One hundred students arrested

Recently Albion, Michigan started requiring school administrators to call the police when students got into a fight. Once the police are called the students are often arrested. One hundred students have been arrested so far.

I enjoyed Kathryn Hemenway's response. Her column, A different perspective on school arrests, lists a number of reasons why this is a bad idea. She writes:

"I am against systematic arrests of students who fight for four reasons: I am a mother with children at the high school; I am a corrections officer's wife and know what happens to kids when they enter the corrections system; I have taken the time to educate myself on this subject, and I genuinely care about and support our school district and our students. I am firmly convinced that systematically arresting kids - passing the responsibility of evaluating behavior and disciplining students on to the courts - is, for the adults of our district, taking the easy way out."

Later she writes:

"You see, what the community may not know is that these policies - generally referred to as school-to-prison pipeline policies - have many undesirable outcomes. The least desirable of these is indoctrinating youth (who are much less likely to know their legal rights and much more likely to waive their right to legal counsel) into the corrections system. Added to that is that schools that enforce these policies often have increased dropout rates and transfer rates."

Many schools districts are over reacting to recent violence in school by coming down hard on any kind of fighting. One of the scary changes is that often the schools make no distinction between the aggressor and the victim. Both are lumped together as trouble makers.


(Hat tip: Zero Intellience)


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