Alright, well let's go ahead and get started.
Welcome everybody.
Thank you so much for coming to our
third one book talk of the year.
Again, this is our one book for the
year I bumped title is so you want
to talk about race by drama Oluwa and
she will be on campus in January.
January 26th is the date and we'll
have more information about that.
The format that we're going
to be presenting in,
of course is a is a moving target.
But anyway,
we're really excited about that and
we're so excited today to welcome
doctor Banks back to our R1 book stage.
I feel like it's a Ted talk.
Uhm, last year,
Doctor Banks gave a talk along with
a colleague who is a believer public.
Defense attorney, UM about the juvenile.
The school to prison pipeline and
that talked really focused a lot.
On a.
Focus a lot. And I'm sorry,
I was just reading the chat giving me
advice on how to not fog up my glasses.
UM, focused a lot on making
change happen through the courts.
And you know, getting people in
position of power onto those courts
who understand what it's like today.
Doctor Banks is going to give us his talk.
That's really focusing on,
but the education to prison pipeline is.
So anyway, I'm thrilled to have you.
I'd like to start us off with just a little.
Interesting labor and land acknowledgement.
I could stop sharing for just a moment. And.
So we would like to express our gratitude
and acknowledgment of the federally
recognized Muckleshoot people as we
gather in their traditional lands and
other tribe traditional tribal lands.
I am on Muckleshoot land today.
We recognized Muckleshoot's continued
presence as a strong sovereign nation,
and their invaluable contributions to
our state history, economy and culture.
And if you'd like more information,
Muckleshoot tribe has a website
and a Facebook page which you
can find information on,
and you can also look up the land that you
are on by going to a post it into the chat.
The address for that.
If you haven't had a chance to do that yet,
it's kind of an amazing map.
And and you can look at who's
current in ancestral lands you're on,
and I'd also like to do
a labor acknowledgement.
Today,
we'd like to recognize and honor the labor,
the land, the lives,
and the cultural contributions of
generations of black indigenous Latin,
X and Asian Americans in building
this nation and in making our
conversation today possible.
And I particularly want to,
in the context of this conversation,
talk about.
Uhm?
The the through line from
enslavement to mass incarceration
through the 13th Amendment,
which permitted people who were
imprisoned to be into forced servitude,
and that rolled over into
laws that imprisoned.
Thousands upon thousands upon
thousands of black people,
particularly in the South,
in order to continue to have free labor.
And there's just really a through
line and I want to sort of frame our
conversation even with that today.
And if you'd like to learn more about that,
here's just one link that.
Provide some information.
So with that I will mute myself and
really excited to welcome back Doctor J.
Sean banks.
Thank you doctor Banks.
Thank you all, I really appreciate everybody
showing up and just want to be a part
of this this conversation, this talk.
And I am just. I'm blessed,
I always say I'm blessed I'm blessed to
be here and had this talk with you again.
I am currently conducting research as
we go forward not just on this topic,
but there's many other topics.
I'm not going to put out there yet.
Just going to see it when the
articles were published so you can
see on the screen now school,
prison pipeline by myself
Doctor Jay Sean Banks.
I am faculty in the
Criminal Justice Department.
And Green River college.
So I'm not going to waste anymore time.
Let's let's start the discussion.
Let's let's just get the
ball rolling on this.
So what is the school to prison pipeline?
I think this is a lot of
discussion that goes into place.
We talk about it.
We've been talking about it.
We continue to talk about it,
but not many folks really know what
it is and how it's actually creating
barriers and institutionally,
and even sociologically hurting.
Students of color are bipac community.
So who are the populations directly affected?
We don't really talk about those things,
so the school and school
prison pipeline is defined as.
Again it refers to the policies
and practices that push children,
especially minorities or bipod.
Black indigenous people of color out of
the schools and into the juvenile or
even adult criminal justice systems.
These things happen due to a variety
of different issues that's in place
from policies that has been written and
put in place and even believe it or not,
even in the classroom.
The classroom structures.
So we're going to dive a little
bit more into that.
So where does the pipeline actually start?
Believe it or not,
folks that starts right in preschool.
It starts in preschool, believe it or not.
The preschool to prison pipeline is a
process in which students are pushed
out of their schools throughout.
Again, children do get suspended suspension,
suspensions, expulsions,
overly harsh discipline,
and into the prison system.
It sounds, really.
Upsetting,
but this is the flat truth when you
going back and you can just look
at what's going on where again.
This picture here depicts just something,
and again, it's the view is different.
OK, one side is saying, oh.
This person want to be a police officer.
Now a student of color.
OK,
we're gonna call your parents
today because now it looks like.
You are up to no good.
So again,
these things right here is the trigger
start of the trauma and the things
that students of color go through
while going through these institutions.
And this is going to follow this student,
it's not going to disappear.
It's going to follow the student.
Throughout their time to our
elementary until middle school
and then even into high school,
they start creating that
problem and now again,
this student going to start feeling excluded.
And that's when,
again the dropout rates start happening
in the students start getting into the
things they shouldn't be getting part of.
So again here.
It takes a step a little further.
