School-to-Prison Pipeline
[Image of the silhouette of a police officer holding a metal-detector scanner while looking down at the silhouette of a child carrying an oversized backpack walking into a prison-like school hallway]
Today's Students Experience...
-
Prison-Like Environments
- Surveillance Cameras
- Police Dogs
- Armed Guards
- School and Local Police on Campus
- Metal Detectors
- Strip Searches
- Physically Uninviting Buildings
-
Under Investment
- Cutbacks on counselors, social workers, and mental health resources
- Underfunded and under-resourced schools
-
Harsh School Discipline
- Out-of-School Suspensions
- Expulsions
- Transfers to Alternative Schools
- Zero Tolerance Policies
-
Pressures & Uncertainty
- School Closures
- Privatization
- High-Stakes Testing Pressures on Students, Teachers, and Administrators
- Implicit and Explicit Bias
Youth of color, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities are punished more often and more harshly than their peers for the same misbehavior.
Out-of-School Suspensions
Over 3,000,000* students receive an out-of school suspension annually (*a number that has been rising for decades.)
[Chart] Suspensions, Race & Disability
Likelihood of Being Suspended at Least Once:
- White - 1/20
- Latino - 1/14
- Native Amer. - 1/13
- Black - 1/6
- Black with Disability - 1/4
Students Have Actually Been Suspended For...
- Talking about a Hello Kitty bubble gun
- Hugging a friend
- Chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun
School Arrests
- Over 70% of students involved in school-related arrest[s] or referr[als] to law enforcement are Hispanic or African-American.
- Over 67% of school arrests in Florida are for minor misdemeanor charges.
Students Have Actually Been Arrested For...
- Kindergarten throwing a temper tantrum
- Scribbling on a desk
- Sneaking into a school for a senior prank
- Playing the Fresh Prince theme song on a cellphone
- Science experiment gone wrong
Harsh Discipline Policies =
- No Trust in Adults
- No College or Career
- No Safer Schools
Just ONE out-of-school suspension in the 9th grade DOUBLES a student's risk of dropping out before graduation.
[Images of posters with protest slogans: "Books not Bars," "End #School2Prison," "You can't build peace with a piece," "Education not Incarceration," "Pushout? Push Back"]
Advancement Project | Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track | safequalityschools.org
