
He was finally expelled from school after the Scott Farkus fight and the associated breach of verbal etiquette.
Things continued to deteriorate when Ralphie’s parents were found guilty of child abuse by attempted soap poisoning and the Department of Social Services sent him to a foster home.
The final straw came when he was found to be carrying a deadly weapon, a Red Ryder BB gun. Now Ralphie is in jail.
Isn’t it great to see how much better things are this holiday season than when Ralphie was going to old Warren G. Harding Elementary School? Merry Christmas to all.
Administrators at a Long Island school suspended a 10-year-old girl for bringing peppermint oil to class. A teacher’s assistant at John Mandracchia-Sawmill Intermediate School in Commack spotted fifth grader Sara Greiner offering friends a few drops of the cooking extract. “I told them it was just peppermint. You could put it in your water,” she told ABC. “No one ever told me that peppermint oil was illegal.” Greiner was sent to the principal’s office and issued a one-day suspension. The school declined to explain why she was punished, but in a letter to Greinier’s mother, Corrine Morton-Greiner, the principal wrote “[s]uch inappropriate and unacceptable behavior cannot and will not be tolerated.” Greiner’s mother is now fighting to remove the suspension from her daughter’s permanent record. “If a child offers a quarter of their peanut and jelly sandwich to another student is that student going to be suspended? Where do we draw the line?” the mother asked.
The following is an update from Sara’s mother about how she is doing now.
I am Sara’s mother, and one year later, I am amazed that there is still so much of this news item connected with my name. I found this article through “googling” my name to look for something completely unrelated.
I teach college, have taught in public and private schools throughout Long Island, and on this near-anniversary of this mystifying event, I decided to post an update about how my daughter is doing a year after this nightmare. Since I would not allow the system to harm my daughter’s name or reputation, my husband and I placed Sara in a private school a month after this ridiculous incident last January. It was the best decision we could have made. She is a merit roll student who ran for school president. She has been selected to participate in a People to People World Leadership Forum, only one out of eight students in her school selected for this honor. Today, my daughter stands strong against any type of bullying or false labeling. She is well-known among her peers in her current school for her tremendous kindness and her incredible artistic abilities. Sara volunteers as a mentor to first grade students, does active community outreach work through her religion class, and participates in local community theater. Sara aspires to becoming an inventor one day.
For any parents who feel like their children are being stigmatized or falsely labeled, I encourage you to protect the dignity of your children. Sara was a shadow of her sweet, energetic self after such an unjust reprimand from school officials. She felt ashamed and humiliated by the way the school treated her, but with our support, she has both a new perspective and a deeper appreciation for the need to stand against any form of injustice–no matter how minor it may seem at the time. We still use peppermint oil in our home–a product sold to us by a Girl Scout Troop leader in our community. Thankfully, this insane incident has just made our daughter a stronger person in the long run and led her to a school that makes her very happy and provides her with an extraordinary education.
I would like to say once again that zero tolerance policies and harsh disciplinary policies are damaging our young people’s educational outcomes. They are being pushed out of school as a result of brain dead policies that accelerate their entry into the prison pipeline. Thank goodness Sara had a mother like Mrs. Grenier to advocate and fight for her right to a good and non-oppressive education. Yet many, many young people do not have such parental support for a myriad of reasons. I am thrilled to hear that Sara is doing well and am grateful for the update on her situation.
It’s important to highlight the many ways that young people are working to dismantle the school to prison pipeline. Here is a report about a group of youth in California who are marching for 50 miles to raise awareness between the issue of school pushout and its connection to the prison pipeline.
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Birmingham’s school district and police chief are being sued for a different injustice: pepper spraying defenseless children as a common practice to enforce discipline. How sad that in the city forever connected to Dr. King’s leadership, this new lawsuit documents systematic civil rights abuses happening to a new generation.
The lawsuit (PDF) filed this week by the Southern Poverty Law Center includes damning claims from multiple teenage students who say they were Maced or pepper sprayed for offenses as minor as observing a fight, talking back to an authority figure or smoking a cigarette.
“These children are not alleged to have engaged in any wrongdoing but are merely in the wrong place at the wrong time,” the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a statement. “These children are accused of engaging in normal but non-dangerous adolescent misbehavior – after which the adults taunt and celebrate their punishment.”
The text of the lawsuit includes some truly chilling examples like B.J., a teen accused of mumbling a profanity to a substitute. B.J. maintains his innocence and says another student spoke the profanity.
After the substitute teacher sent B.J. outside, an assistant principal began patting him down and going through his pockets. B.J., struggling to be free, tripped and fell to the ground, and two assistant principals watched as a police officer blasted pepper spray directly into B.J.’s face and eyes. B.J. felt as if he was blind and choking. The officer shoved him fully onto the ground with her knee and handcuffed him. One of the assistant principals is accused of saying, “Woo! That’s the first macing of the year!” B.J. was taken to a hospital where he was asked to sign a medical release waiver, even though he couldn’t see.
Another student, T.A.P., was accused of smoking cigarettes. T.A.P. explained that she smoked before school started, off of school grounds. After she was told to go home, she was grabbed by officers and eventually pinned by five grown men. One of them sprayed her in the face with pepper spray. She felt like choking and the skin around her eyes was damaged and peeling for a week after she was sprayed. She was taken to the hospital as well and asked to sign a medical release waiver.