Step back to define it a little bit more.
The war on drugs.
The 1980s hysteria what?
How does that have anything to do
with the prison school prison pipeline?
How?
Why?
What?
So again,
the origins of the School of prison
pipeline can be directly traced back to
our zero policy or zero tolerance policies.
Back in the 1980s.
From the Ronald,
the Ronald Reagan administration,
but initially inspired the
Richard Nixon by the 70s.
So again,
Nixon was the start stirring
the pot and then again,
many that do know about the war on drugs.
Again, this whole process,
this whole war on drugs was
predominantly focused on the minorities,
the Bipac community, those living in,
you know, lower living in the.
The lower income areas throughout
the country and these folks were
incarcerated at very high rates.
Very high rates,
so these policies aim to get tough
on drugs and crime with regard to
criminal justice and law enforcement.
These these strategies led to a tripling
of number of people incarcerated in the
United States mainly targeting Black,
American and Latin X people.
So did he like wow?
How does this have come?
Done these type of things.
Yes, the numbers have tripled because again,
and during this time prior to war on drugs,
there were folks incarcerated
based on whatever types of of
crimes they have committed,
such as kidnapping or maybe even,
you know, white collar crimes.
But when the whole focus became world drugs,
when the crack epidemic broke out in the 80s
throughout LA and throughout the country,
those who were using specially those
of color folks of color were using.
They were getting incarcerated
at higher rates than whites.
Whites tend to have the opportunity
to actually get help,
as in going to facilities to
receive help on that addiction.
Blacks are using blacks,
minorities or people of color or using
the same drug instead of getting the
help they were getting incarcerated.
So again,
this right here.
This in this entire issue,
this policy that was in place start
that stirring up the pot of how can
again we some of these policies and
laws fall into our school system to
create the zero tolerance atmosphere.
So if you do something wrong,
same thing with the war on drugs
and it's in a similar sense
they're getting incarcerated or
they're getting kicked out.
They're getting excluded.
They getting expulsions.
They're they're receiving
fines and things like that.
So if those that know me I love videos
so I love videos to define things.
So here's a great video explaining
the school prison pipeline.
There's this phrase that you
might hear in the news sometimes
the school to prison pipeline.
It's shorthand for how schools
are funneling students,
especially black students,
into the criminal justice system.
It started in the 90s when schools
responded to fears about crime
with zero tolerance policies,
which mandated suspensions and
expulsions for certain violations.
They also cracked down on little things
like talking back or uniform violations.
The hope was that it would keep
bigger problems from bubbling up,
but as a result out of school.
Suspensions have doubled since the 1970s,
and they keep increasing even
though juvenile crime rates have
now been dropping for years.
Around the same time,
the number of police officers stationed
full-time inside schools has increased
by a third between 1997 and 2007.
Ostensibly,
they were there to prevent mass school
shootings like the one at Columbine,
but they end up being away for
schools to basically outsource
discipline to the police.
Schools with officers have five
times as many arrests for disorderly
conduct as schools without them.
Sometimes the results are shocking,
but the less visible effect is that
schools are feeding the racial
disparities in the criminal justice system.
Consider the fact that schools
are more likely to have an officer
on their campus if the student
population is more than 50% black.
You might assume that that's because
there's more crime at these schools,
but although students at police
schools are more likely to be arrested,
they're not actually more likely to
be charged in court for weapons,
drugs, alcohol, or assault,
at least according to one study.
During the 2010 2011 school year,
one in six public school students
in the US were Black,
but they accounted for one in
three arrests at school.
Same goes for other forms
of school discipline.
Black students are suspended or
expelled three times more frequently.
In white students,
it actually begins in preschool.
18% of preschoolers are black,
but if all preschoolers suspended
more than once, 48% are black.
Studies show that differences
in behavior can't fully account
for these disparities.
Black students and white students are sent
to the principals office at similar rates,
but black students are more likely
to end up with a serious punishment.
One study found that white students
are more likely to be suspended for
provable offenses like smoking or vandalism.
Black students are more likely to
be suspended for subjective offenses
like talking back or insubordination.
Students who are suspended in school
are more likely to later drop out
or get arrested,
so the federal government is.
Asking schools to make suspension
and expulsion the absolute last
resort in Oakland,
CA public schools are trying something
called restorative justice where
both parties in a conflict talk
it out with a counselor instead
of relying on punishment.
The results are pretty encouraging.
In the last 10 years,
chronic absenteeism is down and
graduation rates are up in the
schools that have tried it.
Other cities and districts are
also trying new policies.
They're hoping that if their students
end up in the criminal justice system,
at least it won't be because
the schools pushed them there.
There are many schools here in Washington
as actually using the restorative
justice approach where they do have a
counselor in both parties can have a
discussion about the whole situation.
Whatever the conflict may be.
So again, that is again dropping a number
of its suspensions and expulsions,
or even it's eliminating.
That further conflict going on because
now the whole issue has been identified.
So now both parties can find a way to
find a mutual understanding and continue
on as students in high school and
middle school and things like that so.
Again, driving forward.
So who there's?
