School to Prison Pipeline
The school to prison pipeline refers to the practice and policies that schools enact that result in pushing school children out of classrooms and subsequently into the criminal justice system.[1] This path disproportionately affects minority students of color as well as students with disabilities.[2]
These life-changing negative effects are typically the result of short and long-term actions and include: an increased rate of being imprisoned; dropping out of school; and repeating a grade.[3] Policies (e.g., zero tolerance), practices (e.g., suspensions and expulsions) and the presence of police officers in schools have resulted in the arrest of cumulatively tens of millions of public-school students for non-serious issues such as bad grades, tardiness and disorderly conduct.[4] The removal of students from educational learning opportunities and displacement into the juvenile and criminal justice system creates life-changing negative effects.[5]
Zero Tolerance Policies
Zero tolerance policies mandate school officials to give students severe, punitive and exclusionary consequences in response to misbehaviors by students.[6] These punishments are typically predetermined and apply regardless of the circumstances surrounding an incident.[7]
Winter (2016) noted these policies are proven to not work, as they do not actually make schools safer; moreover, they lead to disproportionate discipline for students of color.[8] Research has found that suspension is ineffective at changing students’ behavior and has serious long-term repercussions as they fall behind, academically.[9] Bacher-Hicks (2020) explained that some examples of these long-term repercussions include: lower educational achievement; lower graduation rates; lower college enrollment rates; and higher involvement in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems.[10]
School Resource Officers
School Resource Officers (SROs) are sworn law-enforcement officers with arrest powers who work within a school setting.[11] Washington & Hazelton (2021) explain that SROs were originally established to prevent/stop mass shootings; however, their main role has become one contributing to the negative long-lasting impacts of school children in the school to prison pipeline.[12] School Resource Officers often use aggressive policing (which are a set of strategies used by law enforcement) to control disorder and strictly punish all levels of deviant behavior.[13] Sawchuck (2021) noted SROs are more likely to use force, and often arrest, for non-serious issues such as bad grades, tardiness and disorderly conduct.[14] School Resource Officers also disproportionately target students of color and individuals with disabilities, as arrest rates of these two groups are 3.5% higher in schools with SROs compared to those without.[15] An excessive use of force negatively harms an individual mentally, emotionally and sometimes physically.
Mental health impacts within the school to prison pipeline
Roughly 22% of children in the US suffer from mental illness and many schools are not equipped with appropriate professionals or practices to address it. This disparity often leads to students with mental health problems being suspended, expelled or arrested based on poor policies.[16] Although Anderson (2022) notes that many children are not tested for developmental delays and disorders, mental health issues, and disabilities, social worker Marcia Gupta believes that there is a need to understand the root causes of a child’s behavioral issues.[17,18] While ADHD may be a cause of a student’s behavioral issues, Gupta educates school staff how the behaviors may be the result of trauma, anxiety, and/or depression.[19] Rates of depression and anxiety among kids aged 3-to-17 have increased over the past five years; in 2020, nearly 1-in-10 kids (9.2%) had been diagnosed with anxiety.[20] Rather than punishment, which can have lifelong consequences, Anderson explains that children should receive behavioral health services in educational settings as an early intervention.[21]
A 2019 Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality reported that 45% of girls apprehended in the juvenile justice system report at least five Adverse Childhood Experiences.[22] Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur before a child turns 18. These events can include physical and emotional abuse; neglect; caregiver mental illness; and household violence. Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child indicates that the more ACEs that a child has, the more likely they are to suffer from negative effects such as heart disease, diabetes, poor academic achievement and substance abuse.[23] The experience of ACEs in addition to other traumatizing events (e.g., racism) can result in toxic stress.[24] Resulting in lifelong health problems, the inability to receive adequate resources (e.g., caregiver support) causes a child’s body to endure long lasting stress since their body is unable to stop the stress response normally.[25]
How do we improve?
Reforming zero tolerance policies would be a significant step towards solving the school to prison pipeline problem. This reform could include positive reinforcement (e.g., the encouragement of behaviors through rewards) making the positive behavior more likely to occur.[26] Positive reinforcement is effective in that it reinforces what the child is doing correctly instead of focusing on what the child is doing wrong.[27] Newman (2021) notes this has the potential to motivate students to engage in positive behaviors through incentivization of good choices.[28]
School resource officers who are ill-equipped to address mental health issues in students play a vital role in maintaining the school to prison pipeline. An alternative to SROs would be an investment in counselors, nurses, social workers and other professionals to provide the adequate support needed for students. Currently, 1.7 million students attend schools with police but no counselors; 3 million students are in schools with police but no nurses; 6 million students are in schools with police but no school psychologists; and 10 million students are in schools with police but no social workers.[29] School counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists act as first responders towards children who are sick, stressed, traumatized, may act out, or may hurt themselves or others.[30] The National Association of School Psychologists (2010) note that the presence of professionals, such as school psychologists, result in academic performance improvement as well as decreased behavior problems.[31]
By replacing school resource officers with mental health and health care professionals, students can enjoy greater stability and safety, better excel in their studies/are more likely to achieve greater educational achievements and experience overall better mental health throughout life.
