Juvenile Justice

Too many of United States school aged children are being sent to the juvenile courts because of "Zero Tolerance" for infractions that at one time were handled by school administrators and parents working together to teach the child right from wrong. Times have changed. Now, because of the fear duplication of tragic incidents and school homicides, small infractions, including swearing have turned into crimes where incarceration and probation are now a reaction that has been termed the "School to Prison Pipeline". There is an over-representation of children of color, limited English proficient, and special needs in our juvenile justice system. This phenomenon has been documented and researched. Educating the public through community organizing for change is the only way to combat the disparaging treatment children are getting within the school setting. The Associated Advocacy Center is proud to be active participant in this fight for justice for all.

American Civil Liberties Union: Fact Sheet - The School-to-Prison Pipeline in the National Context

The "school-to-prison pipeline" describes an alarming trend wherein public elementary, middle and high schools are pushing youth out of classrooms and into the juvenile justice and criminal justice system.

Under the banner of "zero tolerance," schools increasingly are relying on inappropriately harsh discipline and, increasingly, law enforcement, to address trivial schoolyard offenses among even the youngest students.
Children are far more likely to be arrested at school than they were a generation ago. And these school-arrests are not for violent behavior. For example, in one Texas school district, 17 percent of school arrests were for disruptive behavior, and 26 percent were for disorderly conduct.
Defenders of the pipeline cannot attribute the explosion of school-based arrests to an increase in school violence. On the contrary, empirical evidence shows that between 1992 and 2002, school violence actually dropped by about half.
Rather than nurturing and educating children perceived to pose a disciplinary problem, schools are turning to law enforcement to simply get rid of the child.

Unfortunately, children of color and children with disabilities bear the brunt of these harsh trends.

Nationally, minority students are suspended at rates of two to three times that of other students. They are also more likely to be subject to office referrals, corporal punishment, and expulsion.
Children of color also are more likely to be referred by their school to the juvenile justice system.
Minority students with disabilities are particularly vulnerable. African American students with disabilities are three times more likely to receive short-term suspensions than their white counterparts, and are more than four times as likely to end up in correctional facilities.

Native American students in particular suffer harm from the pipeline, even when they are not incarcerated because of school discipline

Alienated by school policies, students may perform poorly academically. In 2003, the U.S. Commission for Civil Rights reported that Native American children score lower than any other racial/ethnic group in standardized test scores.
In addition, they are more likely to drop out of school. Only 51 percent of Native American students graduate high school nationally, as compared to 75 percent of Caucasian students.

School Statistics Civil Rights Article| School to Prison Pipeline|The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University