Here’s How America Is Producing Criminals From Its Schools

American schools have cultivated a culture of intolerance, slowly but steadily, to punish students of color in the name of inculcating discipline. Kids are being suspended, expelled, and even imprisoned for mischievous activities/behaviors naturally associated with their age. Believe it or not, America has created school-to-prison pipeline all across the country – nationwide as many as 95% of out of school suspensions are for nonviolent misbehaviors like end-of-year hijinks or a harmless water balloon fight.

In 2010, more than 3 million students were suspended from school, or double the level of suspensions in the 1970s. When you crack down harshly on kids for minor infractions, when you suspend or expel a kid instead of counseling him/her, the chances of him/her dropping out of high school increase. High school dropouts are 3.5 times more likely to be arrested in their lifetime than high school graduates. Kids who are incarcerated are 67% more likely to be back in jail by the age of 25 then similar kids who didn’t go to prison.

The criminal justice system and the zero tolerance policy don’t apply to everyone equally. According to the US Department of Justice, Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than White students, while Black and Latino students account for 70% of police referrals. Also, students with disabilities are twice as likely to be suspended than their non-disabled peers – 32% of youth in juvenile detention are special needs students, and LGBT students are 1.4 times more likely to face suspension than their straight peers. Do you still wonder why and how the United States incarcerates more people than any other country on Earth?

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