Mississippi

"Get tough" school discipline policies aren't doing anything to make our schools safer. In fact, they're creating a school-to-prison pipeline and exacerbating the school pushout crisis that is drastically curtailing access to educational opportunities for students of color. In a powerful op-ed, Derrick Johnson, President of the Mississippi State Conference NAACP, and Gina Womack, Executive Director of Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children, write that what we need instead is to "get smart" with school discipline policies.

Meridian, MS, has been in the news often over the past several months for it's horrendous school-to-prison pipeline. But the sad reality is that the injustices committed there – the heavy and unequal punishments levied for minor offenses, the absurd amount of police involvement in school discipline, the denial of due process rights to students – are happening across the state. A new report from our allies at the Mississippi NAACP, the ACLU, and the Advancement Project reveals that "Mississippi is mired in an extreme school discipline crisis."

I first heard the phrase "school-to-prison pipeline" twelve years ago in a meeting with a small group of Mississippi parents. Over a decade later, the movement to end school pushout has grown so strong that hundreds of advocates and organizers flocked to last week's first-ever U.S. Senate public hearing on the school-to-prison pipeline. The hearing alone was not the victory these advocates and organizer seek, but it was an important win on the road to implementing policies that keep students in school and learning, not lost in a maze of suspensions, expulsions, and court referrals.

Need some help developing or advocating for policies in your state to tackle school pushout and end the school-to-prison pipeline? Then look no further than this newly released state policy guide from the Opportunity to Learn Campaign! The guide provides advocates and policymakers with recommendations for ending the ineffective and discriminatory practice of out-of-school suspensions as well as a summary of the significant action and legislative proposals that are already underway in states to address our national pushout crisis.

Meridian, MS is a community long divided by racial strife and hostility. For years, Meridian families reported to the Mississippi NAACP that their children were routinely and unfairly denied educational opportunities, criminalized and even subjected to incarceration, including children as young as ten years old and children with disabilities. As such, we celebrate the groundbreaking lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in Meridian to protect the rights of vulnerable children and end the city's unconscionable operation of a school-to-prison pipeline.

Today the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the city of Meridian, Miss.; Lauderdale County, Miss.; judges of the Lauderdale County Youth Court; and the state of Mississippi for helping "operate a school-to-prison pipeline in which the rights of children in Meridian are repeatedly and routinely violated."

Join the Opportunity to Learn Campaign (along with members of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, our partner in the Solutions Not Suspensions initiative) for a 60-minute webinar on October 3rd to learn how you can go from outrage over harsh school discipline polices to movement building! This webinar will examine how student organizers in Philadelphia were able to collect necessary data, build their coalition, and win a decisive victory bringing about alternatives to out-of-school suspensions.

The Urgency of Now: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males finds that almost half of Black and Latino males do not graduate high school in four years.  Without a policy framework that creates opportunity for all students, strengthens supports for the teaching profession and strikes the right balance between support-based reforms and standards-driven reforms, the U.S. will become increasingly unequal and less competitive in the global economy. Where does your state rank? Visit www.blackboysreport.org to learn more!