So who is actually being funneled
into the pipeline?
Who is actually being funneled so as
you can see the bipac black indigenous
people of color RRELL learners?
Those who have that English?
Maybe a second language or even
the third language.
And you like how 'cause again.
Students that are students that are
in English is a second language.
Again,
the lack of cultural understanding and
lack of that language barrier plays an issue.
So the fact that you may not know
all of the verbiage in English,
you know someone can take that
as disrespectful.
Uh are physically or developmentally
disabled.
Again, those who are who has a disability.
Again,
if it's physical or even
their developmental state,
maybe a look not as you know what
we deem normal in society so.
Are learning disabilities those
who have a learning disability?
There be seen as they are not, they're not.
They don't have a.
They are behind, or they don't have.
They're not scoring well,
so we're gonna push them out into
alternative school because they need to.
They need somewhere where they can
slow down and trying to catch up.
Our LBGTQ IA community.
Those students that are again that
are are subject to be different or
not normal in the classroom again
can be found in the pipeline.
There are again they are seeing
their behind the curtain.
You know they're not being recognized
that they are student in the classroom.
They may be mistreated or even a
day or a person may have their own
personal feelings towards this
entire this now political issue.
In it can cast these students away.
Our undocumented youth and our
homeless in foster care youth.
These students, again undocumented students,
are in fear. I mean, they won't.
They're looking for a better life and again.
Trying to navigate those spaces
to obtain the correct credentials
to be a part of the country,
and again are homeless in foster care.
They are always left out.
I have worked with this population and
this population is extremely vulnerable.
If you say one thing wrong to these students,
they will disappear and you
won't find them again.
So again,
there are mixtures of all of these in there.
There may be some more underlying
or other issues that these students
may or students may have.
And they're being funneled into
it because they're not what
again, society deems as normal,
whatever that may be.
So again, it can be two or
three of these different areas
that falls on one student so,
but this is what I have found.
Here is just a a document.
This is a great graph to understand.
So on the left side of the document
you see from school to prison on
the left side corner or my right.
Maybe you're left,
or maybe on both far right is the
from the foster care to prison so
you could see some of this data.
You know about 40% of students are expelled
from each year that they are black.
70% of students involved in school
arrests are referred to law
enforcement or black or Latino.
Or Latin next I should use?
Three point times more likely that black
students are suspended than white students.
Two times more likely that black
and Latin X students do not
graduate high school as whites.
And as you can see.
And we're talking state and federal prison.
68% of those inmates don't have
a high school diploma.
Maybe even higher now.
On other side you can see
in the foster care system.
50% of children in the foster care
system or black or Latin X from
various different reasons we can.
We can make all the assumptions we want,
but it's various different
reasons why they're in a.
Foster care system.
Uh.
30% of the foster care youth entering
the juvenile justice system are
placed in related behavioral cases.
And I I have research on this.
And as a conducting it,
one thing I understand and I I
continue to tell educators some of
these things is that when you're
dealing with the with some youth a
lot of times their behavior issues
is not that they're they're bad.
I don't think there are any
bad kids this this child.
They don't know how to explain to
you what's the issue, so they act.
They act out a lot of times
the student can be hungry.
They can just need a little
bit of nurture 'cause they're
not getting it at home.
Something may be happening to this student.
They may be getting touched at home.
And they're so embarrassed to say something.
So just 'cause they're acting out doesn't
mean they're actually having a behavior
issue or they don't care about you.
There's actually something wrong with that,
that student.
So if we just take our time as
educators and just ask what's going on,
pull them to the side? Are you OK?
Are you hungry? Did something happen?
And again, it may take a little good.
It may take a little bit.
It may not.
They may not just open up to you,
they gotta have trust in that they
got to believe that you're gonna
be there whatever they tell you.
And be ready for it.
A 25% of the youth are leaving the
foster care will be incarcerated
within the next few years.
After turning 18 'cause they
don't have anything in place,
they don't have that family
structure dynamic.
They don't know what they want to do.
They've been in this foster
care system just trying to
survive that survival mode is all they know.
50% of young people leaving foster
care will be unemployed within a few
years after turning 18. They don't.
Again, they don't have the skills.
What skill they do have is that I have
to survive, so whatever it may be.
Whatever it may be to survive,
that's what they do if it's stealing.
If it's doing something like that,
that's how they.
That's the survival mode.
'cause they don't have the
skills to operate a computer.
Have the skills to do whatever
job function it may be,
and again 70% of inmates then this is
in the state of California or former
youth of the foster care system.
Here is a school to prison pipeline.
This is this was a project and I thought
this was very interesting and I think
it's very valuable to share it 'cause you
get in the perspective of some of these.
These these youth that been a part of it.
A few disrupt and the is the description
of how the school system is set up
to push you into the prison system.
Schools no longer.
A Community Schools, no longer a family.
A place where where we're always welcome.
You walk into school.
The first thing you see is a metal detector.
The first face that greets you
is a school police officer.
All the kids want to do is go to school.
They don't want to go to school
to be labeled a criminal.
