What is School to Prison Pipeline (STPP)

No More Throw Away Children

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In 2010, Anisa Rhea’s, PH.D did an Evaluation of the Wake County Public School’s Alternative program.  At the time of her report there were three alternative schools: Mary Phillips, Mount Vernon, River Oaks,  Longview, was determined by Department of Public Instructions to be a school for children who qualified for Special Education services.  According to the report, alternative schools are sometime labeled as “dumping grounds” or “warehouses” for at-risk students with behavioral problems and/or poor academic performance. They also tend to be disproportionately poor, minority, with a need for special education, (Kim & Taylor, 2008). In fact, the alternative high school examined by Kim and Taylor (2008) was described by staff as a facility to which base-school teachers send “troublemakers.” The students attending alternative schools are often aware of the negative stigma applied to them.

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*Insert from Anisa Rhea 2010 report entitled, An Evaluation of Wake County Public Schools Alternative Program

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In May of 2013,  Tamisha Thomas of Too Much TV Inc. and Geraldine Alshamy of Mary Magdalene Ministries Inc. decided to give  students an opportunity to have their voice heard through television. The children needed to know that we as a community cared about what they were experiencing and wanted to promote healing, give value and meaning to their existence. Tamisha Thomas produced the community based television show called,  “The Home School Prison Cycle. It was hosted by the Executive Director of Mary Magdalene Ministries  with youth from the Mary B. Phillips High School (one of the alternative schools) as the guest speakers. The youth engaged in honest and deep conversation about school-based arrests, the School to Prison Pipeline and their experience. Our target populations were: Low income, black, brown, Students with Disabilities and English language learners.
 

The television show was an active research project of Mary Magdalene Ministries Inc., with a purpose to obtain information that showed evidence of targeted student "Push-Out" in Wake County Public Schools. The production sought to raise awareness of the discriminatory practices and inequity in district’s use of the discipline policy. Administrators used policy arbitrarily to "Push-Out" unwanted students through suspension and expulsion.

The production gave youth a voice and allowed them to articulate on critical issues they were facing in public schools. This project was an equity and sensitivity training that was based on facts and findings concurrent with the report filed in 2010, by Anisa Rhea, PH.D, “An Evaluation of Wake County Public Schools System Alternative Education Option”.

These findings suggest the notion of “Throw Away Kids,”  “Out of sight out of mind.”