Effects Of Racial Discrimination On African American Students

At an increasing rate, minorities are put through the school-to-prison pipeline affecting them in many ways. The main focus will be based on the connections between high-tolerance policies, police-stationed schools, disciplined schools with the pipeline, and how it has attacked the lives of minorities over the years. The school-to-prison pipeline often affects one’s education resulting in them dropping out or even leading to a life of crime.

High Tolerance Policies and Disciplined Schools

Usually, students in schools with high-tolerance policies and discipline are often suspended or face expulsion from the pipeline. They are more frequently sent to jail or arrested due to strict enforcement around campus than any other school. These strict policies and disciplines have created a negative environment for many schools making it unchallenging for the pipeline to grow. It is known that students with stricter schools are at a higher rate of being arrested than in the average school which later leads to a life of crime. “Students assigned to stricter middle schools are 3.2 percent more likely to have been arrested, 2.5 percentage points more likely to have been incarcerated as adults” (Camera 5). Strict schools seem to be the cause of the pipeline, the pipeline has affected the lives of many thus far even beginning at middle school and creating a life of crime for the minorities. “Any effort to maintain safe and orderly school climates must take into account the clear and negative consequences of exclusionary discipline and being arrested or incarcerated as an adult, and whether attending a stricter school influences criminal activity in adulthood” (Camera 4). Change can happen when one starts to recognize the true origins of the pipeline and the influence it has on a minority's life from as early as middle school to adulthood. Although these policies and disciplines impact one’s life there are other contributing factors to the pipeline.

Police-Stationed Schools

Students in police-stationed schools are many times on different occasions faced with the pipeline due to arrest. Police on campuses have increased at an exceptional rate and have created a negative climate for students on campuses. Police-stationed schools also maintain zero tolerance and discipline resulting in easy arrests. “The increased presence of police in schools has not promoted confidence or trust among young people in many schools” (Judge Jay and Blitzman 5). With police authority in schools, it has been hard for students to feel a sense of comfort and liberty. Students often don’t feel confident or feel as if they can trust police authorities because of the continuous school-to-pipelines rates. “Proponents of school policing argue that Juvenile arraignments have declined since police were placed in schools” (Judge Jay and Blitzman 9). Juveniles are repeatedly not given to chance to project their voices after being arrested due to the lack of effort of the system and the increasing expansion of the pipeline. Juveniles should not have to go to school and be afraid of being arrested, they should feel the right to act and behave freely while on campus without constant fear of not following the policies and expected disciplines. They should feel free to speak their truth in court in order to save themselves from life-damaging decisions.

Discrimination can be seen in the school-to-prison pipeline and really is nothing new. Racism often influences the pipeline at an alarming rate. Black minorities and those with disabilities are more likely to be arrested than whites and other minority groups. “It’s just another term for institutional racism and incarcerating disadvantaged African-American schoolchildren instead of educating them” (Reynolds 6). Reynolds takeaway a key in the understanding that the pipeline seems to be racially targeted, African-Americans students are the highest racial group to be likely arrested and introduced to the pipeline. It seems that they often spend more time being arrested and incarcerated at school than learning. The pipeline takes away African-American schoolchildren’s ability to maintain a comfortable environment in order to learn, if their learning capability to learn is being affected, the future won’t be a safe space for them. (Young black kids, males especially, have always been a threat of punishment by unhinged authority figures afraid of school violence. The figures are shocking” (Reynolds 7). Often due to the history of African-American violence and racism, authority figures tend to turn to the stereotypes of African Americans when it comes to their involvement in school violence. Stereotypes amongst young black males have contributed to the increasing rates of young African-Americans in the pipeline. For instance, in a school event where there is violence involved between two minorities, one being black and another of a different race, the young black minority is always to be the first to be punished. Minorities of any color, race, or gender should not have to experience this life-threatening pipeline.

Many young groups’ education is strongly impacted such as them dropping out or their adulthood consisting from crime due to the well-known ‘School-to-Prison pipeline”. Young students across the U.S. are led to the pipeline through the promotion of high-tolerance policies, police-stationed schools, disciplines, and racial discrimination. These elements have been seen to affect their ability to learn freely and confidently on campus and their growth into adulthood. The question is how is this pipeline affecting one’s ability to learn? well, it is prohibiting the liberty and freedom that the school and system are supposed to provide and limiting their confidence which can be crucial in their development as a person. Little confidence can limit their goals in growing into an adult and an overall person, this pipeline is promoting insecurities, lack of confidence, and a lack of trust. The school-to-prison pipeline can be stopped by taking police off of school campuses, eliminating harsh disciplines and zero-tolerance policies in schools, and racial injustice no longer being influenced. An end to all of these components will socially spark a great chance for schools across the U.S. By comprehending the pipeline and how it constantly affects the lives of minorities, the system should take it into consideration and work on eliminating the pipeline and the contributing factors of this pipeline. Around the U.S., parents, schools, and juvenile justice systems can all work together to create a positive environment around the campuses in order to prevent ruining the life of a minority because the pipeline can result in unpleasant issues and destroy one’s life. Overall, it is clear that the pipeline is no good to anyone especially young minorities. It may seem as necessary to others in the short run but in the long run, it can damage families and communities and that is why the pipeline has to go.