The school-to-prison pipeline has been a tool used to oppress minorities, including LGBT youth of color, for the last three decades. According to the GSA Network, nearly one-third of LGBT students who drop out of high school do so to escape harassment. For LGBT youth of color, this number is higher because of the additional racism and
discrimination in school discipline that they face as youth of color. The systemic racism and homophobia that plague our society has influenced the support LGBT youth of color receive in school, which creates a gateway to the school-to-prison pipeline.
“I think it’s not fair that we don’t have enough counselors. The counselor becomes a stranger,” said Keith Southerland, a senior at Charter High School for Architecture + Design. “You really don’t know if the counselor is a safe person or it is a safe space. A lot of LGBT youth are swept under the rug.”
In most public and charter schools, there are a limited number of counselors and social workers who can handle the overabundance of LGBT students who need counseling and emotional support. The School District of Philadelphia pink-slipped thousands of staff over the last four years to fill budget deficits; this included hundreds of counselors.
“I feel that LGBT youth are an easier target to be pushed out [of school] because of everything we have to deal with. It isn’t fair,” said Naisha Soto, a youth leader at Youth United for Change and a junior at Community Academy of Philadelphia Charter School. “At my school, students do a lot of verbal abuse to LGBT youth.”
Having a counselor isn’t enough to sustain a student. Schools need to become safe spaces for all youth.
At Community Academy of Philadelphia Charter School, there are a limited number of counselors for the 1,212 students.
“At my school all the students that want to go to the counselor must sign a list and it is visible for everyone to see,” Soto said. “Youth don’t want all that attention on them because everyone can see who goes to the counselor. So a lot youth hold [their pain] in so they won’t have all that attention on them.”
There have been ideas and strategies to eliminate the school-to-prison pipeline. Changing the discipline policies in schools and creating more emotional support for LGBT youth are the first lines of defense against the school-to-prison pipeline.
Challenging and effectively changing policies that harm LGBT youth are what Youth United for Change has been doing for the last two decades. YUC’s LGBT youth organizing started with a battle over the uniform policy that said students could be punished for wearing gender-nonconforming uniforms. Saeda, alumni of YUC and current School-to-Prison Pipeline organizer who attended Kensington Business High School, faced this as a student.
“A lot of [gender-nonconforming] young people were pushed out because of the zero-tolerance policies,” said Saeda. “For example, I was told that if I didn’t wear a dress to the prom, I couldn’t run for prom queen. So I had to run for prom king. I won prom king and I was told I wasn’t crowned because I wasn’t a man.”
It is incidents like this that have a negative impact on LGBTQ students of color. If Saeda didn’t have the support and love from YUC, Saeda’s life could have gone in another direction. Saeda testified at the School Reform Commission about the uniform policy and the SRC ultimately changed it.
Currently YUC is focusing on the implementation of the National Student Bill of Rights. The NSBR are 15 provisions youth from around the country created to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Some of these demands include: the right to public education, right to safe and secure housing and the right to freedom from unwarranted search and seizure or arrest.
YUC plans on making the NSBR a reality through challenging the code of conduct in the public-school system and creating a citywide GSA.
“Starting a GSA for everyone in the city is one of our goals. LGBTQ youth of color have been excluded from other organizations. They don’t feel they have been totally protected there,” said Saeda.
There are many programs that fight issues that LGBTQ youth of color encounter every day, but many of these have a limited number of people of color in executive positions and on their boards of directors. Without that visibility, youth often do not see themselves reflected in the leadership. Several of these programs also target a certain demographic within the LGBTQ youth-of-color spectrum because of funding and governmental requirements. These limitations create gaps in the services to the community, thus causing many other youth to fall through the cracks. These youth often roam the streets of the Gayborhood searching for friendship and love.
The LGBTQ community in Philadelphia must recognize its part in contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. LGBTQ youth of color are not privy to the many amenities of the community. There are very few safe places where they can be after 8 p.m. Many of them do not want to go home and tolerate the feeling of being a second-class citizen, and this can lead to illegal activities or trouble with law enforcement. Even if nothing unethical happens while they are in the Gayborhood, youth usually stay out late and this can harm their academic work and school attendance.
There is an opportunity for the entire LGBTQ community to defy the status quo and create supportive spaces for LGBTQ youth of color. This is key for ending the school-to-prison pipeline and creating a community of love and happiness. This will not happen overnight but the process can begin now. Imagine the mentor programs, academic and college support, evening and late-night safe activities and countless other approaches that our community can take to be a part of the solution.
William E. Shelton II graduated from St. Joseph’s University with a master of arts in writing studies.