October 13, 2014. Greenville News Online. By Victoria Middleton, Executive Director. When T.L. was 16 years old, he was expelled from high school for skipping school. After leaving school, T.L. started getting into more trouble and ended up getting arrested for stealing. The judge sent him to a locked “evaluation center” in Union where he was incarcerated for weeks just to have a social worker interview him.
When T.L. was released, he was referred to the Youth Advocate Program (YAP), an alternative-to-incarceration program in Greenville. Through the YAP program, T.L. was connected with a trained mentor who worked with T.L and his family. Together they built a plan focused on T.L.’s needs and strengths, designed to help him stay on track and plan for his future. His mentor was always there for T.L. to talk to and to help him stay focused. Now a year later, T.L. has stayed out of trouble and plans to earn his G.E.D. and join the military.
As is true of most children who have contact with the juvenile justice system, T.L.’s problems started in school. What if administrators in his high school had employed a positive discipline approach and tried to re-engage him with school rather than expel him? Chances are T.L. would not have lost a year of schooling and might not have even ended up in the court system.
Sadly, T.L.’s school experience is not unique. Every year, Greenville schools are pushing out thousands of students for disciplinary infractions that are not serious safety threats. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 7,216 Greenville students were suspended out of school during the 2011-2012 school year. That’s 10 percent of all students in Greenville, and more than 20 percent of students with disabilities. African-American students were more than three times as likely as their white counterparts to be suspended.
Worse yet, behavior that in the past could land a student in the principal’s office is now landing students in court. Under South Carolina’s Disturbing Schools Law, any behavior considered “obnoxious,” such as mouthing off to a teacher or getting in a fight, can lead to an arrest and entry into the juvenile justice system. In fiscal year 2012-2013, a Disturbing Schools charge was the second most common reason that children were referred to juvenile court in Greenville County.
Because of overly punitive policies like the Disturbing Schools Law, many of our students become ensnared in the juvenile justice system, where they can end up not only up locked up in juvenile jails and prisons but also locked out of positive opportunities like college and gainful employment.
Greenville is facing a youth incarceration crisis. In fiscal year 2012-2013, Greenville locked up 1,069 children in the county’s juvenile detention center — a 33 percent increase over the previous year. Greenville not only has the highest number of admissions to juvenile detention but also has the highest juvenile detention rate in the state.
An extensive body of research documents the long-term harmful effects of detaining children. Even very short stays in detention can negatively affect a child’s life, decreasing the likelihood he or she will return to school and increasing the chances that the child will get re-arrested. Alternative programs, like the YAP program that worked with T.L., have been proven to reduce youth crime and improve outcomes for court-involved children.
We at the ACLU of South Carolina believe we need a multi-pronged approach to keep kids in school and out of jail. That’s why we have joined forces with parents, community members and other civil rights and civic organizations to launch the Give Kids a Chance Campaign. We plan to promote positive discipline in schools in lieu of punitive policies like unnecessary suspensions or arrests. When kids do go to court for nonviolent offenses, we want them to receive community evaluations instead of being locked up in evaluation centers.
Finally we want to expand community-based programs like the YAP program in Greenville so we can reduce the number of children languishing in juvenile jails and prisons. If you are interested in joining the campaign, please contact us at [email protected] or P.O. Box 202, Columbia, SC 29202.
