What if the we could stifle the School to Prison Pipeline by simply creating a culture of belonging and inclusion in elementary school? The need for caring classrooms that promote a sense of connectedness and belonging is essential and must begin the day a child begins their educational experience. In many, not all, underserved communities, minority students are being taught by less experienced teachers who have emanated from culturally and economically incongruent backgrounds. Furthermore, their value systems, ingrained during their own upbringing, can create responses to behavior wherein street socialized youth are unnecessarily disengaged from the classroom community.
Alienation from the educational setting has been cited as a factor that can cause marginalized youth to disengage from school. Disengagement from the educational setting can lead impressionable youth who are approaching adolescence to seek out environments or peers that will accept them and give them a sense of purpose and belonging. Gang affiliation and juvenile delinquency often begin in the middle school years and can lead to becoming entangled in the juvenile justice system. Entrance into the juvenile justice system appreciably increases a youth's chances of adult incarceration. Therefore, for many students, the relationship that a student develops with school staff can be one of the most significant relationships they encounter in their lives.
Some scholars assert that the School to Prison pipeline is initiated when there are school imposed discipline policies and procedures which disproportionately affect minority students, initiating the path to prison. However, I would assert that ecological factors, culturally incompetent educational classroom management strategies, and strained teacher-student relationships may actually create a repeated sense of alienation as a student passes through elementary school. Several seminal studies maintain that 6th grade is a pivotal year for students and that adolescents who have been excluded from the typical educational experience could become more likely to affiliate with street gangs, exposing themselves as potential targets for violence, or as potential candidates to be asked to carry out violent assaults on rival gang members. Ultimately, gang affiliation creates significant antagonizing factors such as incarceration, violence, and drug use. The power of the positive student-teacher relationship is immense and can be a significant intervention for youth who may be susceptible to gang affiliation. When a student possesses the perception of a strong teacher-student relationship, this becomes an exceedingly significant factor that increases engagement as the student progresses through their educational life course. This interpersonal connection can become the tether which binds the student with the school environment.
Elementary School teachers and administrators could increase a sense of belonging and would serve their students well by understanding the sociological and educational factors that occur each day in the classroom. Traditional classroom management strategies do not consider the socialization of marginalized youth, the environmental trauma they experience, and appropriate methods of responding to behaviors that could be addressed through the lens of inclusion at all costs. Elementary school personnel can deflect a students trajectory and be on the front line in the effort to divert the School to Prison Pipeline
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