Open letter: A right to a safe and civil education March 23, 2010
March 22, 2010
To Whom It May Concern:
As you may know, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and their allies in the non-profit sector are working on the Illinois Safe and Civil Schools Act, a legislative effort to address youth-on-youth violence in Illinois’ schools. As a collection of youth-centered organizing initiatives deeply committed to the struggle against violence, we would like to voice our position that any effort aiming to address school violence must be based on principles of restorative and transformative justice.
The undersigned organizations believe unconditionally that every student has the right to a safe and civil education; however we are concerned that legislation such as this could lead to the creation of “zero-tolerance” policies which reinforce the school-to-prison pipeline. The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the national trend of criminalizing, rather than educating, our youth and “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies are often the first step in a young person’s journey through that pipeline. These policies ignore circumstances around violence, fail to address conditions which create violence, and often disproportionately target marginalized students whom such efforts are stated to protect.
Furthermore, policies which focus on punishment rather than change can only deal with violence after the fact and put young people into artificial categories of bully and victim. Dealing with school violence in this individualized nature ignores the systemic violence which marginalized students face daily. By failing to recognize the inherent violence of a heterosexist curriculum, gendered dress codes, school closings, militarization, and other forms of systemic violence, this legislation has the possibility to divert energy and resources away from efforts to change the culture of schools and truly end violence. (more…)
