Shifting from Zero-Tolerance Policies to Address Substance Use among Black High School Students: Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline Using a Whole-Child Approach
Varsha Penumalee
Virginia Commonwealth University
Abstract
Because Black high school students are significantly more likely to be incarcerated as adults than their White counterparts, it’s important to investigate how current policies in public schools may increase the racial disparities of the school-to-prison pipeline. To understand how to mitigate future incarceration of Black high school students, this comprehensive literature review investigates how zero-tolerance policies and whole-child policies may impact substance use and racially disproportionate suspension rates in high schools in the United States. Unlike whole-child policies, zero-tolerance policies fail to address reasons for maladaptive behavior, often weaken student-teacher relationships, and neglect academic success. Zero-tolerance policies often inadvertently increase substance use and academic disengagement rather than ameliorate these issues. Zero-tolerance approaches increase suspension rates while whole-child approaches decrease the incidence of suspension, indicating that the inclusion of whole-child policies and decreased use of zero-tolerance policies may reduce youth incarceration rates. Black students who use substances are also more likely to be suspended than their non-Black counterparts and those who have been suspended have a higher likelihood of being incarcerated, signifying that a reduction in suspension rates in high schools may decrease racial disparities among incarcerated young adults. Thus, the use of whole-child policies may mitigate the incidence of substance use and racially disproportionate suspension practices among Black students, reducing incarceration through the school-to-prison pipeline.
Keywords: zero-tolerance, whole-child, substance use, incarceration, race, high school
