School To Prison Pipeline Essay

From an early age many children are made to feel that they are undeserving of certain opportunities because they are simply “bad kids”. This state of mind is often planted in children who are growing up in poverty, don’t have good adult role models, or are minorities. In my research, I discovered the effects of the school to prison pipeline on students across the nation.

The school to prison pipeline is a caused by disciplinary acts that push students out of schools and into the criminal justice system. These “zero tolerance policies” are the cause of the incrimination of students with disabilities and racial minorities. Instead of correcting minor behavior, students are often suspended or even expelled. It seems wrong to keep students from school rather than punishing them in a way that makes them want to do better. These punishments have a huge effect on minorities, the poor, and disabled students. Minorities make up more than half of the suspensions per year in United States schools. Instead of being

positively encouraged to do better, these students are pegged as “bad apples” and consistently deprived of the opportunities they need. The school to prison pipeline hinders their motivation to learn and their ability to grow. When they are told that they should “know better”, instead of being told what is right, they no longer feel the need to try and succumb to the school to prison pipeline.
My research of the school to prison pipeline enriches the reading of Baca’s essay, because it helps me to see why Baca has grown up with this state of mind and allows me to get a closer look at the insecurity he feels because of his illiteracy.

Baca mentions how “from the time [he] was seven, teachers had been punishing [him] for not knowing [his] lessons” showing an example of the school to prison pipeline in his essay. He claims to have quit school by the ninth grade and was “ashamed of not understanding and fearful of asking questions.” With the information provided from my research, I am able to more clearly understand Baca’s reasons for being in prison, and the negative identity he developed from school punishments. Baca, like other students in my research, didn’t learn, because he had been pegged as a bad kid from a young age. The school to prison pipeline is the cause of this negative identity and a main factor in Baca’s

incrimination.
The answer to solving the school to prison pipeline relies on the teachers. Keeping these affected kids positively reinforced will keep them in school and eliminate the need for unnecessary punishment. By being more responsive and less punitive teachers can divert students from the pipeline and educate them in a more supportive environment.