When folks talk about the school
to prison pipeline, it's real,
but there's a direct correlation to lack
of education and economic opportunity,
and also incidences of incarcerations.
We have had kids in the system.
You know, kidding? Somebody with a ruler?
We've had kids in the system tussle
in or fighting in the hallway.
They put me in a cell, took me,
and handcuff me to cheer my sadness.
Al for 11 1/2 hours.
I was having an emotional breakdown
'cause I knew in my heart that.
I didn't really do anything,
I just felt like I was.
Being criminalised.
These are my kids and this
system has taken them and turn
them into something they're not.
I think 0 tolerance actually
make schools more dangerous.
It creates the illusion of
safety but not the reality.
The concept of zero tolerance makes
no sense anywhere for anything.
That's a recipe for disaster
for a lot of young folks,
we know that it doesn't work.
It would be insane to continue this
policy to fill alienated and to
feel watched in your own school.
It's not healthy for that
student if you disrupt.
The positive things going
on in his or her life.
They may never get that back.
This criminalization is not
just an inner city problem,
it's happening in every school district,
suburbs, inner city, all over the place.
What if we stopped and we looked
at each one of these students
as a human being and said,
what can we do to help you
become a better student?
I confess you got me Green River you got me
for those who don't really know who I am.
This thing this topic is very touching
to me 'cause I know what it feels
like to be again seen as a criminal.
By just going to school.
My high school was 8085% black and
we had about maybe 6 to 10 SRO's
in the school metal detectors.
Everything it felt like a prison.
It did not feel like school and again
you still gotta look over your shoulder
while walking down the hallway.
So again it it. It sucks.
It sucks being apart being in that area.
It doesn't feel good.
And again, I I don't,
maybe still don't know how I got through it,
but I did.
So what are the factors that contribute
to the school of prison pipeline?
What in the heck is these things?
Let's find out first the no
left no child Left behind that.
This is one of them.
Big pushes that happened back in 2001.
And dumb. Yeah, the no child
left no child left behind act.
It utilizes standardized testing scores
to determine the overall performance
of the school or the district.
I can't speak for any of my educators
that has been here at the higher Ed,
but in my previous institution I
received students that could not read.
They were pushed straight through.
High school push through middle school.
They they literally were behind.
How does that benefit us in higher
education level where we have to take a
step back to try to help the student,
but sometimes they're so far behind
where we can't even reach back that far.
Some of us, some folks have
just given up on them.
Maybe let's get them some resources
and try to help this student out.
They were just pushed through whatever
school district they went through.
These policies then converge with George
W Bush's no Child Left Behind Act of 2001,
which centered schooling on
accountability and standardized testing,
and incentivized intensifies pushing low
scoring students off school rosters together,
these policies segmented the
school prison pipeline.
I had a student that shared with me at.
My previous institution that told me
by sophomore year of their high school,
their 10th grade year.
If their test scores wasn't
at a certain level,
they were pushed off their school rosters
and pushed the alternative schools
throughout the throughout Tacoma.
Because their scores wasn't quite
there 'cause they wanted to keep
their scores high to make the school
look good or whatever it may be.
'cause I I haven't worked in K through
12 so I'm not sure how that works.
But again the No Child Left Behind Act has.
Created some of these barriers
for some students.
I don't like standardized tests.
If you know why,
don't mind me sharing I'm gonna
share with all 85 of you in here 83.
Are you in here? I took the AC T three times.
Three times.
Three times to get to college.
'cause I wasn't good at standardized tests.
I think it was unfair I I did not like it.
I had to pay for it.
The first the the two and third time
as I pay out of my pocket to take it.
Standardized test is the way it's utilized.
I don't like even testing in my classes.
I give quizzes,
but I don't like giving tests.
'cause it's not gonna help the student.
You gonna create more
barriers for the student.
That's my opinion.
That's my research.
Alright number 20 tolerance.
The zero tolerance policies.
This means that school disciplinary
policies that are predetermined
consequences and or punishments for
specific offences or rule infractions.
The zero tolerance policies forbids people
in positions of authority from exercising
discretion or changing punishments
to fit the individual circumstances.
So again, something may happen.
The you know the the educator
or staff for a person.
Of authority they cannot kind
of use that area of discretion.
You can't flex their area of
discretion to fit to whatever happened.
It's literally already predetermined.
You do this. You're getting suspended.
You do this. You got in school suspension.
You do this, you expelled.
Instead of looking at it from a
different from different lenses.
This may have happened due to the
circumstances of this or that.
It's already you're pushing you,
excluding students. So this is a fact.
Yes, it does need to be a holistic view.
No broken windows. It's not fair.
Zero tolerance is not fair.
No discretion in there's no discretion,
it's already predetermined.
So we talk in broken Windows.
What is broken windows.
I'm sure my social science folks
understand this and all my folks
based on theory.
So these policies stem from the
law enforcement adoption of the
broken windows theory,
the broken windows theory
proposed by James Q.
Wilson,
and George killing.
Claims that the crime is a disorder that,
if not eliminated by control, early on,
increases the likelihood of committing
a more serious crime later in life.
