Criminalizing Schoolkids

At Liberty

News

4.8 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many of the children who are presently gearing up for a new school year are also preparing to face police on a daily basis. The numbers of cops in schools is growing, which often means that instead of a detention or a time out, routine misbehavior can result in arrest and criminal charges — with children of color disproportionately impacted. The U.S. Department of Education recently released data collected from America’s 96,000 public schools. That data shows that students of color make up the majority of public school students for the first time. It also details police presence in schools, the lack of social services in many schools, and the growing racial disparities in public school systems serving 50 million students. The ACLU is partnering with the UCLA Civil Rights Project on a series of reports and data tools to enhance the public’s understanding of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC). Amir Whitaker, an attorney at the ACLU of Southern California and co-author of those reports, joins At Liberty to discuss the school-to-prison pipeline, how the Trump administration might address it, and what it all means for our children.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Lee Rowland. Welcome to At Liberty, the podcast from the ACLU, where we tackle today's most
0:13.8	pressing civil rights and civil liberties issues. Today's episode, criminalizing school discipline.
0:22.1	It's almost fall, which means that students are headed back to school.
0:26.5	For many public school students, it also means preparing to face the cops on a daily basis.
0:32.9	Growing numbers of police in schools mean that instead of detention or a timeout, routine misbehavior
0:39.7	like throwing paper airplanes or wearing saggy pants has resulted in arrests.
0:45.2	In 2015, a 14-year-old girl was charged with assault with a weapon for tossing a baby carrot.
0:53.4	Black students are more than twice as likely to face discipline
0:56.8	than their white peers. Latino and disabled students are also disproportionately likely to face
1:03.0	criminal penalties. The Obama administration recognized the problem, and in 2014 issued
1:10.3	guidance encouraging schools to handle discipline
1:12.9	internally rather than funneling kids into the criminal justice system. But current Secretary
1:19.0	of Education, Betsy DeVos, is considering ending that guidance. Joining us today to talk about the
1:25.7	school-to-prison pipeline is Amir Whitaker. Amir is a teacher,
1:29.9	a community advocate, and a civil rights researcher. He's racked up enough degrees to earn
1:34.6	the nickname Dr. Knucklehead. He's also a staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California.
1:40.3	He recently got his hands on some data on school discipline, and he's discovered some harsh realities in that data.
1:47.1	For example, the fact that 1.73 million American students attend a public school with a staff police officer, but not a single guidance counselor.
1:58.8	Wow.
2:00.0	Amir, welcome, and thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having
2:03.8	me, Le. So you've been looking at a lot of data lately about school discipline. Tell us what
2:10.3	you're finding in that data. Sure. So we're looking at the civil rights data collection,
	...

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