Prelude to Prison

I kind figured out what I’d see in this book long before I read it. Kids today, especially in rough neighborhoods, get suspended for just about anything, and if that’s not bad enough, they can get arrested too. A kid is nodding off in the classroom, the teacher yells at him, he says “shut up,” and the teacher calls in the dean to remove him. The kid refuses to leave, they call in the school safety officers, and they handcuff the kid. He’s taken to the lockup, booked, and even if the judge throws the charges out, it still costs time. By time I mean instruction time in the school, the police officer’s time, and the court’s time. Taxpayers pay for it all.

Prelude to Prison gives many examples of how these injustices are ruining entire communities. White kids get suspended for pranks or improper clothing, while minorities get suspended for getting into fights. In Delaware, a 7^th grader was suspended for “butt slapping.” In Florida, a boy was suspended for pointing his finger at a teacher and saying “pow-pow.”  The author interviews parents, teachers, police, judges, and blames them all equally.

There isn’t much of a solution to these problems, except maybe birth control. Teachers should not be able to throw kids out just for disrespect, which is usually just plain old immaturity. If a kid says ‘that’s stupid shit” that doesn’t mean the kid’s being disrespectful, it might just be an impulse. Kids from troubled families aren’t going to be easy to convince of anything, so they’ll be wary of learning.