The recent student rebellion at Miami Edison Senior High School was no surprise. In fact, it was inevitable. For almost ten years, Advancement Project has watched in districts throughout the country, including Miami-Dade, the type of harsh and unfair treatment of students that led to the recent clash between students and police at Miami Edison. This incident is the foreseeable result of a progression of destructive policies and practices within schools in Miami and elsewhere – the proverbial pot of boiling water that finally overflowed. How long can youth be criminalized unfairly without backlash?
In recent years, school districts throughout Florida, including Miami-Dade County Public Schools, have adopted a variety of harsh, “zero tolerance” school discipline policies directed at minor misconduct. At the same time, most districts have turned to law enforcement to handle discipline. The effect has been the creation of a “schoolhouse-to-jailhouse track,” in which Florida schools increasingly use punitive measures such as suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests to deal with student misbehavior, and huge numbers of youth – especially students of color – are being pushed out of school and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems for minor misconduct.
Yes, we want safe schools; yet, these practices do not accomplish this goal. In 2006-07, there were 22,926 delinquency referrals from Florida schools, and two-thirds of them were for misdemeanors. Throughout the state, reports of abusive treatment of students by law enforcement and unnecessary long-term out-of-school suspensions are extremely common. These policies and practices have a corrosive effect on schools, and can be particularly damaging for Black students, who are more than twice as likely as their White peers to be suspended or arrested in school in Florida. We have got to fix our schools, not arrest our children.
Indeed, national research on “zero tolerance” has concluded that such policies are associated with student and teacher perceptions of a less effective and inviting school climate. There is also no credible evidence that “zero tolerance” policies improve student behavior, but they have been associated with lower academic achievement and graduation rates. This should be of particular concern in Florida, where the statewide graduation rate is only 61%, and 47% for Black students.
While Miami-Dade’s school arrest rate has declined, there is clearly more work to be done. This unfortunate incident should serve as a lesson that unfair criminalization of students is not tolerable. Instead, the district should use this as an opportunity for change that will provide students and parents with confidence that the district is invested in the future of its students. Across the country, school districts are moving away from “zero tolerance” and toward the creation of safe, effective schools through prevention and interventions. These districts are: placing renewed emphasis on resolving low-level misconduct in the classroom; focusing on using developmentally appropriate disciplinary techniques that limit the amount of time spent outside of class; treating misbehavior as a teachable moment, rather than as a chance to punish; stressing the importance of fairness and uniformity, and the elimination of racial disparities; and calling upon law enforcement only for serious or immediate threats to the safety.
Many districts, including some that have been plagued by serious violence, have adopted “Restorative Justice” programs for addressing student misconduct and creating a positive learning environment. Restorative Justice, which has been implemented by the Chicago Public Schools, Minneapolis Public Schools, and the Denver Public Schools, among many others, is an approach to discipline that has a proven record of success in involving students directly in resolving conflict, reducing school violence and misbehavior, and increasing students’ commitment to their education. For a school like Edison, and many others throughout Florida, adopting a Restorative Justice approach may prove to be just the change that is needed.
Regardless of the approach taken, districts should heed the recommendation presented by the Florida Blueprint Commission on Juvenile Justice, which stressed the importance of eliminating “zero tolerance” for all but the most serious offenses, and instead using alternatives to suspension and other punitive options. Not only would this be a more just approach for the children of Florida and represent more sound educational and economic policy, it may prevent a replay of the ugly incident at Edison.
Browne-Dianis is the co-director of Advancement Project, a national civil rights organization that advances universal opportunity, equity and access for those left behind in America. For more information, please visit www.advancementproject.org