The School-to-Prison Pipeline and the “Death of Deviance” in the American Public School System

Abstract

In 1994, the US Congress passed the “Gun Free Schools Act”, requiring states to enforce “zero tolerance” expulsion of students specifically for firearms found on school property (Advancement Project, 2005). As a result, states not only determined that this was a worthwhile effort for protecting youth enrolled in schools, but also that this approach could (and should) be expanded to incorporate other forms of behavior and other, more formal forms of discipline. Moreover, a lack of clearly defined punishment(s) for zero tolerance activities allowed for the social and criminological construction of implementing a myriad of sanctions for a wide variety of behaviors (Skiba and Knesting, 2001). While there have been numerous social and political instances that have influenced the overall growth of “zero tolerance” policies in schools and the growth of the “school-to-prison pipeline” type of punishments (e.g., the growth of gang violence in the early 1990s), it can be argued that no single instance holds greater influence on these policies than the Columbine school shooting.