Learning about ways to target the school-to-prison pipeline as well as grassroots organizing in general was both inspiring and informative and encouraged me to adopt a more positive outlook about the future of urban education in the United States. Prior to this research project, I was unaware of the extensive grassroots organizations that existed to combat the injustices of urban education. I had heard about grassroots but definitely did not expect to find so many that incorporated the dismantling of the school-to-prison pipeline as part of their efforts. Additionally, I was impressed by the success of some of the groups that I researched and was inspired to learn that many of them have truly accomplished change. When discussing urban education and the plethora of issues associated with it, it can often become a discussion that leads to hopelessness and makes change seem impossible. While there is obviously an extensive amount of change that still needs to happen with regards to public urban education in the United States, it was reassuring to learn that there are individuals all across the nation who are passionate about improving the system and actively working to achieve their goals.

Since I was not very familiar with grassroots organizing prior to this research project, it was interesting to learn that so many groups have a broad platform in which they target a variety of social injustices. In fact, many of the grassroots organizations that are discussed on this website are attempting to combat the school-to-prison pipeline as just one of many social reform efforts and therefore develop a plethora of strategies to successfully target all of the different aspects of their movement. Additionally, some of their groups were founded by youth and are youth-led; these were particularly inspiring to learn about because these are the individuals who are currently being affected by these educational injustices and are actively attempting to change their current conditions. Other groups were founded by parents, teachers, or active community members who were eager to get involved. It reiterated the idea that the community is a source of power and can unite to eventually dissolve these issues.

In addition to the level of commitment and existence of these groups, I also found it shocking that there were so many different ideas about how to combat the school-to-prison pipeline. These potential solutions include change in teacher attitudes and classroom instruction, the removal of police officers and metal detectors in schools that create a criminalizing environment, and the implementation of restorative justice practices to replace zero tolerance policies, just to name a few. I learned that a common agreement among most of these groups was to recognize the importance of establishing disciplinary policies that accounted for different personal circumstances and working with the students directly, rather than rejecting them and pushing them out of school. Simply enforcing removal policies for every issue was both offensive and ineffective. The more I learned about the system in place, the more I realized the irony behind many of its policies. Schools are supposed to exist as foundations for success, offering equal opportunity to all. However, the way schools administer punishment and rely on zero tolerance policies ultimately encourages students to leave the education system rather than encouraging them to embrace it.

Even though I had been aware of the discriminating and outright unfair policies that are implemented way too frequently as a result of zero tolerance policies, doing research about the impact of the school-to-prison pipeline reemphasized many of these ideas in a very powerful manner. It was shocking to learn about how many students have been unfairly targeted by these disciplinary systems and was much more impactful to listen to individuals discuss their situations rather than simply learning about the statistics and hearing about the extensive number of individuals who are affected. I was particularly distraught to hear so many students that were forced to face criminal charges for very minor issues, even children as young as five or six years old. Experiencing such an intense event without reason at such a young age clearly affected their entire outlook on the schooling process, and I can only hope that they will use their frustrations about their experiences to initiate new movements that challenge these policies.