School to prison pipeline for boys of color

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog post 11: Reflection

Before having done research or taking this class, I was not aware of the extend of racism and the school to prison pipeline. I am now aware of the statistics, that 70% of arrested students are boys of color. When people ask me about racism in the US, I can make them aware of an issue that not everyone has heard about before, that racism affects even young boys of color, and later on teenage boys of color possibly ending up in prison.  The research was very interesting, I watched several youtube videos, including documentaries and interviews. It is shocking that all the students suffer from the prison like schools, especially the ones who get expelled or arrested. I also read several scholarly articles on the topic before choosing two, and several articles online. While it was very interesting to learn about the school to prison pipeline, I got very frustrated, mad and angry reading some of the (white) teachers interviews and sad listening to students being interviewed. I also see sexism differently now, before I just generalised that sexism was discrimination on basis of gender, female gender. While the school to prison pipeline is intersectional, it is also an example for sexism against males. 

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Used sources

Project liberty: school to prison pipeline  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXR51vZCfVY

 Just as Bad as Prisons: The Challenge of Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline Through Teacher and Community Education http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/10665684.2014.958961 by Allen and White-Smith

 (Un)Doing Hegemony in Education: Disrupting School-to-Prison Pipelines for Black Males http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/10665684.2014.959271) by T. Elon Dancy

 Fact Sheet: How Bad Is the School-to-Prison Pipeline?http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/tsr/education-under-arrest/school-to-prison-pipeline-fact-sheet/ by Carla Amurao

  Additional Rescources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FCGUaOKRks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovPQicwbuYg

Both are documentaries on the school to prison pipeline, students talk about their experience in public schools and about being expelled and arrested.

 https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-inequality-education/school-prison-pipeline a short article explaining what the “school to prison pipeline“ is.

 http://neatoday.org/2015/01/05/school-prison-pipeline-time-shut/ article on shutting down the school to prison pipeline.

 http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b779c6af-4ea5-4129-af0b-23470f86f1cb%40sessionmgr106&vid=24&hid=123 a case study on male sof color being affected by the school to prison pipeline

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog post 9: suggested solutions

Schools should hire staff of diverse race and sex. Most teachers are white females that often stereotype male students of color and expect less of them, believing they have lower abilities or don't care about school. Also, male educators of color could act as role models for younger boys of color.

Teachers and counselling staff should receive special training that is required and pass a moral test that detects racism and sexism.

The zero tolerance policy should be repealed, students should not fear being arrested in school due to “offences” such as hitting someone with a pencil. While security is important, schools have to find a way to make the school a safe environment that doesn’t include metal detectors and police offers that make students feel like criminals. 

All in all, the issue needs to be resolved by changing the public school system and the criminal justice system, not teaching male students of color to prevent being arrested or expelled. Students of color are the victims here, and no one should blame the victim and tell them to prevent it my acting in a different way or avoid certain (clearly innocent) behaviour. 

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog post 8: Summary

Every aspect of many public schools fuel the school to prison pipeline. Teachers are often colourblind and racist, punishing or suspending schools. Counsellors often worsen the situation by giving male students of color less opportunities or encourage them to take lower ability classes. Hyper masculinity and group structure may push students of color to perform poorly in class or rebel in order to be “cool”, however both is caused by society and schools which stereotypes even small boys of color and treats them differently, as dangerous, violent and pushes them to deal with their situation in a certain way.  Public schools become more and more like prisons, making students feel small and treated like criminals which is clearly not a good studying environment. Students are being arrested and expelled for reasons that are normal teenage behaviours. After being expelled or arrested, many students loose hope and often fall behind. Male students of color are less likely to graduate from highschool and more likely to end up in the hands of the criminal justice system.  The extend of the problem is huge, 70% of the students arrested are students of color, 40% of the students expelled are students of color. The issue affects every public school US wide, every parent and everyone who is conscious about discrimination on basis of gender and race.  The research relates to the reading “The Consequences of the Criminal Justice Pipeline on Black and Latino Masculinity.” by Rios, Victor M. that we discussed in class, as well the other articles related to racism and the black lives matter movement. 

