Student discipline is a complex and controversial topic that places public education in a precarious position. As an institution of learning, the mission of public education is to provide youth with the knowledge and skills for their future adult lives. Student discipline had always played a minor part of the instruction process. However, schools have been spending more time on discipline than instruction.
The
increase in discipline is due in part to the “Zero Tolerance” policy school districts
across the country adopted several years ago.
Zero Tolerance was supposed to reverse the trend of weapons, drugs, and
serious assaults by students that were occurring in schools. Instead, the eagerness of administrators who
took a literal interpretation of zero tolerance, found themselves expelling students
who the policy was not intended for. Students
with no previous history of suspensions or behavioral problems were finding
themselves going through the expulsion process for being caught with scissors
in their backpacks for school projects, toy guns for show and tell, and over
the counter (and some prescription) medication.
Since zero tolerance policies do not
distinguish intent (accident versus intent to harm), or the type of offense
(major versus minor), students were being expelled and a large number became
part of the juvenile justice system. As
a result of zero tolerance policies more that seventy percent of student arrest
were placed in the custody of law enforcement were African-American and
Hispanic[i]. It was statistics like these that led one
Juvenile Court judge to create a program that is changing the way expulsions
are handled.
St. Louis Juvenile Court judge Jimmie
Edwards established the Jimmie Edwards Innovative Concept Academy. The purpose of the Academy is to provide
education and socialization skills to students in the juvenile justice system[ii]. The idea is to prevent youth in the juvenile
justice system from dropping out, re-offending, and eventually becoming the
next generation of criminals. The
education Judge Edwards Academy provides is both academic and personal improvement. According to Judge Edwards:
making
sure students are educated and not incarcerated
is
about ending a cycle of poverty. They’ve
been so
negatively
socialized from grandma to mom…They
don’t
have the ability to teach them to dream.
My
children
have only had nightmares-nightmares
because
the only thing they’ve learned has been
negative[iii].”
Judge Edwards is one of a number of juvenile judges across
the country who recognize a disturbing trend: the school-to-prison
pipeline. To reverse this trend, judges
are working with child advocate groups and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to
develop a legal strategy to challenge zero tolerance polices that criminalize
youth and to help school districts understand their civil rights obligations.
By working with informed juvenile
justice judges on student discipline, zero tolerance, and the school-to-prison
pipeline, school districts can rethink student discipline and develop
alternatives to expulsions, student arrest, and how to prevent students from
becoming the next generation of criminals.
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