The Playground to the Big Yard:
Deconstructing School to Prison Pipeline
Monday, March 7
Watch the full video here.
Education is designed to lay the foundation for future opportunity. But California’s school discipline policies operate in the opposite way. The state’s public schools issue more suspensions than diplomas each year, with the largest impact on communities of color.
- Suspensions often have the opposite effect of exacerbating the problem, sending the student on an unsupervised vacation and further alienating him or her from the school environment.
- In the 2011-2012 school year, California schools issued more than 700,000 out-of-school suspensions, and more than 366,000 students were suspended out-of-school at least one time.
- Experts point to the fact that if students stay in school and increase graduation rates by 10 percentage points, it could prevent 400 murders and over 20,000 aggravated assaults in California each year.
What is being done in California to combat the school to prison pipeline? Join award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa from NPR’s Latino USA for a spirited conversation on “The Playground to the Big Yard: Deconstructing School to Prison Pipeline.”
Panelists include:
- Debora Gordon, Writer and Teacher, Oakland Unified School District
- Dan Losen, Director, Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA’s Civil Rights Project. For more about Losen’s work, see schooldisciplinedata.org, a site where users can find the discipline data on their district and compare it to others. Also, see California Report: Closing the School Discipline Gap in California, Signs of Progress.
- Caleb Martinez, Underground Scholars Initiative
- Monique Rodriguez, parent and member, Colectiva de Mujeres
This week, NPR’s Latino USA focused on how one Oakland high school is addressing this issue:
The March 7 Berkeley event is sponsored by The California Endowment and kicks off with a short theater performance directed by Baktun 12. It is open to the public but pre-registration is encouraged.
The Playground to the Big Yard: Deconstructing School to Prison Pipeline
Monday, March 7th
8:30-11:30am
University of California, Berkeley, Anna Head Alumnae Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
You can also follow the conversation on Twitter @LatinoUSA #SchooltoPrison
Watch the full video here.