Zero tolerance policy leads to school-to-prison pipeline

It is fair to assume that most four-year college students did not go through the school to prison pipeline, but maybe we know of someone or had friends that went that route. First, let me explain what the school to prison pipeline. This so-called school to prison pipeline is an imaginary pipeline which is referring to students from underrepresented groups being introduced to the juvenile system early on that will later lead them into the criminal justice system. With the emergence of the zero-tolerance policy, this method was facilitated in the school system. The zero-tolerance policy was implemented to regulate the use of weapons and drugs at school campuses while protecting the well-being of students, teachers, and administrators. Zero-tolerance policies opened the door for the hiring of SROs. Many schools started to use SROs to deter youth from engaging in any delinquent behavior. Owens (2017) found that police officers and or SROs presence on school grounds do not seem to affect the behavior of children as young as fifteen years old, but rather, students end up in the school to prison pipeline because SROs are monitoring and often more arrests are happening on school grounds for petty misconduct (Owens 2017:34).

I think that it is a sociological topic because it has to do with children in schools from K-12 that are presumably going through the school to prison pipeline because of the implementation of the zero-tolerance policy. If you are a parent, then it should spark at least a bit of interest in you because your child can end up on the school to prison pipeline. If you aren’t then you might have a niece, a nephew, a cousin, a neighbor, a friend of a friend, etc. and it should still be concerning to you because you do not want that relative of yours or someone you know to end up going on the wrong track simply because of the zero-tolerance policy. The policymakers are not taking into consideration the damage they are doing to the children by “punishing kids by depriving them of an education” (Ayers et al. 2010:87). ). If children are not being deprived of an education, we could see a different result. Low education puts a label on children; therefore, youth start to engage in deviant behavior early on. .When children are being labeled at an early age, then they internalize and carry out that label, which will have significant implications in their adulthood. This affects them because they start to lose interest in school, and sometimes even the teacher or teachers begin to alienate students from the classroom. In addition, based on Raible and Irizarry’s findings about 65%–75% of the prison and jail population do not have their high school diploma (2010:1201). This says something major because youth are being kicked out at an early age that they start to disengage from school and begin to engage in more deviant behavior.

Honestly, this caught my attention because I grew up in a low SES community; therefore, I attended the same type of school. I noticed how many of my peers, some of whom were my friends growing up, ended caught up on the school to prison pipeline because of the zero-tolerance policy. Often, teachers did not give students a second chance, and immediately, they sent children to the principal’s office. Some of my friends even ended up in gangs. I remember running into one of my old friend’s mom, and I asked how her daughter was doing, and she told me she was doing time in jail. I certainly did not know how to react because, in elementary school, we were always getting high scores in all subjects, so I knew deep down she was a kind person. Research suggests that when students do not see a successful pathway at school, they immediately feel a sense of alienation from the school system; therefore, they start to engage in criminal and gang affiliate activities. There were many times where I can remember that we were not allowed to challenge the teacher. Reflecting on this, I know it is a technique that schools and teachers implement on the working-class students. All I can think of is that I got saved from not going down that pathway, although I did challenge the teachers quite a bit throughout K-12. I can still clearly remember a scenario when my fourth-grade teacher was chewing gum in class, and one of the main rules was not to chew gum in class. I politely raised my hand in class and told her out loud what she was doing and why she was allowed and not us (students). She immediately turned red as a tomato, and she said that it was such an inappropriate comment, and then she went on to give me detention and send me to the principal, where she gave me another talk on this issue. My point with this is that teachers often make a mistake not to resolve the problems themselves and start to label kids and sending them to the principal’s office where soon enough these children will end up having a school record that they are deviant. I got saved from not being labeled as a deviant child and being sent down the school to prison pipeline mainly because I was a good student based on my academics. I remember I would do so many things in class and call out teachers for what they did that was not “acceptable” and what not and I would get detention or get my recess time taken away. I still remember when my mom got called in to come speak with the teacher and principal because of my behavior and they wanted to move me to a different classroom which was ESL and I did not quite fit there because they taught at a lower level. My mom said well I will just move her from schools. Later the principal had to make a decision to move me or not but they ended up not moving me from classrooms because of my academics and they even said the school will lose money if they moved me elsewhere. At first I didn’t understand but reflecting on this incident I now thank God and everyone else that were part of my K-12 education who believed in me because if it was not for my high grades then I would have been introduced to the juvenile justice system because I had a school record of being sent to the principal’s office for petty misconduct. To this day I am glad to say that I have not been involved with authorities.

I chose to talk about this topic because I want to pursue a career working with at-risk youth, possibly as a probation officer. Also because I know I was at the verge of being involved with the criminal justice system as a juvenile.Therefore, I want to understand better why is it that youth end up going the wrong way. The zero policy has negative implications on the future of these youth.