School to Prison Pipeline

ternative education. Many expelled students just have no access to any type of alternative education at all and are forced out of the system. Give them a structured and disciplined environment, a chance to achieve as much academically as they good in a school system and a chance to earn their way back into the regular classroom. 5. Remove zero tolerance. These are kids and human beings, they are learning and developing. Being a teen is often about making mistakes and learning from them. If they are condemned forever for the first mistake, we are almost denying their right to be human and to learn. 6. Find so ething thenare good at. Everyone can do something, everyone can achieve. Find a way for them to prepare for a future living that they are good at and enjoy. Login or register to post comments The school to prison pipeline Submitted by Anonymous on 8 November 2014 - 8:22pm. When are we going to demand that the classroom be an effective place and support the majority of the students who want to learn? Where are their rights in this conversation ? If you cannot behave, then you belong somewhere else, not in the school keeping my child from his education. I have half a mind to sue the district over denying my child the right to an education by keeping these children in the classroom! School to Prison Pipeline Submitted by Anonymous on 23 October 2014 - 9:43am. The causes and the consequences of the school-to-prison pipeline problems are numerous, but few solutions have been put in place to prevent the problem. Our current approach of treating the problem after it has emerged has done nothing to offset the problem or the consequences. Perhaps, this problem can be handled more effectively in the early grade levels (K-3) through intense work with parents and teachers. The same goes for the literacy epidemic (about 30% of students are reading at grade level) that is present in our nation. Without intense work in the early academic years to develop a home culture where learning and teachers are valued, then we will continue to have disciplinary, bullying, anger management, and other problems. I am also convinced that another root of the problems teachers are facing is related to the changing demographic profile of the students they teach. In many cases, the classrooms are very diverse and in some schools, student of color make up over 80% of the student population. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the teachers who continue to be mostly White females who might not be completely comfortable teaching students of color. The situation begins in the home of the disruptive children, not in the classroom. Educating parents on positive reinforcement methods is as important as educating the teachers--perhaps even more so. Parents need to support, not blame teachers when their offspring disrupts a class on a regular basis. Consider: the other children in the class also have a right to an education, a right that is violated when there is constant disruption that calls the teacher away from teaching and toward focusiing on the disruptive child. In my experience as a teacher in northeast U.S. Catholic schools, teachers (and most students) are trying their best to offer (and receive) a solid education. They are being undermined by irresponsible parents and educational leadership who find an easy scapegoat in the teacher. Principals also need to support the teacher -- perhaps by offering ongoing training in positiive reinforcement methods as well as opporunities for guidance in specific situations, and ultimately offering specfic help for the student and his or her family. Most minority teachers understand the children from these types of families. Most teachers that are being hired are not minorities. Many teachers being hired are white females, with a lack of understanding of a diverse culture. Therefore, America has created a bias education in America or a pipeline to prison for minority children, mostly boys. Minority teachers can tap into the reason children who are not supported at home, can find the support at school. I know this is true, because I have spent 26 years doing positive things to keep minority children on the right track. It is with a sad and heavy heart that I agree with your statement. Even sadder though, is the lack of appearant minority interest in changing that truth and moreso in advocating for minority youth by working in education, volunteering where possible and being role models for youth with underrepresentation in professional fields.