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog post 7: Intersectional 

The school to prison pipeline is an intersectional issue. The students affected are mostly students of color and male. Hence, race and gender are both important to understand the school to prison pipeline. Public schools profile and search their students, have metal detectors and police on campus. Even though racism, hyper masculinity affects male students of color in every social class, public schools in poorer neighbourhoods are more affected. The issue is therefore also intersecting with social class and the parents education and income. 

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog post 6: Institutional example

Clearly, public schools are the biggest institution involved in the school to prison pipeline for boys of color. Like discussed before, racism, stereotypes and racial and gender profiling causes the school to prison pipeline to affect so many boys of color. In addition to that, the criminal justice system is largely involved as well. Some of the students of color got arrested or punished for throwing a lollipop (battery), talking back (disturbance of peace), tapping pencil on the desk(destruction of property) or going to the bathroom (disturbance of school function). A female student of color was sent to jail for 21 days for hitting another student with a pencil. More money is being invested into prisons and the criminal justice system than into schools. Instead of improving education and teacher quality, “problem” students are gotten rid of, expelled or even arrested.  In a larger context, the school to prison pipeline for boys of color also affects institutions such as college or future employees. Boys of color are less likely to graduate from hightschool and more likely to end up in prison than white males. 

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog post 5: Project liberty: school to prison pipeline 

Seydou goes to a public school in New York that has metal detectors and police officers on campus. He tells how set students are pushed to class like sheeps, ignored when they try to talk, degraded to animals. One day a new police office asked him why he was in the hallway, “why are you  late” and started shouting at Seydou. He knew that if he spoke back or got loud that the office would call for backup and possibly arrest him, which made him feel small. Teachers don’t have to go through the metal detectors, Seydou explains how it makes him feel like he is in a prison, how the teacher is the prison guard and all the students are criminals. He adds that it is degrading and discouraging, that school is becoming more of a prison than a school. Seydou doesn’t feel comfortable to go through the metal detectors, sometimes it makes him late for class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXR51vZCfVY

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog Post 4: “Just as Bad as Prisons”: The Challenge of Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline Through Teacher and Community Education

According to Allen and White-Smith, many public schools have developed into a prison like atmosphere, having metal detectors and often police officers on campus. Most teachers are white middle class women that are not sufficiently trained and are colourblind. Educators often lack a deep understanding of race and gender and replace it with stereotypes and their own negative assumptions about male students of color. As a consequence, the students gets blamed or associated with low ability or educational indifference instead of considering social issues, family issues racism. The combination of teacher biases, misinterpretation of black behaviour and policies such as the zero tolerance policy makes male students of color more vulnerable to the school to prison pipeline.  Another issue the authors address is systematic problem of assuming and expecting less of male students of color. As an example, three teachers were talking after class about the arrival of a new alone blue eyed girl in school. When a five year old boy asked her to play with him, one of the teachers “taught him respect”, disciplined him and punished him. The other teacher is outraged, since the five year old boy innocently asked to play with the new girl and was punished due to the teachers racism and ignorance.  Counsellors may also negatively impact the school to prison pipeline for boys of color. Often, male black students are encouraged to take lower level classes and are in lower ability or special education programs. They are often less prepared to go to college or do not receive well deserved educational opportunities. In their research, a male black student with a 4.0 GPA was told by the counsellor to go to community college since no scholarships were available for him, or to play football in college.  School administration contribute by encouraging the “hidden curriculum” or profiling male students of color.  In conclusion, the whole school system, not only policies such as the zero tolerance policy, has to be reformed to give boys of color the same rights and chances that white students and females receive. 

The case studies(examples) that the authors have in their article are outrageous. I was astonished to read such racist and sexist comments of supposedly educated people. The scholarly article is a must read for educators, parents and also students. The division into everyone’s part of the school to prison pipeline was very informative, and unfortunately shocking at the same time. The article could have provided more in depth ideas for solutions. 

