When Thena Robinson-Mock was in fourth grade, she was suspended.
“I had had enough of the mystery meat and I had decided I was going to do something about it, and at the time, I was learning all about the civil rights movement and I was inspired,” she said.
So she decided to take a stand against the unsavory entree and encourage her classmates to sign a petition to banish the beef. Instead, it earned her a two-day suspension.
Fortunately, that didn’t deter the African-American student from going on to become a successful civil rights attorney and current director of the DC-based Advancement Project “Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track” program.
But for many kids who break the rules, today, it’s a different story, she said
“Now, the stakes are much higher...We are sending young people out of schools in handcuffs for things that could be handled in school,” she said.
She was speaking to attendees at the “Ending the School to Prison Pipeline” community summit at Greater Macedonia Baptist Thursday hosted by the Jacksonville branch of the NAACP.
The “school-to-prison pipeline” refers to a national trend in which students removed from school for relatively minor offenses, find themselves on a track to eventually serving hard time.
Robinson-Mock said the nationwide shift to a more heavy-handed approach to discipline began in the 1980s with the implementation of drug zero-tolerance policies and expanded following school tragedies such as the Columbine massacre in 1999 and the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
Shoving another student became grounds for a battery charge and talking back could be ruled as disorderly conduct, she said.
“Each year, over 3 million students are suspended,” Robinson-Mock said. “Seven out of 10 of these students are black, Latino and, or students with disabilities…Over 70 percent are youth of color, particularly black and Latino youth.”
But in Duval County, the latest trend is looking brighter. Since 2008, the number students arrested at school has dropped by roughly 60 percent, according to the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice.
District data shows that out-of-school suspensions are also on the decline, dropping from 33,090 in 2012 to 28,945 in 2014.
That’s thanks to a statewide move away from previously rigid zero-tolerance legislation and a district-wide effort toward a less, punitive approach.
Earlier this summer, Superintendent Nikolai Vitti rolled out a revised code of student conduct which places more emphasis on keeping kids in class.
For instance, the code outlines steps instructors must take for an infraction before resorting to out-of-school suspension.
“You have to meet with the parent. You have to meet with the student,” Vitti said.
Vitti said teachers also must look to after-school detention or in-school suspension as preferred alternatives to out-of-school suspension.
“Now, it requires you to actually build a relationship with that child before you get to that point,” he said.
However, large racial disparities still exist in the county. Black students account for about 44 percent of the Duval student population, but district data shows they made up 81 percent of all school-related arrests in 2014, while white students made up just 16 percent. Likewise, black students accounted for 74 percent of out-of-school suspensions in the district, while white students again made up about 16 percent.
During the meeting, Vitti noted that the district has reduced the number of black students arrested by 16 percent and the number of out-of-school suspensions by 12 percent.
“I think we’re moving the needle, but we’re not moving the needle fast enough in order to address this issue, and I continue to take on the challenge and the ownership for the improvement,” he said.
It will take action from more than just the school district to accomplish that task, NAACP members say. It will take community involvement. That was the point of Thursday’s summit, said NAACP education committee chairwoman Elnora Atkins.
“There’s strength in numbers and we can’t expect the schools to do everything. It really starts with the home with the parents and of course, the churches, the businesses, the neighbor next door,” she said. “It is going to take the entire community to stop the school-to-prison pipeline.”
You can follow Rhema Thompson on Twitter @RhemaThompson.
