New Haven Independent

Parents Protest School-To-Prison “Pipeline”

by Allan Appel | February 10, 2009 7:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Mary McCormick’s 7th grade son these days won’t even tell her what his problems are in school. He’s afraid kids will call him “snitch.” She’s afraid that might lead to another bullying incident, then a suspension.

Teach Our Children, the school the parent advocacy group, of which McCormick is a member, held its first 2009 rally and press conference of the year in front of the Whalley Avenue detention center Monday evening.

Why the jail? To call attention to what is looming to be one of TOC’s major issues of 2009: a school-to-prison “pipeline,” as TOC’s organizers call it. Mishandled misbehavior results in suspensions, then dropping out, then jail, the group charged. It said that cycle “devastates the New Haven community every day.”

But first there was some good news to report.

Parent organizer Chianna Simmons (left in photo) and TOC’s new coordinator Camille Scott both said that last year’s at times contentious relationship with the Board of Ed has resulted in revisions to the suspension policy. The policy now assures all suspended students will at least have access to homework within three days.

“A new anti-bullying policy,” said Simmons, is also in the works. “Superintendent [Reggie] Mayo has assured us that teachers and principals are going to be trained, there will be posters.”

That would be good news to McCormick (pictured on the right at top). She said her son has ADHD and doesn’t often know how to respond to ribbing effectively. Sometimes he strikes out in response. He had to be transferred from the Clinton Avenue School to Ross Woodward.

“Yes, things are better there,” said McCormick, “but you know it’s not really because the teachers know how to identify the bullying yet and stop it; they don’t. Things are better because I’m at the school a lot, and the teachers are in touch with me not only about my son’s progress but problems too, trying to head them off before they start.”

Superintendent Mayo and Board of Ed officials have said that revisions of the general code of conduct for schools, a focus on dealing with bullying, and lowering suspensions numbers have been in the works for a long time. Although Mayo has said these matters take time, the BOE was prodded into quicker action by TOC’s sometimes confrontational campaigning during 2008.

One of the results, said Chianna Simmons, is a regular monthly meeting with the superintendent. At the last meeting, suspension and bullying policies were discussed, amicably and productively in her view.

According to a study done by Cambridge Associates of urban school districts in the state, New Haven did well by many measures. However, the number of suspensions, said the study, was far too high, and should be reduced.

According to a 2008 study by Connecticut Voices for Children, New Haven was in the top five districts statewide in out-of-school suspension rates, with some 17 percent of its nearly 20,000 students receiving at least one suspension.

The issue for Lamont Moye, a parent of two boys at the Celentano School, and for Cynthia Shannon (pictured) the grandmother of two kids at the Clinton Avenue School, is the number of suspensions issued for trivial causes. While it’s good that kids are finally getting homework, they shouldn’t in Shannon’s words, “be suspended for chewing gum, or slamming the door, or looking the wrong way at someone.”

Carey Ellington, an intern with TOC who lives in Newhallville, said that she sees the “pipeline” in action every day in her neighborhood. “Kids are suspended. They don’t have homework. They fall farther behind. Readjusting to school is harder and harder when they get back. They’re out again, and eventually the police pick them up.”

Ellington said that last year more than 3,300 kids were suspended, with some 846 from Ross Woodward alone. A call to the BOE to confirm these numbers was not returned by press time.

According to Moye, the new suspension policy requiring that kids receive all their homework within three days was implemented only last month. “We don’t know if it’s working,” he said, “but we plan to monitor it.”

The abolition of out-of-school suspension in favor of in-school suspension, in which students could be sure to do their work but in a monitored study-hall or detention setting, was slated to become legislation this year. However, given the financial meltdown, Governor M. Rell appears to be hoping to roll back that effort.

Mayo has said for years that in-school suspension, except for serious violations such as carrying a weapon, is preferable. But he said that staff is required and that without support it would be an unfunded mandate.

Social justice advocate Barbara Fair (pictured on the right), who spoke at the rally, said, “For forty years the corrections budget in Connecticut has gone up. It’s not touched in this year’s budget either. Don’t let people tell you there is no funding for in-school suspension. Let’s get our priorities right.

“Take it from corrections and put it in the schools, so we prepare kids to be citizens, not prisoners.”

In addition to monitoring the suspension and bullying policies, TOC’s 2009 agenda includes continuing to bring pressure for the NHPS to include citywide recess for kids and translation into Spanish on the evolving BOE website and at all BOE meetings.

In the meantime, down in the trenches of 7th grade life, parent Mary McCormick is in her son’s school at least twice a week. “I want to be sure the teachers know me,” she said.

