Nicole Harris…
”My thoughts on the school to prison pipeline is the action of the educators and teachers that we have. I don’t believe that a lot of educators understand their role in this system and how they are systematically sending our children through the pipeline through their actions and criminalization of our children’s perceived behaviors and home life. I also believe that with the new advanced programs and highly capable cohorts that are actually going back to segregation of the schools which is sending our Black and brown children along this pipeline and sending White children off to college.”
Rev. Anttimo Bennett…
“I feel like we’re perpetuating the school to prison pipeline because we are cutting resources and funding and critical elements of education. So we are cutting out arts, we’re cutting out all the extracurricular so we are not substituting those illegal activities with something more positive. We’re kinda forcing young people to go out and try to find things to do with idle time, which then gets them involved in crime, which then now they’re being shipped into detention centers and eventually into prison. So, we have to make an investment into our young people and making sure that we have programs and things to do that can occupy their time in a positive way.”
Maurice Ward…
“My opinion on the school to prison pipeline would be this, If it cost $16,500 a year to go the University of Washington and $104,000 to go prison in the juvenile rehabilitation administration system for kids, why have we not figured out a way to save $84,000? Why would we want a kid in a seat that cost $104,000 instead of in a seat that cost $16,000? Not to mention public school is only $12,500 dollars. Why have we not collectively figured that out?”
Bonnie Glen…
“My response is that the school to prison pipeline is real. People need to understand what that is and what it means. It means young people often times can commit things that have happened one time in school, for example a fight that could be defined as an assault and what happens is something that could have been resolved one way found itself resolved a different way, next thing your caught up in the net. If we don’t help educate families and parents and make sure that our policymakers understand the importance of this, it is the gateway that can actually make a difference in the lives of our young people. As Angela Rye stated, “one decision can actually change someone’s whole trajectory.”
Harry Thompson…
I think it does happen in a sense, I feel our kids are going to school and we taught them what they are going to school for, to go to school to get their education, then they shouldn’t have to worry about that issue. It’s a matter of doing your job, going to school and going there to learn. We don’t send them to school to be babysat, we send them there to be educated. And education is there to take us where we want to go. My opinion, if our kids are doing what they need to be doing, and I find most of them are, then I don’t think they’re going to be a problem, but it does happen.”
Alexandra August-Lewis…
“For me it’s real. I work in education as a school health nurse and worked in juvenile. When you see the 50 percent of tanks in the jails are made of children who have learning disabilities and challenges that have been unaddressed, I can’t help but wonder if that is intentionality. Because why haven’t we changed our educational system to meet the needs of those students. So that’s one. So I do believe this is intentional. There are programs that have been shown to be worthy, where we see we’re bridging those gaps, but the system removes them. So we have to question why.”
Photos by Aaron Allen
