stopschoolstojails Check out this report on racial disparities in school discipline from the ACLU of Michigan: http://www.aclumich.org/issu - Jun 25 add/view comments (0)

Our most recent effort, www.stopschoolstojails.org, hopes to continue the movement towards Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track. Check us out!

One of the principal purposes of this site is to offer tools to grassroots organizers, community organizations, parents, students, and others who want to create a campaign against the criminalization of youth in their schools. While each community is different, and the schoolhouse to jailhouse track might not be the same in every place, we have found that the successes, failures, and lessons learned from past campaigns can be helpful in pushing for reform elsewhere.

The real experts on the schoolhouse to jailhouse track are the students, parents, and advocates who experience it every day. That’s why one of the goals of this new site is to provide a place for organizers and activists to connect with each other, share lessons and best practices, and help develop a connected national movement to stop the schoolhouse to jailhouse track. Local power, with connections and support, can change the world!

Background Info on the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track

Harsh school policies and practices and an increased role of law enforcement in schools have combined to create a “schoolhouse-to-jailhous e track,” in which out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests are increasingly used to deal with student misbehavior, especially for minor incidents, and huge numbers of children and youth are pushed out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. This is more than an education crisis; it is a racial justice crisis because the students pushed out through harsh discipline are disproportionately students of color.

The schoolhouse to jailhouse track is an education problem as much as it is a criminal justice problem. When students are pushed out of school through harsh disciplinary policies, their education is interrupted. For many students, harsh discipline is part of a vicious cycle. Students who are already struggling are more prone to misbehavior out of frustration. When they do “act out,” they are harshly punished, which in turn leads to further academic struggle and frustration. Stopping the schoolhouse to jailhouse track thus not only promises to treat our children humanely and keep them out of prison, it also promises to be a first step towards offering every child the opportunity to succeed in school and beyond.