The “school to prison pipeline” must end

Michelle Chen @ The Progressive - We need to stop militarizing our schools.

Across the country, school administrators are making cops and metal detectors as much a part of the school day as teachers and textbooks. So-called zero-tolerance disciplinary policies are transforming the campus into hostile territory, alienating communities and pushing vulnerable students to give up on their education.

The coercive climate extends beyond school grounds.

To children in poor communities of color, the school day is too often an extension of the crisis engulfing their neighborhoods, where violence, police abuse, drugs and joblessness loom over their streets and homes.

Labeled and punished as troublemakers or delinquents, vulnerable children are frequently funneled into a pattern that activists call the “school to prison pipeline.” Read more.