By Kevin DeAmicis

The school to prison pipeline is a system of rules and policies that can lead to imprisonment. This pipeline affects the students most vulnerable and leads to a high drop out rate. This pipeline also is leading to our raising prison population and raise in cost to fund prisons. This pipeline is also making the juvenile court system put more juveniles in prison. This means that less juveniles are get rehabilitation and more time imprisoned. 2

One consequence of the pipeline is high suspension rates in schools. A second consequence is less high school diplomas for people lowering the average high school diploma rate. Finally, increases the imprisonment for crimes because of a lack of money caused by a low education. 3

TBA does slightly contributes to the School to prison pipeline because of tough school rules and zero tolerance policies. ₌ 4

OffensesConsequences Level 3- having an armed weapon and fighting One day spent with the teachers doing packets of work Level 2- skipping and profanityDetention after school with work Level 1-Cheating on exam and yelling at a teacher Lunch with teacher work 5

My opinion on Zero Tolerance Policies are that they are there to just because students to drop out. it’s like a suicide attempt and the Zero Tolerance Policies push you to your death. This means that students on the edge get pushed to drop out. It also is beneficial to teachers because of less stress but they shouldn’t exist. 5

I believe disciplinary hearings should look like a civil court case but without a judge and a jury. I believe you have almost the same rights as in a court case except that you don’t have a lawyer. 6

The juvenile court system is a court system created to help prevent juveniles from going to jail but does now the exact opposite. Now there are enhancements that are based solely on juveniles. In CA there are two enhancements that I know of known as the gang enhancement for 20 extra years in jail and gun enhancement for 15 extra years in jail. 7

 93.4% of prisoners are male only 6.6% of prisoners are female.  59.5% of prisoners are White, 37.1% are Black, 1.8% are Native American and 1.6% are Asian Jail FreedomCourt

1. Ensure qualified teachers. Would help with students who see no reason for school. Also provides a better understanding of the topic they teach. 2. Have less Zero Tolerance Policies. Zero tolerance policies force students to suspensions because of the stress. Also could reduce the amount of time in a suspension. 3. Provide more student counseling. Allows students to talk to councilors about how they feel like dropping out. 4. Teach younger children. Kids learn at a young age so teaching them gangs and violence is not proper might help. Teaching them that a good job requires a great education might also help. 5. Provide programs against drop outs. Programs such as afterschool education for those who need help. Programs similar drug awareness programs could be used also to help flunking students. 8

There right now is no way to communicate to teachers but there should be. One way could be to use teachers as councilors and have an understanding by using teachers as a door way to prevent drop outs from happening. 9