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Posted by: Divine Shabazz | February 10, 2009 10:20 AM

Calling all college students and all other great young minds in New Haven! The current system we have in New Haven is not working for us! If you are tired of the plantation politics and master-slave relationship that John DeStefano has forged across the Elm City, then we need to do something about it! Let's come together and change the face of New Haven politics! Let's draft Bill Dyson to run for Mayor and finally put in one of our own to govern our beloved city! Holla Black!!

Posted by: City Hall Watch | February 10, 2009 10:45 AM

I don't like state mandates for much of anything. But they often come because of the inaction by local officials to address problems and issues. When you are suspending 3400 children per year, you have a problem that's out of control.

The schools being a pipeline to prison is more true than TOC or Barbara Fair realize. There are states, according to the documentary, Today's Children in Tomorrow's World on CPTV, that plan their prison needs based on the number of children in the third grade who are reading below grade level.

The answer is not money. We spend a ton of money on education. It is not taking money away from the Department of Corrections to give to the BOE to misspend either. It starts at home; it continues in the classroom with quality, robust education and it is about personal responsibility that children cannot be excused for poor behavior or poor performance. There are no shortcuts and there should be no excuses from the children, parents, grandparents or educators.

Posted by: Wicked Lester | February 10, 2009 3:15 PM

Discipline and educate your children and you won't have to protest (blame) "the system".

Posted by: teachergal | February 10, 2009 4:37 PM

I think we could learn a lot from our students. They are not vessels to be filled with information but children who need good role models, social development classes, hands on activities, and field trips to learn about the world outside of their neighborhoods.

Kids need many experiences outside of paper/pencil/gook activities to learn. And we have so many resources right here in New Haven but I have seen a decline in this type of learning over the years.

Regarding suspension, I agree it does not solve the problem. Most children are not getting the discipline at home when they are on suspension. In fact, many kids would rather be home than in school so that right there defeats the purpose. So as professionals, we should be looking at alternative strategies and they are out there. In school programs are the answer but of course that needs staffing (dollars).

Many problems and too few solutions. I don't claim to have all the answers but as a senior staff member i do have many ideas which come from my years in education. I would love to see more collaboration between administration and teachers to come up with new plans to substitute for suspension/detention. We need to work together to come up with solutions that support our students instead of blaming each other for the problems that are not rampant in many of our schools.

Posted by: Sally Tamarkin | February 11, 2009 7:47 AM

Let's hear it for TOC and NHPS parents holding Mayo and the BOE accountable and getting a revised suspension policy! Hopefully the bullying policy will follow soon. Thank you, TOC and NHPS parents. Can't wait to see what 2009 will bring for their important work.

Posted by: RichTherrn | February 11, 2009 7:28 PM

I continue to hope that parent groups such as this also focus on the academic needs of children as well, and work with schools at such events as Parent Report Card nights... happening this week!, and at PTA meetings which district folks such as myself and others talk with parents about academic expectations, teachers, and how to help achieve student success.
-Richard Therrien
-NHPS Science Supervisor

Posted by: bfair | February 11, 2009 8:30 PM

CTW: Believe me I am very much aware of the stark reality of the school to prison pipeline. I have been on top of this for several years and was amazed that a child's academic performance in the 3rd or 4th grade is a predictor for DOC's projection for prison space. I have been saying much of this for several years while few were listening.I also recognize that parents are the first teachers and many times the motivating factor in a child's love for education.I make no excuses for them. I made education imperative for my children and they passed that on to their children. It has always been imperative and a source of pride for me because my parents made it a priority and a source of pride for me as I was growing up.I skipped a grade in elementary school because the curriculum was not challenging. When one of my sons was in school I was told that he was a problem child because he "breezed" through work and couldn't settle down. The school suggested I medicate him (which I refused). I questioned medicating my son; something too many parents do not. I wanted to place him in a private school but could not afford it. As a result of my own school experience and subsequently my children's I recognize that parents/grandparents are not always the reason why children are not succeeding in class. Most children begin school with a thirst for knowledge and they excel with the proper resources which includes parents who make education important,and push their children to do their best, parents who spend time reading with their children and checking homework to reinforce what they learned in class but it also includes teachers who are invested in their well being,who have not bought into the fallacy of intellectual inferiority of certain children, who believe in a child's ability to succeed, who have high expectations, who don't covet a "we vs them" attitude ,and an administration that supports them and is accountable for providing the tools for success. Absent of the proper tools children are at risk of losing that thirst for knowledge. Lester,I will continue to protest as long as funding to programs that help children thrive is eliminated while the corrections budget continues to grow.

Parents Protest School-To-Prison “Pipeline”

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