Intervening In the School to Prison Pipeline for Students with Dis/Ability

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Miruna Ouatu-LascarFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Chapman University

First Presenter’s Email Address

ouatulascar@lbschools.net

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Hello my name is Miruna Ouatu-Lascar and I am a second-year doctoral candidate at Chapman University in the Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies. My doctoral emphasis is in Disabilities Studies, a field of study that I am extremely passionate about. I have served as a public-school educator for the past 11 years in the field of special education both as a in classroom teacher and later as an administrator. I currently serve as a Principal of a K-12 school site. I believe the field of special education as well as the field of critical pedagogy is in great need of a broader disability studies lens that works to empower students through advocacy. I am particularly interested in the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender and disability, and how such intersections in identity impact our students within our public-school institutions. I hope to contribute to the conversation surrounding race and disability and the impact this intersection in identity has on our students in the k-12 public school system as well as influence pedagogies and systems directly to assist in bridging not only the educational but also the societal equity access gap for our students of color with disabilities.

Location

Session Seven Breakouts

Strand #1

Hands: Safety & Violence Prevention

Strand #2

Home: Family & Community Engagement

Relevance

The presentation will explore the implications of race, ethnicities, and dis/ability identity in the school to prison phenomena. It will also explore the impact of interventions and how they relate to race, ethnicity and dis/ability identity, and can be utilized to create school policy that serves to curtail the STPP as well as develop a curriculum fostered in social justice that empowers students of color with a dis/ability in their our identity.

Brief Program Description

This workshop will explore the intersection of disability and ethnicity in order to assist workshop participants in analyzing the inequity present both within the construct of disability and race and how this intersectional inequity manifests within the special education system for students of color with disabilities and how such inequities contribute to the over representation of students of color with disabilities in the school to prison phenomenon. Furthermore, the workshop aims to give participants an understanding of Dis/Crit theory and how incorporating Dis/Crit pedagogy within the larger framework of Critical Pedagogy practice serves the needs of our most underserved students in k-12 education.

Summary

This paper presentation will engage teachers, administrators, and educational activists in analyzing the impact of interventions for students of color with disabilities in curtailing their participation in the school to prison pipeline, as well as engage participants in the analysis of social justice pedagogy and DisCrit in an effort to generate discussion around curriculum building that is rooted in DisCrit and social justice with a special education context. This paper presentation will push participants to analyze the implications of DisCrit and social justice pedagogy on the current special education system present in school and work to facilitate critical discourse around curriculum and culture change as it relates to special education settings in k-12 schools.

Evidence

Annamma, S. A. (2014). Disabling juvenile justice: Engaging the stories of incarcerated young women of color with disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 35(5), 313-324.

Annamma, S., Morrison, D., & Jackson, D. (2014). Disproportionality fills in the gaps: Connections between achievement, discipline and special education in the school-to-prison pipeline. Berkeley Review of Education, 5(1).

Archer, D. N. (2009). Introduction: Challenging the school-to-prison pipeline. NYL Sch. L. Rev., 54, 867.

Bell, C. (2016). Special Needs Under Siege: From Classrooms to Incarceration. Sociology Compass, 10(8), 698-705.

Connor, J.D., Ferri, A. B., Annamma, A. S., (2016) DisCrit: Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory in Education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press

Cramer, E. D., Gonzalez, L., & Pellegrini-Lafont, C. (2014). From classmates to inmates: An integrated approach to break the school-to-prison pipeline. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(4), 461-475.

Fader, J. J., Lockwood, B., Schall, V. L., & Stokes, B. (2015). A Promising Approach to Narrowing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: The WISE Arrest Diversion Program. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 13(2), 123-142

Haight, W., Kayama, M., & Gibson, P. A. (2016). Out-of-school suspensions of Black youths: Culture, ability, disability, gender, and perspective. Social work, 61(3), 235-243

Hill, L. A. (2017). Disrupting the Trajectory: Representing Disabled African American Boys in a System Designed to Send Them to Prison. Fordham Urb. LJ, 45, 201.

Mallett, C. A. (2014). The “learning disabilities to juvenile detention” pipeline: A case study. Children & Schools, 36(3), 147-154

Mallett, C. A. (2016). The school-to-prison pipeline: From school punishment to rehabilitative inclusion. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 60(4), 296-304

National Council on Disability, Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students with Disabilities Report, (June 18, 2015)

Poucher, S. M. (2015). The road to prison is paved with bad evaluations: the case for functional behavioral assessments and behavior intervention plans. Am. UL Rev., 65, 471

Skiba, R. J., Arredondo, M. I., & Williams, N. T. (2014). More than a metaphor: The contribution of exclusionary discipline to a school-to-prison pipeline. Equity & Excellence in Education, 47(4), 546-564

Togut, T. D. (2011). The Gestalt of the School-to-Prison Pipeline: The Duality of Overrepresentation of Minorities in Special Education and Racial Disparity in School Discipline eon Minorities. Am. UJ Gender Soc. Pol'y & L., 20, 163

Tulman, J. B., & Weck, D. M. (2009). Shutting off the school-to-prison pipeline for status offenders with education-related disabilities. NYL Sch. L. Rev., 54, 875.

Learning Objective 1

understand the school to prison phenomenon and how it specifically effects students of color with disabilities

Learning Objective 2

analyze and apply effective interventions that assist in curtailing the participation of students of color with disabilities in the school to prison pipeline

Learning Objective 3

understand ableism and apply disability studies and critical race theory to analyze systems within K-12 education as they relate to the lived educational experience of students of color with disabilities

Keyword Descriptors

school to prison pipeline (STPP), restorative justice interventions, critical pedagogy, integrated learning model, critical race theory, disability studies

Presentation Year

2022

Start Date

3-8-2022 2:45 PM

End Date

3-8-2022 4:00 PM

Recommended Citation

Ouatu-Lascar, Miruna, "Intervening In the School to Prison Pipeline for Students with Dis/Ability" (2022). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 72.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2022/2022/72