Surveillance Does Not Create Safety
Many students are experiencing hypersurveillance across school districts in the United States. From the second they enter the school building, they are filed through metal detectors, and in some cases, multiple security guards or school resource officers stand in the hallways. Young people in schools across the nation have been harshly punished for situations ranging from water balloon fights to simply “talking back” to teachers. School districts across the country, from Wisconsin and New Jersey to California and Ohio, have policies only permitting clear backpacks. Some youthchildren have even gone to juvenile detention centers due to school disciplinary actions, already making surveillance and criminalization normal touchpoints in their lives. These are all examples of the school-to-prison pipeline, a concept that names the ways that criminalization and surveillance are deeply integrated into the modern school system, which ultimately heightens students’ encounters with the criminal-legal system. This piece argues that the school-to-prison pipeline disproportionately affects Black, brown, LGBTQ+, disabled, and other marginalized youth and that it can only be dismantled through justice-informed initiatives.
The school-to-prison pipeline describes the policies that create barriers for certain students, highly increasing their likelihood of getting involved in the criminal legal system. This pipeline fuels the prison industrial complex (PIC) by funneling Black and brown, LGBTQ+, disabled, and other marginalized and multiply marginalized youth in underfunded public schools with zero-tolerance policies into prisons, which is how our modern capitalist society deals with people who fall too outside the margins. Carcerality, or the system of surveillance that extends outside of prisons into daily life, is not only seen in the PIC. It is built into the fabric of our political, economic, social, and legal structures, as well as our education systems. It manifests in the way harsher disciplinary measures are handed down to certain students for minor indiscretions, leading to more students experiencing suspensions and expulsions.
There is clear evidence that the school-to-prison pipeline disproportionately affects Black, LGBTQ, and disabled students. Black students are referred to law enforcement, suspended, and arrested at much higher rates compared to their non-Black peers due to being seen as aggressive and adultified. While the prevailing narrative about criminalization in Black communities focuses on Black boys and men, research indicates that Black students of all genders are subjected to its terror. Black girls experience a unique form of criminalization due to many different factors including hypersexualization. Students with disabilities, particularly Black neurodivergent children, face similar consequences of said punitive measures due to zero-tolerance policies. School systems are not designed with disabled or neurodivergent students in mind, leading their behavior to be labeled as “disorderly.” School systems also stigmatize disabled students and assume they have lower academic capabilities, thus leading to the students’ frustration. Moreover, LGBTQ+ students are more likely to face disciplinary consequences due to discriminatory, hostile, and unsupportive academic environments that increase their contact with school administrations. These issues are exacerbated when faced with instability and family rejection, which is more common among LBGTQ+ youth. In high school, openly LGBTQ+ peers of mine were bullied and ostracized by their peers, and it was worse for Black and brown LGBTQ+ students. I’ve witnessed first-hand how societal outcasting negatively affects students mentally and administratively, which is all part of the school-to-prison pipeline.
Marginalized students are seen as threats for simply being who they are. They are dealt with more aggressively and disciplined faster. It is not that these children are misbehaving more than the other students, but these students’ behaviors are seen through the lens of their race, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, etc., thus giving rise to stereotypes and prejudices that lead teachers, staff, and school administrators to see them as more violent. It is pivotal to recognize the disparities of the policing of children in general and specifically in schools along the lines of identities marked by marginalization and oppression.
Knowing about the links between the U.S. school system and the prison system, how do we address this and work toward solutions? One of the most popular solutions being implemented in schools across the country is the focus on social and emotional learning (SEL). SEL is the process through which one manages their emotions, sets positive goals, and fosters positive decision-making. Some schools in the country, especially elementary and middle schools, are taking the initiative to create rooms or spaces in their buildings filled with calming colors and comfortable furniture. Reducing the number of students in the room at one time allows them to meditate, work with a mental health therapist, and overall take time to relax before returning to class. These rooms have been effective in calming students and making them feel safe and secure. Kindergarten to high school is the time when the basics of academics are built while social and communication skills are also being developed. This is something I wish I had in school, particularly high school, especially on days where I may have been overwhelmed and not in the right mind to constantly be around people for about eight hours every day. School can be an overwhelming and overstimulating place for many students, adding on personal, academic, social, and/or familial issues that students may be dealing with. Instead of immediately punishing students for their behavior, initiatives like calm rooms are a way for students to calm their emotions instead of teachers and administrators turning to punitive measures.
In conclusion, Black and brown, disabled, and LGBTQ+ children should be able to thrive, free from carcerality and pipelines that shift their bodies into dollar signs. I wish this could have been the case for myself and my peers, but we can ensure this for future generations, and because we owe it to ourselves. Children should laugh, cry, wonder, watch, and learn as loud as they want, whether it’s in a lunchroom or out in the world. Their existence and livelihood is not a threat, or something to be contained – instead, it needs to be as boundless as the universe.
Nadia L (she/her) is a reproductive justice and health equity advocate born, raised, and currently based in Northern New Jersey. She is a Spring 2024 graduate …
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