Breaking the school-to-prison pipeline: examining arrests among black male students in OUSD - Local: In Oakland

Breaking the school-to-prison pipeline: examining arrests among black male students in OUSD - Local: In Oakland: Oakland’s black youth are arrested in school at a rate that is more than double their proportion of the school population, a community nonprofit said. Almost three-fourths of arrestees are black, although they comprise less than a third of the student body. These arrest records, even if thrown out, may shadow them all their lives, sending them down what critics call the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

Disproportionate rates of disciplinary action are sparking deep debate by education, law enforcement, legal and community groups struggling to provide safe, nurturing schools for students troubled by poverty and turbulence that stops short of criminalizing youthful misbehavior.

In August 2013, the non-profit Black Organizing Project (BOP) released a study, ‘From Report Card to Criminal Record: The Impact of Policing Oakland Youth’, in conjunction with American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Northern California. To better understand the presence of the police force in Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) schools, BOP investigated the rate of punishments among African American males in comparison to those of other races.