Because mace is used so often in schools, the lawsuit says, students face daily safety risks. But their only options are transferring to other school systems, which isn’t permitted by zoning, enrolling in private schools, which they can’t afford, or dropping out of school, which violate students’ rights to an “equal and adequate” education under state law, the lawsuit reads.
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3,160.that’s the number of suspensions so far this year in Tulsa Public Schools. The actual number of suspended students, is lower than that because some students are suspended more than once. But, police say, whatever the number some of the them are causing even more problems when they’re kicked out of class.
“We have officers out patrolling we do see individuals who are school age, but aren’t in school for some reason and many are out there committing crimes,” says Tulsa Police Officer Leland Ashley. Officers say for some teens it’s a way of life, but officers are aware of the problem and it’s something they’re working on. “When we see a crime trend or burglary trend saturate those types of areas,” says Officer Ashley.
Officers say another problem, kids skipping school and committing crimes. In some cases, parents could end up getting arrested and even charged for not sending their kids to school.
Officers say if you see teens out during school hours and they look like they may be up to something, it’s important to call the police, so they can check it out.
This story was fine until the very end where they encourage the public to “call the police” if they see any suspicious looking young people loitering during school hours. We really have to get beyond involving law enforcement constantly in issues that can be resolved using community accountability models.
You can watch a report summarizing the case of a 6 year old who was handcuffed to his desk twice.
An article in Digital Journal does a terrific job of summarizing this case and its outcome.
Here is the article in its entirety:
The New Orleans based Louisiana Recovery School District settled a lawsuit that had been filed against the board earlier this year announced the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The lawsuit resulted after staff at the Sarah T. Reed Elementary School handcuffed a six year old boy not once, but on two separate occasions. The boy, Ja’Briel Weston, was restrained in school by having one ankle cuffed to his desk on one occasion, and handcuffed to a chair on the second occasion. The “offenses” committed by the Grade 1 student to warrant such punishment were allegedly talking back to a teacher and being involved in a bit of a shoving match with another boy during lunch in the cafeteria, reported The Root in the summer.
Ja’Briel’s parents did contact the school in an attempt to end the use of handcuffs and other restraints in the school, but the principal defended the cuffing of the boy, and told the family the school was required to uphold a policy whereby students are routinely arrested and restrained for misbehaviour.
Following those attempts, Ja’Briel’s family proceeded with a lawsuit against the school, prompting a response from the Louisiana State Superintendent, Paul Pastorek. In a press release, Pastorek said
“The Louisiana Department of Education is, of course, concerned with the well being of all students and recognizes our responsibility to ensure every child receives a free and appropriate education. While we have no way of verifying these specific incidents as of yet, it’s unacceptable that any child or family would have to endure the kind of hardships that were described by the Southern Poverty Law Center in this complaint. At the same time, we are disappointed that this organization did not make us aware of these reports and concerns until today, several hours after a press conference was held outlining this complaint. If we had been notified, we would have worked with this organization, these students and their families to resolve any deficiencies so that their physical, emotional and educational needs are met by their local districts and schools.”
In spite of the superintendent’s words assuring parents that the Department of Education would work to resolve complaints, the lawsuit was not settled until late October.
The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana filed the suit on behalf of “all school children who attend the Sarah T. Reed Elementary School” states the complaint.
A press release issued In November by the Southern Poverty Law Center announced the settlement. While specific details have not been publicized, the Recovery School District “has prohibited the use of fixed restraints and limited the use of handcuffs. The RSD will also provide formal training to all security personnel on the settlement terms.”
Coverage from the Times-Picayune provided a bit more information. According to the newspaper, the Recovery School District will stop restraining students 10 years of age and under. Those who are restrained will no longer be restrained to a fixed object. The Recovery School District paid Ja’Briel’s family an unknown sum of money as part of the settlement agreement.
While the agreement was welcomed by the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, the organization’s legal director told the Times-Picayune
“This is an important and meaningful first step, but unfortunately, much more must be done to protect all students from harsh discipline practices that force them out of the classroom and subject them to physical abuse. We will continue to work to reform these outdated practices on behalf of children and families across the state.”
The Louisiana Recovery School District has said it does not have a policy of restraining its students, and a spokesperson from the educational authority refused to speak to the media about the story. Others are upset that the Recovery School District will still be able to handcuff students.
One security officer lost his job as a result of cuffing Ja’Briel. Ja’Briel now attends another school.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has since taken on the Louisiana Department of Education in a lawsuit that alleges special needs students do not have equal access to education.
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This will be the Suspension Stories site! We hope to have this site fully up and running in January 2011. Please look out for it at that time! In the meantime, you can watch some suspension stories on our Youtube Channel.
Watch YWAT member Adeola as she shares her Suspension Story:
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Suspension Stories is a youth-led participatory action research project to understand the school to prison pipeline. This initiative is the result of a collaboration between the Rogers Park Young Women's Action Team (www.rogersparkywat.org) and Project NIA (www.project-nia.org).
