America’s education system is being placed under arrest
By Byron Williams, contributing columnist © 2013, Bay Area
News Group
Were it not for award-winning broadcaster Tavis Smiley and
Princeton professor Cornel West, the issue of poverty would have largely gone
ignored during the 2012 presidential campaign.
t's not that candidates openly discussed it, but Smiley and
West, through their "Poverty Tour," gave it a name and face that had
been lacking for several decades.
As an extension of the "Poverty Tour" Smiley will
host a primetime special on PBS that looks at the connection between the
juvenile justice system and the dropout rate among American teens, as well as
the efforts by educators, law enforcement professionals, judges, youth
advocates and at-risk teens themselves to end what has become known as
"the school-to-prison pipeline."
According to Smiley, "One of the most significant
problems that our country faces that does not get the attention it deserves is
the reality of the school-to-prison pipeline."
Or to put it another way, Smiley bluntly states, "We
are criminalizing our children in ways we never have."
Smiley's report unveils a juvenile justice system that is
pervasive nationwide that has been hamstrung by an ineffectual zero tolerance
policy.
"We have gone into overdrive on zero tolerance, which
has turned out to be punishment on steroids," Smiley said.
Stuff that once earned students detention or a one-day
suspension -- such as foul language, fighting, or truancy -- is now part of the
criteria that saddles them with a police record. Smiley's findings reveal a student
expelled for excessive gum chewing.
"You end up kicked out of school for chewing gum,
you're hanging out, and that turns into truancy, the next thing you know,
you're in front of a judge," he said.
Zero tolerance is systematically trickling downward to
younger and younger students.
One case in Florida, the sheriffs were called to address the
unruly behavior of a 7-year-old girl that resulted in her being handcuffed and
arrested. In my interview with Smiley, he states schools have become the number
one location for student arrest.
By visiting a cross section of America, Smiley demonstrates
the draconian zero tolerance policy is not reserved for specific groups. Though
African-American and Latino students are disproportionately impacted, the
policy is inclusive in its scope with no bearing to color.
"I saw so many white kids on lockdown. It's not just a
black thing or a brown thing; this is an American catastrophe," Smiley
said.
Silently, without much fanfare we are giving up on far too
many of our children. What does connect these students with varying ethnicities
to this comprehensive policy is poverty.
"Poverty has so many tentacles. There is a direct link
between poverty and the criminalization of our children," Smiley stated.
The zero tolerance policy is not exclusively focused on
low-income communities, but there is little doubt that the overwhelming
majority of its application falls on those who come from impoverished backgrounds.
The link that Smiley draws between education, or lack
thereof, and poverty is undeniable. The underlying question that Smiley's work
raises: How can school reform be addressed in any meaningful way without
addressing poverty?
Moreover, how can the same tough-on-crime mentality that is
reserved for adults be applied to children and have us expect that schools will
produce constructive members of society?
In several recent columns, I have opined that for reform to
occur in underperforming schools there must be a corresponding transformation
of school culture. If Smiley's work is any indicator, the cultural
transformation that has occurred in far too many schools has been to provide
children with same failing policies once reserved only for adults.
Contact Byron Williams at 510-208-6417 or byron@byronspeaks.com.
Posted: 03/21/2013
04:00:00 PM PDT
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