Day of empathy: start young

Halt the school-to-prison pipeline.

“When children attend schools that place
greater value on discipline and security than
on knowledge and intellectual development,
they are attending prep schools for prison.”

Angela Davis

I had a conversation the other day with one of my mentees about what it was like to attend D.C. public schools. He described how he was greeted like a criminal when he walked in, instead of as a student. (He had to place his belt, jacket and book bag on a conveyor belt to be x-rayed, etc.) Over time, he became desensitized to this type of treatment and began to feel as “less worthy.” It became the norm for him to start loosening his belt and untying his shoes blocks before he got to school, so he could more expediently clear the metal detector and make it to class on time.

The picture he painted conjured memories of my own dehumanizing experiences in prison. I too now treat it as routine and normal to strip down, butt naked, in preparation for a strip search, long before I am told to do so. Better to do it…