End racial bias in school discipline.
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Hi everyone!
Today's newsletter offers another lens on the school-to-prison pipeline and the racial disparities in education. Because our community is growing fast, and we're building quite a library of content, I've added a "related issues" section of our newsletters that highlights related content from our archives.
I hope this helps illuminate some of the other stances and perspectives we have had in the past, and enable our newer readers to dive deeper as we carry this conversation from one day to the next. It's so tough to boil down major concepts and complex systems of oppression into 800-1000 words, so we'll need to zoom in each day to eventually see the whole picture.
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Nicole
TAKE ACTION
1. Sign the petition to free Grace, the subject of today’s newsletter, from juvenile detention.
GET EDUCATED
A disturbing story published yesterday by ProPublica brought the conversation of the school-to-prison pipeline to the top of my inbox: A Teenager Didn’t Do Her Online Schoolwork. So a Judge Sent Her to Juvenile Detention (ProPublica).
Grace*, a 15-year-old with ADHD and a mood disorder, was on probation when she started to struggle to keep up with her school’s abrupt shift to digital learning. Although Grace’s special education teacher saw her performance “not out of alignment with most of my other students,” the judge found Grace “guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school” and called Grace a “threat to (the) community,” citing the assault and theft charges that led to her probation. Grace was sent to juvenile detention. She’s been there for the past two months, and her case won’t be reviewed until Sept. 8, after the start of the new school year. I highly encourage you to read the full story for the full story. A brief recap doesn’t do it justice (ProPublica).
Unsurprisingly, Grace is Black, and many believe this case represents racial bias persistent in state – and federal – trends of harsh sentencing against youth. The racial disparities in policies like these fuel the school-to-prison pipeline, or, the systems that pull students out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system. We briefly reviewed this topic in a previous newsletter about police officers in schools (Anti-Racism Daily archives). You can dive into a comprehensive overview of the school-to-prison pipeline on tolerance.org.
In Michigan, Black youth are incarcerated over 4x more than their white peers (The Sentencing Project). And over the past four years, about 4,800 juvenile cases were referred to Oakland County Circuit Court, the same court that sentenced Grace. Of those, 42% involved Black youth even though only about 15% of the county’s youth are Black (ProPublica).
And across the country, broader studies that Black students, particularly Black girls, are more harshly disciplined. Data from the U.S. Department of Education found that from 2013–14, black girls were more than six times more likely than white girls to receive an out-of-school suspension. And although black girls made up only 16% of female students in U.S. public schools, they made up 43% of girls who were referred to law enforcement and 38% of those arrested (Teen Vogue). Read the full report here.
For students like Grace, this sentencing can have lasting repercussions. Many believe that juvenile records disappear by the age of 18, but that’s often not the case. A juvenile record can prevent a young person from receiving financial aid to assist with college tuition, harm their ability to get a job or join the military, limit access to public housing opportunities, and prevent them from the ability to receive a license in certain professions (MST Services).
And consider the deep emotional wounding of the trauma of being incarcerated as a teenager, of being handcuffed and shackled by the ankles, locked in a room for 12 hours a day, and denied access to basic comforts (ProPublica). It’s no surprise that data shows that youth with mental health issues – youth like Grace – are likely to emotionally deteriorate in custody, and their conditions often worsen (National Child Traumatic Stress Network).
“Who can even be a good student right now? Unless there is an urgent need, I don’t understand why you would be sending a kid to any facility right now and taking them away from their families with all that we are dealing with right now.”
― Ricky Watson Jr., executive director of the National Juvenile Justice Network, for ProPublica
What’s important to remember here is much of Grace’s story as a whole isn’t new. But the specifics situation of incarcerating a child because they didn't sufficiently complete their remote learning, in the midst of a global pandemic, definitely is. So what happens when schools start applying the same biased disciplining to these unprecedented learning environments? Right now, schools are grappling with the complex decision of how to return back to school this fall (NYTimes). And so far, a couple of major school districts have already opted for remote learning for the fall (NPR). It’s likely that decisions will vary widely between school districts, but we can expect remote learning to be a part of the equation for most, at minimum.
And we know that students are already struggling to complete their classwork while learning remotely. Various school districts reported discrepancies from earlier this year: 15,000 high school students in Los Angeles (LA Times), one-third of students in Minneapolis Public Schools (Twin Cities), and about 25% of Chicago Public Schools students (WTTW) failed to log in or complete their schoolwork (all stats via ProPublica).
Can we blame students for struggling to stay attentive during a global pandemic? Personally, I can barely keep up with my day to day responsibilities with the weight of COVID-19 and the protests hanging around me. And I, unlike many students in America, have the privilege to be working with unlimited access to my laptop and smartphone, and high-speed internet. But it’s estimated that 42 million Americans lack access to broadband internet, and 10.7% of U.S. households don’t have a laptop or computer at home. Low-income households were “least likely to be high-connectivity households, but had the highest proportion of smartphone-only households,” which is a tough platform for accessing school assignments (Gizmodo).
Consider how hunger and homelessness exacerbate the issue of staying on track while learning from home. How caring for younger siblings while parents are at work can prevent students from staying on track. And the stress and anxiety of everything can drain a student’s focus and attention. And most importantly, consider how Black students and other students of color are disproportionately likely to be burdened with all of the barriers to learning mentioned above. How can we incarcerate children for failing to live up to unrealistic standards as they navigate situations beyond their control?
Not every student is starting out the school year on probation. And perhaps not every student will be arrested for missing a couple of homework assignments. But we still need to view Grace’s story as a cautionary tale for what can happen – and challenge our dangerous relationship between discipline and incarceration. We are redefining what school looks like this fall, and hopefully, we use this opportunity to create a more equitable system for everyone to learn and grow.
*Named changed by ProPublica to protect identity.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The school-to-prison pipeline highlights the disciplinary policies that pull students out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system
Black students, particularly Black girls, are disproportionately more likely to be disciplined in schools
As schools adopt remote learning in the fall, there is a chance racial bias can continue to perpetuate in how students are disciplined regarding attendance and task completion
Students less prepared for remote learning are also more likely to be disciplined harshly for lack of participation
The impact of incarceration at youth has lasting emotional and legal implications
Related Issues
July 2, 2020 | Remove police from our public schools.
July 8, 2020 | Investigate school district funding disparities.
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