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<h2 property="dc:title"><a
 href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/179064/school-prison-pipeline-continues-be-racist-and-horrible"
 title="The School-to-Prison Pipeline Starts in Preschool">The
School-to-Prison Pipeline Starts in Preschool</a></h2>
<div class="byline"><a
 href="http://www.thenation.com/authors/mychal-denzel-smith">Mychal
Denzel Smith</a> <span class="timestamp"><abbr class="published"
 title="2014-03-28T14:46:07-14400">on March 28, 2014 - 2:46 PM ET</abbr></span></div>
<br>
The school-to-prison pipeline, to my mind, is the most insidious arm of
this country's prison-industrial complex. Under the guise of protecting
our children, we push many of them out of school and into prisons,
limit their opportunities, fail to and/or undereducate them, all while
feeding our addiction to mass incarceration and retribution that is not
justice at all. That the students who find themselves funneled into the
school-to-prison pipeline are predominantly black is further proof that
the United States system of racist oppression chugs along through the
rhetoric of colorblindness.
<p>Now that we have the niceties out of the way, let's talk about what
really makes the school-to-prison pipeline the worst.</p>
<p>A <a data-ls-seen="1"
 href="http://ocrdata.ed.gov/Downloads/CRDC-School-Discipline-Snapshot.pdf"
 target="_blank">study conducted by U.S. Department of Education Office
for Civil Rights</a> shows that black preschoolers (yes, four and five
year olds) make up almost half of all out-of-school suspensions for
preschoolers. What any preschool student has to do in order to be
suspended is beyond me. That said, black students are receiving the
message—at younger and younger ages—that their behavior will be
regarded differently, as inherently more disruptive and therefore more
deserving of punishment. They are being denied the right to their
formative years of education and socialization. And then we wonder why
there is an "education gap."</p>
<p>Across all grade levels, Black students represent about 16 percent
of the overall student population, but are 32-42 percent of students
who face out-of-school suspension, 27 percent of students referred to
law enforcement and 31 percent of students who experience a
school-related arrest. Black students are suspended or expelled at a
rate three times higher than white students. 20 percent of black boys
and 12 percent of black girls face out-of-school suspensions.</p>
<p>It's tempting to focus on the disproportionate percentage of black
boys who are suspended—and when we talk about racism and racial
injustice, <a data-ls-seen="1"
 href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/178581/obama-himself-my-brothers-keeper-admirable-flawed"
 target="_blank">we often focus on what's happening to boys and men</a>.
However, it's important to note, <a data-ls-seen="1"
 href="http://womensenews.org/story/incarceration/140322/pushed-out-school-black-girls-lose-huge-ground#.UzWjSK1dXfj"
 target="_blank">as Crystal Lewis does</a>, that girls—especially black
girls—often find themselves caught in the juvenile justice system for
infractions much less serious those of boys. "In 2010," Lewis writes,
"67 percent of the 500,000 young women in the juvenile justice system
were arrested for larceny-theft, loitering or violating curfew,
disorderly conduct and other low-level offenses. In comparison, 52
percent of males were arrested because of offenses they committed in
these categories." Girls are more likely to be arrested on <a
 data-ls-seen="1"
 href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/five-offenses-that-can-land-kids-but-not-adults-in-jail-20140324"
 target="_blank">status offenses</a> (like truancy, running away and
incorrigibility—being a disobedient youth), things that would not be
crimes were they adults.</p>
<p>It's those lighter offenses that often result in black girls being
suspended from school, as well. Monique Morris, co-founder of the
National Black Women's Justice Institute, told Women's eNews, "The
majority of black girls who have been suspended got kicked out for
being loud, even if they weren't being disrespectful." It's consistent
with the way school discplined is meted out: black students' behavior <a
 data-ls-seen="1"
 href="http://www.thenation.com/article/178669/president-obama-extends-hand-young-men-and-boys-color-what-about-girls"
 target="_blank">is interpreted</a> as more threatening than that of
their white counterparts. Combined with "zero tolerance" policies that
heavily rely on the use of police to deal with school-level discplinary
problems, this means more interaction with the law enforcement/criminal
justice system for more and more black students.</p>
<p>It's appalling. Worse, it's completely unnecessary. But it's the
logical result of a system dedicated to ensuring <span
 class="mandelbrot_refrag"><a class="mandelbrot_refrag"
 href="http://www.thenation.com/section/inequality?lc=int_mb_1001"
 data-ls-seen="1">inequality</a></span> persists along racial and
gender lines. That alternatives exist apparently doesn't matter. We'll
just keep criminalizing, suspending, arresting and locking away black
children until there simply aren't any left.</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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