School discipline feeds the “pipeline to prison”:
As school discipline moves from the principal’s office to the courthouse

In the article from Phi Delta Kappan (October 2011), School discipline feeds the “pipeline to prison”: As school discipline moves from the principal’s office to the courthouse, the author, Deborah Fowler, takes the stance that schools in Texas and other states have been historically safe for students and teachers even before it was commonplace for law enforcement officers to be assigned to them. The author states that since the release of the motion picture “The Blackboard Jungle” more than fifty years ago, popular media has fed the public’s concerns about juvenile delinquency. (Fowler, 2011) Fowler further states that those fears by the public are not supported by historical data, which document very few incidents involving youth and weapons in the nation’s public schools from the 1950’s to the present. Publicity around “isolated incidents” of school violence such as the Columbine shootings has increased the fears of the public as it pertains to violence in our schools. (Fowler, 2011)

The author concentrates on the state of Texas in her article and cites that minor offenses such as class disruption have been criminalized, with students receiving Class C misdemeanor tickets each year. Fowler points out that historically the nation’s schools have been safe to include those in high-crime areas. School discipline has become more punitive in nature and in Texas and other states school discipline has begun to shift from the “schoolhouse to the courthouse.” Fowler cites a study by the Public Policy research Institute at Texas A&M University that the single most predictor of future involvement in the juvenile justice system is for the juvenile to have a history of disciplinary referrals at school. (Fowler, 2011)

In Texas students are discipline primarily at the discretion of the individual school districts. The majority of student removals from the classroom were for disruptive behavior only (no weapon or violence involved). Fowler notes that the lack of quality instruction and tutoring at these in-school suspensions affect the at-risk students that are involved, with the low-quality instruction, these students can be left further behind. Since each district is allowed to discipline as it sees fit,

It is not necessarily the type of misbehavior that will garner discipline, but where the juvenile attends school will dictate the type of discipline received. Due to the wide variety of disciplinary referral rates by some districts, this should initiate some type of probe by those districts as to why there rates are higher than others. As to when this is the most important is when the juvenile court system becomes involved in the discipline. (Fowler, 2011) In 2009, roughly 275,000 non-traffic related Class C misdemeanor tickets were issued to juveniles in Texas. The majority of these were for disorderly conduct, disruption of class, disruption of transportation, and truancy by School Resource Officers (SRO). While Fowler states that the misbehavior that is triggering these tickets is not new to public schools, the increasing rate that students are receiving these misdemeanor tickets is. A disturbing trend in Texas is the overrepresentation of minorities and special education students in every form of discipline. (Fowler, 2011)

The overrepresentation of minorities, specifically African-American, and special education students is not related to a higher rate of misbehavior. These referrals are less serious and more subjective than for white students. In Texas 211 school districts were identified as having a higher than normal rate for referrals as it pertained to African-American students to Disciplinary Alternative Education Programs (DAEPs). This same trend continues when it comes to expulsions from schools and statewide (Texas) African-American students were 3.5 times more likely to be sent to an in-school suspension, six times more likely to receive an out of school suspension, four times more likely to be sent to a disciplinary alternative school, and three times more likely to be expelled. (Fowler, 2011)

As it pertains to elementary age school children, Texas school districts do not abstain from there disciplinary practices because of their age. In the 2008-2009 school year, 90 kindergarten students and 456 1st graders were sent to a DAEP for nonviolent Code of Conduct violations. Three districts violated the state’s ban on sending children younger than six to a DAEP and ten districts were in violation of state law after having expelled a child younger than ten. What is alarming in that in a six year period over 2,000 elementary school students received Class C misdemeanor tickets and the majority of them were for disruption of class. (Fowler, 2011)

While the disciplining of students is important, there are programs that reduce the overall number of referrals and also may improve the culture and academics of a school. The program Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a popular alternative to zero-tolerance type disciplinary models. States such as Florida, Illinois and Maryland have initiated the program in their schools and are providing the technical assistance and support to districts that are interested in the program. PBIS is a model that children are performing at their best when they are taught what to do, positive behavior is identified, and behavioral mistakes are identified and effective consequences are introduced to correct the behavior. (Fowler, 2011) PBIS has been shown to increase student attendance and has significant cost savings due to fewer alternative placements. In states like Texas where districts are paying large amounts for school based policing, implementing a PBIS program could reduce those costs.

Fowler concludes that the “cost of failing to provide meaningful, early behavioral interventions at school is too great to ignore.” (Fowler, 2011)

Critique After reading this article, even though it focuses on the state of Texas, it does appear that at least in Texas, there is an issue with how discipline is meted out in the state’s school districts. Fowler does list numerous references, to include herself (three articles), though she does seem to reference Project Appleseed surprisingly a lot in the article. I searched on the Internet and located their website. The site is called Texas Appleseed and their motto is “sowing the seeds of justice.” They describe their mission as “… to promote social and economic justice for all Texans by leveraging the skills and resources of volunteer lawyers and other professionals to identify practical solutions to difficult systemic problems.”

It appears that Fowler does have some connection with this organization. While Fowler does cite other references besides Appleseed, it appears that she based her article primarily on studies done by Appleseed on her topic. As I read the article I felt there was some bias on the part of the author regarding her topic. After reading the article I was interested in looking up more information on the topic and Texas Appleseed itself. The author presented her topic in a logical and organized format and it was an easy read.

Reference
Fowler, Deborah. " School discipline feeds the “pipeline to prison”: As school discipline moves from the principal's office to the courthouse, children are poorly served." Phi Delta Kappan 93.2
(2011), 14+. Retrieved from Academic OneFile. Web. 25 June 2012