Perspective: Shut down the school-to-prison pipeline

Everyone remembers a time when they did something that might have pushed a few boundaries when they were in school. Even we as legislators remember getting in trouble and being sent to the principals’ office. Normal kid things. Now, those might not be our proudest moments but, as we look back, they were moments that we learned from, moments that shaped us as adults.

Unfortunately, times have changed, detention and the principals’ office have been replaced by police intervention, tickets and even arrests. These law enforcement interactions catch students in a cycle of unnecessary and costly involvements with the criminal justice system. This cycle has implications for their entire lives, keeping them from going to college, staying in dorms, and even getting an after-school job.

The majority of tickets and incidents are for low-level offenses — things like smoking a cigarette. We absolutely want to make sure our youth are not forming a dangerous habit like smoking — but is the best way to do that sending them to court? We must ensure that schools are a safe place for all students to be able to develop their sense of self, build relationships, and process trauma without fear.

We introduced Senate Bill 182 in the Colorado General Assembly this year because school discipline does not have to only result in a punitive outcome like tickets and arrests. We believe schools need strong mental health services, trauma-informed approaches, and discipline codes that reflect age-appropriate discipline. Evidence-based inclusionary approaches to discipline like restorative justice programs can help students process disciplinary incidents and develop the tools they need to help ensure that infractions don’t happen again as they did for us. Kids need to be kids, they need to make mistakes and have the room to learn from those mistakes without jeopardizing their entire future.

More than 38,000 police tickets and arrests of K-12 students occurred within Colorado public schools from 2014-2020. Continuing historical racial inequities, most of these tickets and arrests were of students of color, with Black students being especially overrepresented. During that six-year period black students were nearly three times more likely than their white peers to be ticketed or arrested by police.

Another worrisome trend is that an alarming number of the students being introduced to the juvenile and criminal justice systems are very young. Out of the more than 38,000, 68% were students aged 15 or younger, 28% of the tickets and arrests were students aged 13 or younger. There were at least 1,739 tickets and arrests of 10- and 11-year-olds during those six years. Additionally, disabled kids are two and a half times more likely to be arrested compared to their non-disabled peers.

Ending the school-to-prison pipeline starts with understanding the challenges our students and schools are facing. It means taking a further look at our data on discipline practices, including data on suspensions, expulsions, ticketing, and arrests. Local communities should be aware when their schools are disciplining students of color disproportionately, and they should have a say in how to prevent these harmful practices through evidence-based interventions like antibias training and restorative justice programs that can help to prevent exclusionary discipline practices from being used in the first place. It also means building escalating systems of discipline that prioritize inclusionary approaches, while still allowing school districts and schools the flexibility to ensure schools still have the tools they need when these inclusionary approaches are not working.

This bill also helps us adopt a more balanced role for law enforcement in schools. Research demonstrates that requiring first-time offenses to be handled through the school discipline process, rather than law enforcement, cuts the number of tickets issued by a third. An incident on school property — like trespassing or “disorderly conduct” should be handled by the school — not by the criminal justice system.

This bill does not prevent school from engaging police where a student has committed a violent crime, or for a criminal felony. This bill isn’t about “letting kids slide” for bad behavior — it simply asks for balance in how schools handle discipline and ensures schools use thoughtful, proactive approaches to discipline problems that get at the root of the problem and provide the supports students need to get ahead.

This bill does not ban School Resource Officers, instead, it aims to elevate our strongest officers to work with students. School districts should have the best tools they need to make sure these officers are a good fit for their communities.

Colorado must lead in addressing the school-to-prison pipeline. This bill is a critical step in helping us to address the racial injustices of the past, giving schools the tools they need to build strong, safe communities, and preventing students from being unnecessarily subjected to the criminal justice system for behaviors that are typical of young people.

State Sen. Janet Buckner represents Colorado Senate District 28 in southern Aurora. State Rep. Leslie Herod represents Colorado House District 8 in Denver.