Marsha Weissman

Elementary school is just the warm-up act

Prelude to Prison: Student Perspectives on School Suspension by Marsha Weissman (Syracuse University Press, $44.95.

Believe it or not, schools are actually much, much safer than they were in the 1990s.

Safer, that is, except for the way that some of them seem to function as a pipeline to prison, particularly for students of of color. Although the excessive disciplinary responses to African American boys has been previously publicized, a new study from UCLA shows that African American girls make up a hugely disproportionate number of students who are punished harshly in school.

In Prelude to Prison: Student Perspectives on School Suspension, Marsha Weissman, the founder and executive director of the Center for Community Alternatives, focuses on and dissects the way that boys, especially African American boys, are disproportionately disciplined and suspended—a rate that’s higher for black children and that has kept climbing despite reductions in crime at school. She shows how suspended students are more likely to drop out, and how the suspensions themselves can lead to criminality. Short form: The schools-to-prisons pipeline is both real and costly for our society.In addition, Weissman clearly describes how urban schools have come to resemble prisons, with school police and security measures one would expect of penitentiaries. Finally, Weissman relies on the voices of students themselves as they describe their desire for education and their disappointment at the way the educational system has treated them.

Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com… (mehr)

This heartbreaking book shows how poor students, mostly students of color, are tracked through the educational system to prison through the use of suspensions, surveillance and heavy handed tactics by police and school officials. Due to tracking, which begins in middle school, students begin the process of being delegitimatized and marginalized and sent to "alternative" education which is the first step in the process towards prison. One unique feature of this book is how Weissman prioritizes student perspective and gives voice to their understanding of the school to prison pipeline. I could not stop listening to the smart and insightful students in this book and how the author supports them in their explorations. One issue that did seem missing is the impact of privatization of education and the growth of charter schools. Overall excellent read and I have already begun to recommend this book to educators, students and organizers.… (mehr)