It is an old theory, but this theory plays
a huge role into this whole process.
It plays a role, so for instance.
The police would stop and
arrest people for panhandling,
disorderly conduct and public drinking
in order to prevent and decrease the
number of rapes, robberies, and murders.
And again, you can.
You can flex this and vary
in many different ways.
You know it's a good big,
always say to what if it's
always the would if game?
What if this happened when if that
happened it could change things, but again.
And understanding the broken
windows theory is trying to stop.
Prevent crime from happening
further later on in life.
So in the same instance dealing with
it in zero tolerance and and schools
instead again using your discretion
to mold this to a better way.
To try to keep the student in school.
And you know,
make sure both parties are
understanding what happened.
Uh, we instead we just suspend or expel
a student and now they're out of school.
Now when they come back to school or think
about this when they come back to school,
that stigma still sticks on that student.
So whatever it may be,
they like, oh,
I don't want to mess with Johnny man,
he oh he did that.
I don't wanna be around him now
this student now it's gonna
feel even more excluded.
So I got a little quick video.
You know I love my videos on zero tolerance.
Oh wow season 4. Attorneys
decided to drop two felony charges
against 16 year old Kiera Wilmot
for causing a small explosion at
Bartow High School last month.
But many believe the student who's
never been in trouble before has
already paid too high a price,
and our school's policy of zero
tolerance is doing more harm than good.
Overreaction to a science experiment.
She was trying to replicate from YouTube.
Well, we have a lot of young people in
Polk County who are being arrested for
things that really just childish behavior.
The outcry over the felony charges
brought against the student with no
disciplinary history is part of a
larger concern over zero tolerance.
Policies in Florida run amok.
Girl was arrested at Fox.
Chapel Middle School in Hernando
County had taken to jail for
possession of a plastic butter knife,
a 7th grader in Hallandale was
charged with battery for hitting a
friend with a Tootsie Pop on the bus.
Saint Petersburg police were roundly
criticized for handcuffing a 5 year
old girl having a tantrum at Fairmount.
Elementary crime was committed that the
she was the one that committed the crime.
We should be proactive and distinguish
between misbehavior. And criminality.
Can follow a child for life and even
put students on a pipeline to prison.
An article she Co authored pointed
out that minorities are more likely
to be taken to the back of a squad
car instead of the principals office.
Black males in particular are two to
three times more likely, for instance,
and white males to end up in the
juvenile system and end up in prison.
Last year there were 12,000
arrests in Florida schools.
The debate is whether those
arrest caused more harm.
To the students we're trying to protect.
Even with the charges dropped,
Kiera Wilmot will have an arrest record,
and even if she gets that expunged,
she could have trouble getting
certain jobs in government,
the legal profession or military.
See again just some major issues.
Again, student trying to replicate
it a something in the science.
It didn't go exactly as planned.
You've seen as a felon,
you're felling the instance.
You just seen a little.
The little black girl swinging
and having a tantrum.
She could put in handcuffs,
but I guarantee it does.
A white kid?
It'd be a little bit different,
a lot different.
He would have been handcuffed.
So again,
you got to think about how these
zero tolerance policies are funding
many students through this pipeline.
They're getting funneled through
the pipeline because again,
misbehavior because again,
questioning authority and things like that.
Why are you getting suspended
for questioning authority I?
I mean, I don't know.
Well, let me take that back.
I do know 'cause. It was tough so.
So number 3 school resource officers,
the SRO's and again I know a lot
of students here at Green River.
I asked him about their high schools
and things like that and how was it
someone may have one SRO maybe two
and I'm not saying all SRO's are bad,
but in area,
especially in public schools where where
the population of students are tends
to be more bipac than it is white.
They tend to have more officers in there,
not just shared with you.
One of my secrets of.
When I was in high school,
I had a high population of of Bipac and
we had a lot of officers in there a lot,
so the presence of an SRO on campus
means that students can have contact
with law enforcement for a young age.
Throughout the though their intent
purpose is to protect students and
ensure safety and school campuses.
In many instances,
the police handling of disciplinary issues
escalate minor nonviolent infractions
into violent criminal incidents that
have negative impacts on students.
So.
Have you seen it at first video?
When I first started where the young lady
was sitting in a desk in officer snatched
around and slammed her all over right.
There, that student right there may
not want to attend school again.
She's not going to trust law
enforcement and things like that,
so again.
Just 'cause the student is not
responding the way you want them
respond or or they they may talk back.
It doesn't require the handcuffs or even
being taken to the ground and hurt badly.
It's just misbehavior.
How about having a conversation with them?
Speak to him. Talk to him.
Alright Lucy, I seen a question there.
Their effective more because again,
their arrest rates their arrest rates.
Are higher for bipac or minority students,
so when again in school when a
student of color acts out in any
kind of way instead of the student
having that place to vent to talk,
they're already seen as criminal.
Again, there are many people have their
own personal views on these things,
or some administrators use the excuse of
the zero tolerance where they did this,
we're not going to do anything.
And things like that.
So we're gonna just make sure that we.
We get this student out of here
because they're a problem.
