After tragedies like the mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting in Newtown Connecticut, it’s not uncommon for an increase in police presence in U.S. schools.
But the increase is also increasing the number of arrests in our student population according to Aaron Kupchik, Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware and author of several books on the subject, including; "Homeroom Security: School Discipline in an Age of Fear (Youth, Crime, and Justice)".
According to Kupchik some schools have an increase in violence, but overall there has been a decrease in the amount of violence, fighting and weapon carrying over the past 20 years, yet suspension rates have more than doubled since the 1980s.
“In some schools it’s an extremely common way of handling all disciplinary problems.” Said Kupchik.
Ironically, this causes more problems because most kids who act up are doing so because they don’t understand the learning topics, and taking them out of school, without supervision or instruction only exacerbates the problem.
“The more kids that we suspend and or arrest are then more likely to drop out of school, less likely to get employed and are at a greater risk for incarceration.” Said Kupchik. “It’s like a siphoning off of kids and deciding which kids are worthy of getting an education and which kids will likely be incarcerated in the future.” A very real and disturbing trend that Kupchik calls the “School To Prison Pipeline.”
Awareness of this issue is growing, tasks forces are being formed in communities and he is optimistic. “There is growing public awareness on this issue and concern, where there wasn’t just two years ago.” Said Kupchik.
