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Structure:
RQ: To What Extent do K-12 Schools Impact the Amount of Juveniles that are Incarcerated?
Lens: Ethical
Thesis: When looking at the School-to-Prison Pipeline, several factors are considered: a school’s zero-tolerance policies, racial bias, and a lack of resources.
Zero tolerance policies tend to criminalize minor offenses and keep students out of the education system, which then impacts the amount of incarcerated juveniles. David S. Mitchell, former Chair of the University of Missouri System on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force, insists that zero-tolerance policies punish students by removing them from school and denying them a good education because they miss out on hands-on and in-person learning (Mitchell). In agreement, in an article written by Alison Wittig, Special Education Case Manager, Wittig quotes Andre Perry, a Professor of Practice of Economics at Washington University, assertion that “…‘most districts don’t require that suspended and expelled students receive homework support or tutoring, so they fall further behind their peers. In addition, expelled students abandon activities that lead to college and take up activities that lead to prison’”(Wittig). Abandoning troubled students who have already fallen behind shows an ethical issue – teachers, who are supposed to guide and uplift their students, are in reality failing them. Not to mention, students that fall behind have higher chances of dropping out of school, which increases their probability of going to prison, in turn stripping them of opportunities in an unjust manner. Furthermore, Professor of Education at Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, Andrew Bacher-Hicks, articulates that suspensions and other disciplinary practices, such as expulsions, affect the futures of students because it leads these students to surround themselves with bad influences, essentially characterizing them as troublemakers (Bacher-Hicks). However, in an article written by Alicia Insley, published in the American University Law Review, Insley explains that zero-tolerance policies were originally made to combat extreme cases of violence in the American school systems (Insley). Although this may be true, Stephanie Martinez, Research Associate with Florida’s PBS Project, provides several examples of extreme zero-tolerance policy applications: a kindergartener wearing a firefighter costume that wields a plastic ax, a second-grader bringing their grandpa’s watch with a small knife attached to it, and a six-year-old kissing a classmate (Martinez). When zero-tolerance policies are applied in irrelevant and unethical cases like this, it makes it easier for even exemplary students to get into trouble. Zero tolerance policies affect all types of students, pushing them into the School-to-Prison Pipeline; therefore, increasing the number of incarcerated students.
Rephrased Thesis Statement: When taking into consideration the factors that cause the School-to-Prison Pipeline, zero-tolerance policies, racial bias, and a lack of resources need to be evaluated to a great extent.
Color-coding Key
-Thesis/Rephrased Thesis
-RA and RRA statement (topic and concluding sentence)
-Citation (outside support)
-Explanation (commentary/analysis)
-Validation of the source
-Pink Power Packet Verb
-Transitions
-Shift in Perspective
-Author —> Parenthetical Reference
-Lens
Works Cited
Bacher-Hicks, Andrew, et al. “The School to Prison Pipeline: Long-Run Impacts of School Suspensions on Adult Crime.” National Bureau of Economic Research, 2019, https://doi.org/10.3386/w26257.
Insley, Alicia. “Suspending and Expelling Children from Educational Opportunity: Time to Reevaluate Zero Tolerance Policies.” American University Law Review, vol. 50, no. 4, 2001, https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1800&context=aulr.
Martinez, Stephanie. “A system gone berserk: How are Zero-Tolerance Policies Really Affecting Schools?” Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, vol. 53, no. 3, 2009, https://doi.org/10.3200/psfl.53.3.153-158.
Mitchell, S. David. “Zero tolerance policies: Criminalizing childhood and disenfranchising the next generation of citizens.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2014, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2458550.
Wittig, Alison L. School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Factors That Cause It, and How We Can Prevent It. 2017. Humboldt State University, Masters Dissertation in Education. https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1124&context=etd.