Alright, I see all your
questions you keep on typing.
I will definitely get to him.
Alright, going forward number four again.
It's suspensions and expulsions.
So poor performing students receive
longer suspensions for a more expulsions
than better than performing students.
So if you're not.
If you're not doing what you're doing.
If you're not taking care of your testing,
or you're doing your homework,
things like that.
If you're not performing well again,
they find a way to push you out.
The racial disparity and discipline
procedures implemented within
the compulsory school education
school system is detrimental to
the minorities social mobility,
African Americans or Black Americans
and Latin X students are suspended
or expelled at a rate about 3.5 times
likely than Caucasian students,
and as you can see in a small little
graph I have there, you know,
students write their black students
are being expelled or risk of facing
multiple suspensions is a lot higher.
Than it is for Caucasian students.
So. Again.
These these questions,
some of your comments,
things like that it's this is a very.
Tough process,
a lot of it is a lot to take in.
It's like drinking from a fire hose
so quickly.
Like WOW, we still having these
issues in 2021 going into 2022.
Yes, they're still there.
So again, I have another video.
I believe it's my last video,
so I'm going to share it with you.
America's public schools are
failing students in multiple ways,
but one of the most disruptive is
the process by which students are
funneled out of public schools and
into the juvenile justice system.
It's called the school to prison pipeline,
and there is increasing evidence that
it starts as early as preschool.
The school to prison pipeline
primarily victimizes black students,
trapping them in a cycle of incarceration.
I want to believe that every student
wants to overcome the societal
predictions of what's placed
on hold because of their race,
sex and the social economic status.
Increasingly, schools are cracking
down on small offenses such as cutting
classes or being disrespectful.
This is supposed to discourage more serious
infractions like drug or weapons possessions.
But what constitutes disobedience or
disrespect can be a very subjective.
A study in Texas found that 97% of
the state's suspensions were made
for subjective reasons made at the
discretion of school administrators,
and black students were 31% more
likely to receive discretionary
suspensions than white students.
Only obviously affects the individual who
was actually entering the penal system,
but you're affecting communities.
You're affecting the economy are
affecting families.
Ya'll affecting school systems.
Preschool 148% of preschoolers were
suspended more than once are black
African American boys are three
times more likely to be suspended or
expelled than their white counterparts.
And black girls are suspended at
higher rates than any other race.
I want to believe every student
is destined for success.
They want to achieve,
but more Times Now we can't control
certain things were having in their homes.
I had a student years ago by the
time they got to school, they said,
hey, I walked through a crack
house facility prostitution.
When I get here,
I walk through a metal detector and
people bother me and I haven't eaten
since lunch yesterday and you're asking
me to sit here in class and learn
there's a challenge when students are
kept out of school as punishment,
they miss lessons and
assignment and fall behind.
Academically,
they are more likely to be disciplined again,
which can lead to further problems.
The Texas study found that students who
had been suspended or expelled or twice
as likely to drop out adding to the problem,
police officers stationed inside.
These officers react Overzealously
to minor infractions.
They make small problems worse.
Schools with officers have five
times as many arrests for disorderly
conduct as schools without them.
All 25 of the nation's largest
school districts have sworn police
officers in at least some schools.
As widespread protests emerged after
George Floyd's death in police custody,
Minneapolis School Board voted
unanimously to end its contract
with the Police Department.
And there is pressure from students,
educators and activists around the country
for other school districts to do the same.
And there are other solutions as well.
We need more of our educators to
take a genuine interest in the
whole student as opposed to teach.
Bored and so forth would not be
quick to actually discipline them,
but be more mindful of the predicament
they may be coming from it and have
an understanding of why they're
doing what they're doing.
And I'm not saying take away the discipline,
but as you're adding that disciplinary act
of that consequence, you're explaining.
Why am I doing this?
You're explaining the reason I'm
disciplining use because this happened
and this is how you can fix this down a line.
I'm showing the general interest
of actually being restorative.
And helping you and moving forward
so this will happen again.
Be repeated.
There are also proactive solutions,
including hiring school guidance
counselors instead of police officers.
Experts say the best way to prevent
incarceration is to provide more equal
educational opportunities and to create
environments that support all students.
I was showing that the new the book is here.
I have it. Trust me I have a plethora
of books I sit and read all the time,
so again, this video is just showing you.
For any of the educator, faculty,
or even staff that know me again,
I know I haven't been here long.
Cold. Did things like that.
I keep food in my office non perishable food
because I know what it's like when I have.
I'm hungry, sitting in class 'cause I haven't
eaten eaten since lunch the prior day.
I I know for I have no like
personally as in it happened to me.
So when I know I noticed a student
that's not paying attention.
Things like that always
invited him to come get a meal.
It may not be a hot meal.
It may not be the best thing,
but I've given you know a couple Rahman,
a bottle of water and maybe like you know
some kind of cereal bar snack or something
just so they can make it throughout the day.
They can't study.
They can't pay attention in
class and they're hungry.
So that's something I always do.
I always keep him with me when I go
to class just to find a way to help
the student 'cause I want them to succeed.