How do you as a parent deal with racist teachers? How can we change the educational system? I think, as mentioned in the other article, a big step would be to have more diverse teachers, in race, sex etc. Also, it should be part of the curriculum to take a class on gender and racism.

http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/10665684.2014.958961

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog Post 3:  (Un)Doing Hegemony in Education: Disrupting School-to-Prison Pipelines for Black Males

In the scholarly article “(Un)Doing Hegemony in Education: Disrupting School-to-Prison Pipelines for Black Males” T. Elon Dancy analysis the structure of the school to prison pipeline and how it affects boys of color. According to the author, black boys in school face a paradox, while some students are admired for achievements in athletics, they also have to deal with stereotypes of violence, hyper sexuality, hyper masculinity as well as fear. According to scholars, Boys of color behave according to a system in which coolness, often achieved by breaking rules or receiving poor grades, is rewarded by a sense of belonging in the group and self validation. Boys of color that don't conform are often considered a sell out or “trying to be white”. According to Dancy, young boys of color are pushed towards that culture by teachers and the rest of society. Playful innocent plays of young boys of color are interpreted as wild, destructive and finally displaced by the image of adult men of color and the prejudice towards them. Danny concludes that while there are other factors, young boys of color are already channelled into those marginal roles which created the system they adapt to later as teenagers. As a consequence, they are more likely to be funnelled from school to prison. To fight the school to prison pipeline, professional male educators of color: teachers, advisors and counsellors are helping boys of color as well as setting a role model. 

I like about Dancy’s article that it goes beyond the typical discussion of school to prison pipeline. Hyper masculinity and hyper sexuality is discussed, however Dancy explains that it is a result of society, school and police. She also discussed ways to undo the school to prison pipeline, which is very important in order to change the school and criminal justice policies. 

How can we further fight the school to prison pipeline for boys of color? Should the zero tolerance law should be repealed? I do believe that the zero tolerance law is a big contributor to the school too prison pipeline for boys of color and that repealing it would improve the situation. In addition to male educators of color, I think that more funds directed towards extra curricular programs or public schools in poor areas could improve the situation.

(http://www.tandfonline.com.proxy.cc.uic.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/10665684.2014.959271)

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog post 2: Fact Sheet: How Bad Is the School-to-Prison Pipeline?

In the article “Fact Sheet: How Bad Is the School-to-Prison Pipeline?” Carla Amurao explains that instead of being sent to the principle due to minor offences, students are expelled or given into the hands of the criminal system, namely being arrested an dealt with as a juvenile from there on. Students who are not arrested but expelled are sent back into their neighbourhood environment, which, according to Amurao, is often partially the reason for the initial minor offence. Moreover, the expelled students fall behind in their studies and are more likely to drop out of school and end up in the criminal system.  Amuroa also discusses the reason for the school to prison pipeline. While some blame public schools who want to expel troubled  students to improve ratings, most people blame the zero tolerance policy which leads students into the criminal system.  40% of students expelled are black students, 70% of students arrested due to minor offences are black or latino. Moreover, black students are two times more likely not to graduate from high school compared to white students. In addition to the clear connection of race, Amurao also states that boys, and therefore boys of color, are more likely to be affected than girls. 

The numbers that Amurao shares with the reader in her article are shocking, boys of color are far more likely to be affected by the school to prison pipeline than white boys or females. It is shocking to me that instead of targeting the issue and finding ways to help the students, they are pushed out of school into either the criminal justice system or into a dilemma of falling behind in school and therefore having new troubles. While Amurao explained the problem and statistics very well, she didn’t mention any approaches or ideas to help boys of color or target the issue in general. In addition to that, most other articles I have read deal with gender in addition to race, which I wish she would have went into more. Why is a black male more likely to be funnelled from school to prison? An answer to that definitely includes that boys of color are more likely to be monitored and searched due to prejudice. Moreover, as discussed in class, they may express their masculinity in a way that a school doesn’t approve of. 

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/tsr/education-under-arrest/school-to-prison-pipeline-fact-sheet/

[schooltoprisonpipleline-blog]

Blog post one: Introduction

I’ve moved to the US two years ago, and while I was aware of racism I now realise that I lived in a bubble before. I chose this topic to educate myself as well as spreading awareness. My blog post is about the school to prison pipeline for boys of color. Race and social class are factors contributing to the problem, but so is gender. Instead of dealing with problems in school and receiving additional aid in counselling or educational services, students are punished and funnelled into the criminal system. Boys of color are especially at risk.