Beyond Scared Straight: A Formula for Misdirected Focus and Disempowerment in the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Type of Presentation
Individual presentation
Brief Description of Presentation
This presentation will offer participants a glimpse into the A & E Network reality show Beyond Scared Straight. Participants will deconstruct the show with historical and theoretical perspectives of the school-to-prison pipeline, critical literacy and educational and penal realism. The presenter will offer a framework for uncovering how this wildly popular reality show shapes how our children are treated in schools and in communities while highlighting the structural forces that have shaped this reality. Participants will leave the presentation with a framework to disrupt the neoliberal, meritocratic and capitalist structure that is made invisible through shows such as Beyond Scared Straight.
Abstract of Proposal
Beyond Scared Straight is a reality show in its 9th season aired on A & E Network. The premise of the show is to scare juvenile delinquent youth into “straightening up” their behavior and academics in school and at home. Beyond Scared Straight is a wildly popular reality television show with more than 1 million followers on Facebook. It baffles me that we on the “outside” are not beyond scared straight by the portrayal of our “wayward” youth and beyond outraged by the omission of the larger context which is an educational and penal system functioning by design through a hidden agenda.
Beyond Scared Straight does a masterful job of masking the perpetual inequalities inherent in the educational and penal systems. The students featured on the show are not high-achievers in school and are often suspended for offenses such as defiance, insubordination, disrespect and fighting. The students live in impoverished neighborhoods where one or more parents are absent, behind bars or deceased. The parents, and sometimes grandparents, are exhausted with the education and justice systems and relinquish all hope and power to a militaristic intervention into their families. The pseudo-inmate students encounter correctional officers who yell and enact violence upon them to argue their points with no concrete models for how to “straighten up” on the outside. When students are asked why they do the things they do, their answers follow the themes of absent fathers, resiliency and anger. Beyond Scared Straight is the narrative for what is wrong with our educational and penal systems as parents, teachers and students are jaded and believe that all of their problems are self-created and there is no existing, tangible structure to change their trajectories. Beyond Scared Straight depicts how we have adopted the “blame the victim” (Fasching-Varner, Mitchell, Martin, & Bennett-Haron, 2014; García & De Lissovoy, 2013; Payne, 2011) framework and continue to misdirect our focus and power.
During this presentation, participants will be engaged in a Critical Policy and Deconstructive Analysis of Beyond Scared Straight. The analysis uncovers a framework for how parents and community members can start the engagement and participatory action required to engage and empower their schools and communities. The purpose of the framework is to disrupt the neoliberal, meritocratic, capitalist structure that is made invisible through shows such as Beyond Scared Straight.
References
Fasching-Varner, K. J., Mitchell, R. W., Martin, L. L., & Bennett-Haron, K. P. (2014). Beyond school-to-prison pipeline and toward an educational and penal realism. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(4), 410-429.
García, J. & De Lissovoy, N. (2013).Doing school time: The hidden curriculum goes to prison. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 11(4), 49-69.
Payne, Y. A. (2011). Site of resilience: A reconceptualization of resiliency and resilience in street life–oriented Black men. Journal of Black Psychology, 37(4), 426-451.
Location
Coastal Georgia Center
Start Date
3-26-2016 8:10 AM
End Date
3-26-2016 9:40 AM
Recommended Citation
Council, Thais, "Beyond Scared Straight: A Formula for Misdirected Focus and Disempowerment in the School-to-Prison Pipeline" (2016). International Critical Media Literacy Conference. 7.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/criticalmedialiteracy/2016/2016/7
Beyond Scared Straight: A Formula for Misdirected Focus and Disempowerment in the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Coastal Georgia Center
Beyond Scared Straight is a reality show in its 9th season aired on A & E Network. The premise of the show is to scare juvenile delinquent youth into “straightening up” their behavior and academics in school and at home. Beyond Scared Straight is a wildly popular reality television show with more than 1 million followers on Facebook. It baffles me that we on the “outside” are not beyond scared straight by the portrayal of our “wayward” youth and beyond outraged by the omission of the larger context which is an educational and penal system functioning by design through a hidden agenda.
Beyond Scared Straight does a masterful job of masking the perpetual inequalities inherent in the educational and penal systems. The students featured on the show are not high-achievers in school and are often suspended for offenses such as defiance, insubordination, disrespect and fighting. The students live in impoverished neighborhoods where one or more parents are absent, behind bars or deceased. The parents, and sometimes grandparents, are exhausted with the education and justice systems and relinquish all hope and power to a militaristic intervention into their families. The pseudo-inmate students encounter correctional officers who yell and enact violence upon them to argue their points with no concrete models for how to “straighten up” on the outside. When students are asked why they do the things they do, their answers follow the themes of absent fathers, resiliency and anger. Beyond Scared Straight is the narrative for what is wrong with our educational and penal systems as parents, teachers and students are jaded and believe that all of their problems are self-created and there is no existing, tangible structure to change their trajectories. Beyond Scared Straight depicts how we have adopted the “blame the victim” (Fasching-Varner, Mitchell, Martin, & Bennett-Haron, 2014; García & De Lissovoy, 2013; Payne, 2011) framework and continue to misdirect our focus and power.
During this presentation, participants will be engaged in a Critical Policy and Deconstructive Analysis of Beyond Scared Straight. The analysis uncovers a framework for how parents and community members can start the engagement and participatory action required to engage and empower their schools and communities. The purpose of the framework is to disrupt the neoliberal, meritocratic, capitalist structure that is made invisible through shows such as Beyond Scared Straight.
References
Fasching-Varner, K. J., Mitchell, R. W., Martin, L. L., & Bennett-Haron, K. P. (2014). Beyond school-to-prison pipeline and toward an educational and penal realism. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(4), 410-429.
García, J. & De Lissovoy, N. (2013).Doing school time: The hidden curriculum goes to prison. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 11(4), 49-69.
Payne, Y. A. (2011). Site of resilience: A reconceptualization of resiliency and resilience in street life–oriented Black men. Journal of Black Psychology, 37(4), 426-451.