Just again,
I'm just that's me, I'm human,
I know what it feels like
to be hungry in class.
I just know and I'm just sharing
it with you so you may can get
to know me a little bit better.
So #5 the institutions and authority
figures criminalizing students.
Yes, so the labeling theory.
I'm sure we all know about that
refers to the idea that individuals
become deviant and when a deviant
label is applied to them,
they adopt the label by
exhibiting the behaviors,
actions and attitudes
associated with the label.
And that's again a problem
in our education system.
Labeling students is a bad, a bad kid.
They're going to start
believing their bad kid.
I don't believe they're bad kid.
They just having some issues they may
not be getting what they need at home.
They may be hungry,
they may be getting hurt at home,
but they don't know how to express it.
Uhm, this theory contends that people
come from to come to identify and
behave in a way that reflects other
labels of them applying this theory to
the school to prison pipeline suggests
that the labeled as the bad kid in
school authorities or SRO's school
resource officers and being treated
in a way that reflects that label.
Punitively ultimately leads this kid
to internalized and internalized,
and the label and behave in ways
that make it real.
Through action again by telling
him there a bad kid.
They will start believing that
they are bad kids.
We we gotta break that up and again I
know we in higher Ed but we still have
816 year olds 17 year olds 18 years.
Remember I'm not a scientist but
around the age of 25 is when
the brain becomes more mature.
These these young.
These you these youngsters young men,
young women or however they
identify themselves.
They're going through a transition.
You know,
some of them are starting to
figure out things trying to figure
out who they are and identity.
Just 'cause they're acting out
doesn't mean they're they're.
They're bad.
They something maybe seriously happening.
They may be couch surfing.
They may be actually sleeping in their car.
So just sometimes it's OK just to
take a moment and talk to a student,
find some understanding and also try to
provide some kind of help and assistance,
not by telling them where to
go by actually taking yourself.
Number six exclusion from school they
adopt the criminal behavior after
after family school is the second
most important informative site
of socialization for children and
adolescents where they learn social norms,
behavior and interaction and receive moral
guidance from authority figures right.
I'm sure we all know that when
you hear it and in Green River,
the professors you professors are
seen as authoritative authority
figures but also you are that second
second place that again.
That they get that structure.
Removing students from schools as a
form of discipline takes them out of the
formative environment in important process,
and it removes them from the safety and
structure of the school it provides.
So when you are again,
you remove them out of the school.
They're very vulnerable now.
Now to not just the labeling theory,
but the social learning theory.
Starting to kick in,
'cause now they're going to start
adopting everything around their behavior.
They're gonna start taking what's going
on in their in their environment.
Many students who express behavioral
issues in school or acting out in response
for stressful or dangerous conditions.
Their home or neighborhood.
So we're moving them from school
and returning to the problematic
or unsupervised home environments,
hurts them to help their development.
They're going to start dropping
that behavior.
What they see,
what they do remember our
lesson brain is like a sponge.
They're going to take in
everything that they see,
'cause they're going to start
believing that's normal.
So that's when it criminality personality.
Start developing 'cause they believe it's OK.
'cause they're not no longer in that
formal structure where they're learning
these these things in the school.
So #7 the stigma of exclusion.
So once excluded from school
and labeled bad or criminal,
students often find themselves
stigmatized by their teachers,
parents, friends, parents of
friends and other community members.
I know personally from my younger brother,
my younger brother in high
school was stigmatized,
as in he had this label on him
even though it wasn't true,
but he was excluded out throughout
the community. People like Oh well,
you did that in school.
And he's like I don't know what
you folks are talking about.
I didn't do anything but that stigma.
Steele sticks to him.
Years later after school.
Uhm, they experience confusion, stress,
depression and anger as a result of being
excluded from school and being treated
harshly and unfairly by those in charge.
Again, everyone makes mistakes, right?
We all make mistakes in life,
especially as an adolescent you should
be understanding when a child or anyone
that is apparent in here to have children,
nieces, nephews. We they make mistakes.
They're not perfect.
Data horror from their mistakes.
Let's again taking things.
Have that talk.
Take the punitive part out of it.
Just have a talk.
Remember cultural barriers,
things everyone is different.
You may grew up in an affluent neighborhood.
This student is coming from a
lower income poverty, the ghetto,
the hood area.
They don't understand.
Again, your lingo made me
did a little bit different,
maybe a little bit more understanding
that they didn't eat or they
don't have a comfortable bed
to sleep in every night.
This makes it difficult to stay focused
on school, and hinders motivation
to study and desire to return to
school and succeed academically.
As I tell you, and that continues to
tell you why I have all you in here when
you when you start excluding students,
we have students at Green River
that are homeless.
Trust me, there are homeless.
They are couchsurfing.
They don't have that place to go,
so if we just take a moment and even ask.
Bring him around so you
gotta build trust with him.
That one interaction is not going to make
them remember they don't trust no one.
They're not going to trust very easily
because they always get let down.
So you have to build that report with
that student. Yep, I'm getting there.
So last but not least.
The interest into the detention center.
Again, I'm a leader so there
gonna get some questions in,
but I really want to get to the end where.
