The School to Prison Pipeline – Discipline or Discrimination?

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

The phrase “School to Prison Pipeline” has been widely used to describe what happens when school administrators respond to student misconduct with suspension, expulsion, and police intervention, as opposed to primarily internal consequences and sanctions. The hypothesis proposed is that the “criminalizing” of student behavior unfairly targets minority juveniles, often injecting them into the juvenile and criminal justice systems, and increasing the likelihood of unnecessary incarceration. This poster presentation examines this phenomenon through data analysis on a national level. Data and pictorial representations in the poster demonstrate that disparate disciplinary practices across the country, primarily applied as a result of zero tolerance policies, cause greater rates of juvenile prosecution, higher suspension and expulsion rates, and increase the likelihood of incarceration as a juvenile offender. This presentation visually illustrates the magnitude of the disparities in school discipline based upon race and gender, as well as the resulting overall negative impact upon the future of those minority juveniles involved.

Author

• Jennifer Beth Hulvat, Kaplan University