Pushing “Them” Out: African Americans and the Zero Tolerance Policy in American Urban Public School Systems

Problem Statement

The School District of Philadelphia should abolish the zero-tolerance policy in Philadelphia Public Schools. The zero-tolerance is the largest influential factor in the School-to-Prison Pipeline. When an infraction occurs, this policy justifies extreme action to correct student’s behavior. Consequently, suspensions, retentions and expulsions are distributed. Research shows that this policy disproportionally pushes out minority students from schools, especially African Americans. Studies also confirm that once suspended, these students are three times more likely to drop out of high school, compared to their white counterparts. This is because, with suspension, these students tend to fall behind and thus have less incentive to attend school. Furthermore, these children become more susceptible to criminal activity when out of school. As a result, there is a higher rate of these children ending up incarcerated. Although children represent only 34% of the US population, minority youth represent 62% of youth in detention. Of this percentage, African Americans represent over 26% of all juvenile arrests, with 58% of youth being admitted to state prisons.

The zero-tolerance policy therefore reinforces the racial bias that African Americans need to be controlled more than other races. Data proves that in the U.S public school system, African Americans are automatically considered a “problem” in need of correction. Even as children, African Americans have been subconsciously recognized as a distraction rather than a contribution in the classroom. It is this form of overt and covert racism that has pushed out African Americans from schools and funneled them onto the School-to-Prison Pipeline.