Contributed by: Ariana McGeary
Editor: Jennifer (Ghahari) Smith, Ph.D.
REFERENCES
1 What is the School-to-Prison Pipeline? (n.d.). Retrieved from ADL: https://www.adl.org/education/educator-resources/lesson-plans/what-is-the-school-to-prison-pipeline
2 DREDF. (n.d.). School-to-Prison Pipeline. Retrieved from Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund: https://dredf.org/legal-advocacy/school-to-prison-pipeline/
3 ACLU Washington. (2019). What are the impacts of suspension and expulsion?
Retrieved from ACLU: https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/what-are-impacts-suspension-and-expulsion
4 Elias, M. (2013). The School-to-Prison Pipeline. Retrieved from Learning For Justice: https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/spring-2013/the-school-to-prison-pipeline#:~:text=The%20vast%20majority%20of%20these,enforcement%20are%20black%20or%20Hispanic.
5 American University. (2021). Who is Most Affected by the School to Prison Pipeline? . Retrieved from AU School of Education: https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/school-to-prison-pipeline#:~:text=The%20school%2Dto%2Dprison%20pipeline%20causes%20a%20disproportionate%20number%20of,more%20likely%20to%20be%20imprisoned.
6 Zero-Tolerance Policies and the School to Prison Pipeline. (2018). Retrieved from Shared Justice: https://www.sharedjustice.org/most-recent/2017/12/21/zero-tolerance-policies-and-the-school-to-prison-pipeline#:~:text=The%20%E2%80%9Cschool%20to%20prison%20pipeline,funnel%20students%20into%20this%20pipeline.
7 Ibid.
8 Winter, C. (2020). Amid evidence zero tolerance doesn't work, schools reverse themselves. Spare the Rod. Retrieved from: https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2016/08/25/reforming-school-discipline
9 Ibid.
10 Bacher-Hicks, A. (2020). Long-term Impacts of School Suspension on Adult Crime. CEPR.
Retrieved from: https://sdp.cepr.harvard.edu/blog/long-term-impacts-school-suspension-adult-crime#:~:text=%E2%80%9CSchools%20that%20suspend%20more%20students,and%20adult%20criminal%20justice%20systems.
11 Sawchuck, S. (2021). School Resource Officers (SROs), Explained: Their duties, effectiveness, and more . Retrieved from Education Week: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-resource-officer-sro-duties-effectiveness
12 Washington, K., & Hazelton, T. (2021). School Resource Officers: When the Cure is Worse than the Disease. Retrieved from ACLU Washington: https://www.aclu-wa.org/story/school-resource-officers-when-cure-worse-disease
13 Sawchuck, S. (2021)
14 Ibid.
15 Washington, K., & Hazelton, T. (2021)
16 Ibid.
17 Anderson, T. (2022). Disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline will reduce disparities for Kansans. Kansas Reflector. Retrieved from: https://kansasreflector.com/2022/08/04/disrupting-the-school-to-prison-pipeline-will-reduce-disparities-for-kansans/
18 McCoy, N. (2019). The school-to-prison pipeline is a public health crisis for youth of color; BU panel shows how to break the cycle. Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health. Retrieved from: https://ciswh.org/school-to-prison-pipeline-public-health-crisis-for-youth-of-color
19 Ibid.
20 Anderson, T. (2022)
21 Ibid
22 Ojukwu, O. (2022). The Mental Health Impacts of the School-To-Prison Pipeline. EQ
Collective. Retrieved from: https://www.eqcollective.org/news/the-mental-health-impacts-of-the-school-to-prisonpipeline#:~:text=Mental%20Illness%20Within%20the%20School%2Dto%2DPrison%20Pipeline&text=According%20to%20a%202019%20report,in%20the%20prison%2Fjail%20environment.
23 What are aces? And how do they relate to toxic stress? Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2020). Retrieved from: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/aces-and-toxic-stress-frequently-asked-questions/
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
26 Scott, H., Jain, A., & Cogburn, M. (2021). Behavior Modification. StatPearls.
27 Use Positive Reinforcement. (n.d.). Retrieved from Familyeducation: https://www.familyeducation.com/life/positive-reinforcement/use-positive-reinforcement#:~:text=Positive%20reinforcement%20reinforces%20what%20the,%2C%20and%20natural%2C%20logical%20rewards.
28 Newman, P. (2021). How Positive Reinforcement Improves Student Behavior . Retrieved from Kickboard: https://www.kickboardforschools.com/pbis-positive-behavior-interventions-supports/how-positive-reinforcement-improves-student-behavior/#:~:text=Positive%20reinforcement%20is%20focused%20on,by%20incentivizing%20their%20good%20choices.
29 Blad, E. (2019). 1.7 Million Students Attend Schools With Police But No Counselors, New Data Show . Retrieved from Education Week: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/1-7-million-students-attend-schools-with-police-but-no-counselors-new-data-show/2019/03
30 Ibid.
31 National Association of School Psychologists. (2010). School Psychologists: Improving Student and School Outcomes. Retrieved from National Association of School Psychologists: http://www.gaspnet.org/Resources/Documents/SP%20improving%20outcomes.pdf