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The Influence of Race on the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Investigating the Relationship Between School Fights and Suspension.

Thu, Nov 14, 8:00 to 9:20am, Pacific A - 4th Level

Abstract

Over the last two decades, researchers, educators and policymakers have worked hard to analyze and reduce the incidence of violence in schools. School shootings, school fights, and bullying all pose severe risks to the public school system. Notably, the focus has changed to punitive actions like school suspensions, which reveal racial disparities; in particular, Black students experience school suspensions at a higher rate than students of other races. This study adds to previous research by analyzing the role of race in the school-to-prison pipeline. This study specifically examines the impact of race and school fights on suspension while taking gender and peer resistance into account. The study examines the relationship between these variables using data from the Pathways to Desistance study in Philadelphia and Phoenix. Contrary to expectations, the study discovered that racial differences have no substantial impact on the suspensions of pupils involved with the juvenile justice system. When other factors such as gender, interview State, and peer resistance are considered, the only variables that leads to suspensions are fighting in school. The study gives schools practical information about how to reduce school violence, highlighting how important it is to deal with the underlying reasons for fights at school.

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