Your Dec. 13 article "State ranks No. 4 in school suspensions" highlighted a growing concern in North Carolina: the school-to-prison pipeline that siphons our students from the classroom to a courtroom at an alarming rate. Short-term and long-term suspensions can often lead to expulsions or dropouts. Suspended teens, who are out of school and often unsupervised, are at increased risk for criminal activity.
The school-to-prison pipeline is not just an N.C. problem, it's a national epidemic, but North Carolina's outdated state law that automatically prosecutes 16- and 17-year-olds as adults is bursting this state's pipeline at the seams. The article pointed out that 10 percent of North Carolina's public school students are ejected from school for various reasons annually - that is nearly 150,000 children out of school and unsupervised each year. That's 150,000 of our children who are more likely to encounter the juvenile or adult criminal justice systems.
Zero tolerance policies and charging adolescents as adults are not smart public policies. Instead of letting 10 percent of our children slip out of the mainstream and into unproductive lives, let us focus on successful programs proven to keep them in school and out of trouble.
