I write from the legislative library. I just finished by testimony before the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs in support of Senator Justin Alfond’s bill, “An Act To Increase Maine's High School Graduation Rate” No one testified in opposition, probably because no one is opposed to increasing the graduation rate. How we go about making that happen, however, is vitally important.
Zero tolerance policies and the overuse of suspensions and detentions are contributing to the growing criminalization, rather than education, of our young people. This is a trend known as “the school-to-prison pipeline” and is one of the most important civil rights challenges facing our nation today.
Zero-tolerance disciplinary policies impose severe discipline on students without regard to individual circumstances or the long term consequences. They have also been shown to be used more often against students with disabilities and students of color. And according to the research, your kid is in BIG trouble if he overlaps these categories as a minority student with special needs.
Under "zero tolerance" policies, children have been expelled for giving Midol to a classmate, bringing household goods (including a kitchen knife) to school to donate to Goodwill, and bringing scissors to class for an art project. To most of us, these are clearly not the kinds of "offenses" that warrant expulsion and damage to college or scholarship prospects, but that is, indeed, the result in many schools.
LD 1658 has the potential to engage Maine in taking a thorough look at these pratices and to provide valuable guidance to Maine’s schools on how to avoid the destructive affects of the school-to-prison pipeline. But only if the right people are at the table.
For more information:
- Read my full testimony here:
- Read "Dignity Denied," the 2008 ACLU report on the effect of "zero tolerance" policies on students' human righs here;
- Take the school to prison pipeline challenge here:
- Read the ACLU’s specific recommendations for policies governing the authority of school resource officers here; and
- Read the Advancement Project's new report: Test, Punish, and Push Out: How "Zero Tolerance" and High Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into the School to Prison Pipeline" here.