school-to-prison pipeline
-
Counselors, Not Cops: New Yorkers Protest Millions Proposed for School Safety Budget, Saying Money Fuels School-to-Prison Pipeline
Guided by a coalition of 40 New York City social justice organizations, dozens of students, parents and advocates converged on New York’s City Hall Wednesday to protest Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposed increase to the NYPD’s School Safety Division budget, saying those millions would be better used on student social supports and services. In an…
-
Betsy DeVos to Pull Back Civil Rights Protections for Black Students Under the Guise of 'Safety'
Betsy DeVos continues her methodical dismantling of civil rights protections for vulnerable students, this time setting her sights on Obama-era guidelines put in place to protect black students from being disproportionately disciplined at school. As the Washington Post reports, a school safety commission formed shortly after February’s school shooting in Parkland, Fla., is expected to…
-
Arizona High School Student Refused to Take Off Bandanna, So He And 3 Other Students Were Arrested Because Apparently, That Makes Sense
Further proving that cops will arrest black kids for anything, an Arizona senior student at Apache Junction High School was arrested, along with some of his schoolmates, all because he refused to take off his bandanna. Needless to say, this has sparked huge conversations about dress code at the Arizona high school. According to AZ…
-
The Edge of 17: For Ahkeem Is a Coming-of-Age Story in the Age of Ferguson
Fun fact: I was expelled from preschool at age 4 during a brief stint when my mother and I had moved to Dallas. From the little I recall, I was one of very few black students at my private day school. My expulsion came after I defended myself against another little girl—not black—who’d been harassing…
-
Watch: To Understand How Harmful Juvenile Incarceration Is, Listen to This Poem
In a spoken-word poem, Dwayne Betts details the emotional impacts of juvenile incarceration. In partnership with WNYC Studios, we present Caught. #CaughtPodcast
-
Where’s My Village?
Editor’s note: This is the second of two essays The Root is publishing in partnership with Caught, a new podcast from WNYC Studios about the juvenile-justice system. We hope to generate a conversation about how we can support rather than merely punish young people who are in crisis, and we want to hear from you…
-
How to Stop Locking Up Kids
Editor’s note: This is the first of two essays The Root is publishing in partnership with Caught, a new podcast from WNYC Studios about the juvenile-justice system. We hope to generate a conversation about how we can support rather than merely punish young people who are in crisis, and we want to hear from you…
-
Notes From the Field: Through Some of America’s Biggest Racial Dramas, Anna Deavere Smith Has Been Taking Notes
For over 25 years, Anna Deavere Smith has been observing us. Since the early ’90s, the Shakespearean-trained actress and playwright, best known for roles in The West Wing, Nurse Jackie and, most recently, Black-ish, has borne witness to some of the most painful moments in contemporary America’s racialized history. In the process, she has interviewed…
-
Dear, Teacher: How Does It Feel to Be an Oppressor?
The New York Daily News reported Feb. 1—the start of Black History Month—that a teacher in a majority-minority school in the Bronx, N.Y., instructed three black children in her seventh-grade class to lie on the floor during a lesson on slavery. Then she stepped on the students’ backs, allegedly to show them “how it feels…
-
7-Year-Old Florida Boy Escorted Away in Handcuffs After Allegedly Punching Teacher
A 7-year-old Florida elementary school student was taken out of school in handcuffs after he allegedly hit his teacher during an altercation at the school. According to ABC News, the first-grader was escorted out of a Miami-Dade police cruiser’s back seat while wearing handcuffs as his mother videotaped the incident and tried to comfort him…