School to Prison Pipeline By: Kierstyn Johnson

Thesis Statement Zero tolerance policies are harmful to African American males. Schools need to provide alternative disciplinary decisions for children that are considered to be at risk for future incarceration.

Memorable Quotes "The idea that we can keep incarcerating and keep incarcerating -- pretty soon we're not going to have a young African-American male population in America. They're all going to be in prison or dead. One of the two."
--John Edwards, MTV political forum, September 27, 2007 "We have more work to do when more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities across America."
--Barrack Obama, NAACP forum, July 12, 2007. “ If people think the nation can continue to do well economically in about 30 years when minorities become the largest population group,” and nothing is done to address the black male education problem, “they’re kidding themselves”. ~Unknown

Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Schoolhouse vs Jailhouse School to Prison Pipeline Video

What is the School to Prison Pipeline?

How does the pipeline begin? 1) Failing Public Schools Overcrowded classrooms Lack of Qualified Teachers Insufficient Funding Some schools are too eager to adopt Zero Tolerance Policies. Rates of suspension have increased dramatically in recent years from 1.7 million in 1974 to 3.1 million in 2000 and have been most dramatic for children of color. 

Court Involvement and Juvenile Detention Youth who become involved in the juvenile justice system are often denied procedural protections in the courts; in one state, up to 80% of court-involved children do not have lawyers. Students pushed along the pipeline find themselves in juvenile detention facilities, many of which provide few, if any, educational services.

Black youth are more likely to…. To attend schools in older buildings with fewer resources. To have teachers that are less qualified and provide pedagogy that emphasizes rote memorization and skills.. To be inappropriately place in special education classes. To attend over crowded schools. To have lower expectations placed on them by teachers. To be unfairly tracked into lower level classes.