PHS to Prison: The Plainfield Series

Ohhh….you’re from Plainfield?

Plainfield, NJ. My city, my home. Most people have never heard of the small city wedged in the corner of Union County, one of the smallest counties in the state. But the people who have heard of Plainfield, for the most part, have a formed opinion.

For such a small town, spanning only six square miles, there are many flaws. Plainfield High School is currently ranked 327 out of 337 high schools in New Jersey and has a college readiness index of only four percent. The 2016 murder rate peaked, being the highest since 2005 and sending the city and surrounding areas into a law enforcement frenzy with only a few of the murders solved to this day. This series however is not to bash my hometown. It is not to scare nor belittle. The purpose of this series is to evoke anger, anger that will mobilize those of you who read this to demand change within the city. I am highlighting the issues in Plainfield often swept under the rug. A lot of people may be mad but hopefully this wakes many up. Welcome to: The Plainfield Series.

School-to-Prison-Pipeline

The School-to-Prison-Pipeline affects millions of communities of color across the country, Plainfield included. In its most simplest terms the School to Prison Pipeline is the system that overly punishes minority youth in the school system and pushes them into the criminal justice system. For example, minority students are often punished harsher in school resulting in more suspensions and expulsions. These punishments then leave students out of school and more likely to have run ins with law enforcement and end up in juvenile prisons or even adult prisons.

There are many aspects to the School-to-Prison-Pipeline but I will only focus on a few.

Failing School System:

Being a product of the Plainfield Public Schools, I know first hand how much it is truly doing its students a disservice. The district is underfunded which means lack of qualified, well-paid teachers, which leads to a lower level of learning. Now this is not to say all Plainfield teachers are unqualified. During my time in the Plainfield Public School system I have had some phenomenal teachers however they are a dime a dozen.

My time at PAAAS, one of three public high schools in Plainfield, was known for hiring teachers fresh out of Grad school. Now these teachers had gone through the education necessary to teach but lacked experience teaching in an urban public school. I have experienced teachers who are not equipped to handle the personalities and struggles of young urban youth and harshly punish students for minor things such as being late, being on their phones, or eating snacks in class. Young teachers, especially young white teachers, who have had little to no experience with inner city youth, or African American children at all, often harshly punish students for being children.

Harsh and Unfair Punishments:

The punishments given to students of color are always harsher than their white counterparts and Plainfield is no different. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, black students are suspended and expelled three times more than their white counterparts. This comes at no surprise to me for I myself have been suspended from school simply for talking back to a teacher. Being in the public school system, I have seen many of my classmates punished unfairly for things. For example In Plainfield, simply for losing the school issued ID, students can receive a detention or suspension.

This is problematic especially when it comes to behavioral related punishments. Most behavioral issues in schools are linked to bigger problems. The highest demographic in Plainfield below the poverty line are males ages 5 and 16–17. These children have some real life issues they are dealing with and the public school makes it no better by suspending them for minor infractions, and kicking them onto the street. Growing up in Plainfield, I have seen what feels like every urban struggle in my classmates: parent is addicted to drugs or incarcerated, classmates pregnant, raped, arrested, on house arrest, in prison, or dead. Students in Plainfield, and many other inner city youth around the country, have to grow up really fast because of what is going on around them.

Most issues should be addressed by counselors before a punishment is even discussed, but Plainfield is lacking in that area as well. At PAAAS, there were two guidance counselors for grades 7–12. Grades 10–12 had one assigned counselor. One person was supposed to service over 200 students. My counselor was the sweetest woman in the world, but completely buried in work. Between talking to students, meetings, and helping seniors with college applications, she was completely swamped. Since the counselors have zero time and resources to meet with troubled children, many are suspended high rates.

Plainfield needs to put funding back into school counselors to help students with the real world problems they are facing.

Police Presence:

Back in March, Plainfield began firing security officers out of Plainfield High School to replace them with armed police officers. This was the beginning of a major $8 million budget cut to the Plainfield Public School system that was to be followed by layoffs of guidance counselors, social workers and security officers. The police presence at the school further pushes minority students into the School-to-Prison-Pipeline. Police presence in schools have been known to result in the mishandling of school disciplinary problems that end up in students being arrested.

The “scared straight” tactic of arresting students have been proved to have negative effects including decreased chance of graduation, decreased chance of achieving academic success, and an increase in the chance they will be in the criminal justice system again. An increased police presence in the public schools will have an extremely negative effect on the students. There are countless videos online of police officers manhandling young black and brown students, the most recent in Orange, NJ a few months back. These are not isolated incidents but trends of police brutality within the school system.

As mentioned before, Plainfield is one of the thousands of districts that are a part of this School-to-Prison-Pipeline system, and it is indeed a system. Now, if reading this..you’re probably wondering “Well, what can I do?” To my educators, fight for your students, be their biggest advocate and do your best to keep them in the classroom. The system is rigged so that it is harder for black and Spanish children to get ahead in life. Do not be a part in this already well oiled machine that takes black and brown bodies from the schoolhouse to prison. Parents: stress to your children how important it is to receive an education, educate them on how the system is ruled against them and the best way to fight back is to stay in school. Everyone else, demand a change. Go to city hall meetings, board of education meetings, speak to your representatives, learn the disciplinary actions within the school system and question what doesn’t seem right.

Together, the city has the power to make a change. Will you be a part of it?