Helping people prepare for, find, and keep good jobs is what Goodwill is about.

Hi Everyone – 

The news from Goodwill is light today, so I thought I would take the opportunity to talk a little about what is known as the school to prison pipeline. We serve and employ many people who are returning from prison or jail, providing services and employment after incarceration. My hope is that we continue to do more primary prevention, which means that we work to solve the problem before it starts. In order to do that, we need to understand how children, and especially children of color, are being moved into the corrections system at a young age. 

Although juvenile detention rates have fallen since the 1990’s, school suspension and discipline rates have increased. The reasons for this are many, but the fact that we began putting law enforcement officers in schools and began outsourcing school discipline to the juvenile justice system is one of the biggest. Initially and for most schools, these officers were put in place to protect students and staff from gun violence. But just as in our communities, law enforcement officers in schools have become responsible for addressing issues they were not intended to address. With officers in schools, children are arrested and referred to the juvenile justice system far more frequently than when schools are handling their own behavior issues, and by some studies, Black children are arrested or referred to the juvenile justice system at a rate five times higher than children who are White. Data shows that any engagement with the criminal justice system before graduating high school increases the chances of incarceration as an adult. By treating our children like criminals for subjective offenses like “insubordination” or “willful defiance” in the school system, we are contributing to the school to prison pipeline. As a child (some children are being arrested as young as 6 or 7) who is at school to learn, our role must be to teach rather than suspend or incarcerate. 

I am not sure what Goodwill’s role is in ending the school to prison pipeline, but we need to be aware of the problem if we have any hope of being part of the solution. Dr. Ibram Kendi says that “the heartbeat of racism is denial.” We have to acknowledge the problem and its impact in order to make a positive difference. We recognize that inequities in education is a barrier to our agency vision that everyone has a pathway to meaningful and sustaining work, and like all barriers, whether personal or systemic, our work is in removing the obstacles people face. Any ideas are welcome, so email me if you have a thought that could impact this concern. 

In COVID-19 news, an NPR story this week helped me realize that wearing masks is helpful beyond protecting others from an illness you may have. Masks also help the wearer, because the severity of a disease caused by a virus is sometimes determined by the viral load. Viral load is a measure of virus particles. With most viruses, higher viral loads lead to worse outcomes. There is so much we don’t know yet about the coronavirus, but if it follows what is true for many other viruses, then wearing a mask can limit your initial exposure and viral load. Even if you get sick, your illness will be less severe and you are less likely to die. This is another great reason to mask up! Do what you can to protect yourself, the people in your community, and those you love most. 

Even though these are some of the most difficult times we will collectively live to see, have hope. Senator Cory Booker said, “Hope right now in America is bloodied and battered, but this is the kind of hope that is successful. It is hope that has lost its naiveté.” 

My best to all of you – 
Jeanette