Colorblind Policy in a Carceral Geography: Reclaiming Public Education

Abstract

During the last decade, the federal government, states, and school districts implemented changes in school discipline policy to shift schools’ reliance from punishment and exclusion toward prevention, intervention, and restoration. In order to assess the impact of the last decade of reforms on attempts to decrease punishment and increase equity in schools, we examine nine large metropolitan districts that both revised their Codes of Conduct to limit their reliance on exclusionary discipline and implemented schoolwide behavioral and/or restorative programs. We find that while reforms are associated with decreases in students’ experience of three of four exclusionary discipline outcomes from 2009 to 2015, these benefits tend to accrue to the least vulnerable students – White students without disabilities. One explanation of this finding is that colorblind, risk-based, carceral assumptions of school and state policies undercut efforts to increase equity in school discipline.

SROs and School Violence: A Perspective on Roles and Training Needs

“…Moreover, SROs have drawn criticism for the precipitous introduction of juveniles to the criminal justice system, further exacerbation of racial disparities in criminal proceedings, as well as excessive use of force 22 . Sadly, the criminal justice system is increasingly brought in to resolve even minor disciplinary issues, creating a “school‐to‐prison pipeline.” 23,24 In some ways, our schools already echo the prison setting with armed law enforcement, drug and bomb‐sniffing dogs, metal detectors, wanding for weapons, locker searches, and surveillance equipment—all within highly restrictive environments. The literature is replete with school arrests for behaviors that hardly arise to the level of crime (eg, fake burping in class, using a cell phone to record an SRO's actions in arresting someone for a disturbance) 25 …”