How can we disrupt the pipeline?
First, develop a good understanding
of racism 'cause everyone has
their own Broadview of racism.
Understanding racism is a direct response to
recognizing those caught up in the pipeline.
Black and brown students.
Often,
these students are unfairly punished in
school and over represented by suspensions,
which leads them to bring the drum out,
drummed out of school and members
of their white counterparts, #2.
Uh, making suspensions?
A last resort for school discipline.
When the School of Pipeline school
prison pipeline is disrupted by by
eliminating zero tolerance policies,
especially the black and Brown students
benefit from participation in read
stored practices to help them address
harm while keeping them in school.
And #3,
and again,
these are my three things that I did
some research on the whole school.
Restorative practices implementation
creates a culture shift,
so a restorative community highlights
the disparity of students of color
in order to affect positive change,
students tend to feel more trusted
in an environment where they can
be fully expressive themselves.
Alright. Sorry about that, Jody, I am.
Be open for questions and again
I know I have something to chat.
Yeah you can, you sorry,
can you see the Q&A or do you want me to do?
I can see the Q&A. I'm looking at one.
We don't have a lot of time,
but there's the this final
question that I see.
OK, in what ways do those working
in higher education perpetuate
the school to prison pipeline?
And how can we do better
at Green River College?
We perpetuate it because we
already have a stigma on some of
the students of color,
and again I had a few students
of color as in black students in
my classes and they did not feel
that they were being heard or even
treated equally in other courses.
They didn't get specific.
I know this because they come to
me and talk to me 'cause I am
their first black teacher ever.
So they opened up to me
and tell me these things.
So how can we exchange these things,
making sure that you have a diversity
of diverse outlook of your course
work be have a little try to find
ways to implement some diversity.
Talking about some of those folks in
history that did great things in and
whatever area that you're teaching.
'cause when students can start identifying,
seeing some of those people in the
curriculum that that helps them,
it helps with identity.
Remember, these students are still
trying to find their identity.
They're they're not quite there yet.
They're still trying to figure out
who they are, what they want to be.
So it's a journey when you don't get
to see someone or something that that
resembles you and your some of your beliefs.
It's like what is the point?
I hope I was able to answer that question.
Then I see here's one one last question,
and then we'll need to wrap up.
But thank you all.
So as a fellow student, what can I do
to help students who are struggling?
How can I inquire if a student
is in need of help politely,
in a way that will not make
a student uncomfortable?
Easy. You can definitely.
As a student you know.
You see someone that's you know. See,
they're like they look like they're lonely.
Hey, how you doing I'm sorry.
So you know if you if you're
sitting in a student center,
you know if you have some food
and they don't have any food.
Hey, you know you want to grab a bite to eat,
you know,
offer and things like that,
or even you know that give them
a chance to kind of warm up and
open up 'cause a lot of students
that are going through it's coming
out of foster care that may not
have that cozy home to live in.
A lot of times they they're gonna
they're gonna hold in everything they
don't want to tell you everything
because they're already vulnerable.
So finding finding a way to
just kind of make that.
They're short in and let them and make sure
that you make it feel like it's going.
You're going to be there because.
That short term, you know,
chat may not help it.
They may.
You may not even see that
student again on campus,
so you want to want to go all in
and try to do what you can just
to make them feel comfortable.
Had that conversation with them
and don't try to fix everything,
just kind of sit back,
listen and and try to be a friend
first before trying to help them out.
'cause if they already if you
come off already trying to help
them they may abandoned you.
You know that there is
one last question here,
which I'll actually. If it's OK,
leave up and I'm going to run to class.
But in case people wanna hear it's a,
it's a great question.
You mentioned being a student first.
You mentioned being a student's
first black professor.
Does the lack of diversity in staff
affect students and the pipeline?
That's a great question.
I'm gonna tell you this now and
this is conversations I have had
with folks at Green River that again
that had this conversation with me.
We lack and diverse students is
because they don't have anything
that reflects them in their beliefs.
So, for example,
at my previous institution,
we had a Mecca multi ethnic cultural affairs
center where where students of color had
a place where something resembled them.
Every month we set up we.
We always created some kind of of ofori
in there to make students feel good.
If it's Native American
monthly to my women's rights,
we post great, powerful stuff.
In there, make it feel like.
That they are a representation
of what's on campus.
When students don't have a place like that,
and again,
I haven't seen it at Green River where
it's a place where students of the the
the Bipod community have a place to go,
something that reflects them,
not just a room,
but actually a place to represent them.
That right there will bring in more students,
but if you don't have any anything
that reflects those students,
they feel like they're just standing
out in the middle of nowhere.
So.
We we gotta, we got a little ways to go
at Green River we do and we gotta find it.
We gotta find that niche somewhere somehow.
And I'm not saying copy,
copy and paste from some other institution.
I'm saying that we got to
find our own niche so.
Alright, thank you so very much.
Thank you all for coming and uh,
it sounds like this conversation
needs to continue moving forward
as the the comments keep coming in.
So yeah, thank you very much.
Appreciate everyone attending.