Public Schools Have Turned into a Fast Track to Prison for Black Men By Addam Francisco

 Most of us (Black men) either graduated from the public school system or spent significant time there. While there are several benefits from getting a public school education, there's also a con for Black boys; the structure of the inner-city public school system is designed as a pipeline for black boys to head to prison in early adulthood.

Don't get me wrong. I love public school. I spent most of my school years in public school, and my father has been an educator in the inner-city public school system for over 38 years. With that being said, I notice a discrepancy between the way the public school system is run, especially in inner-city districts versus suburban school districts and private schools.

I think we can already agree that Black men are automatically at a disadvantage in society, especially Black men from the inner city. There aren't the same opportunities. Family situations are often complicated, and families are often not as financially affluent as families in the suburbs. What are the three things that spearhead wealth and overall success in America? The answer is having the right opportunities, connections, some money, and having family support or positive role models within their family.

To me, that increases the importance of inner-city public schools. While teachers in those districts tend to serve as positive influences for the students and save some, many are too impacted by the adverse effects to be saved.

Where have public schools fallen short, and where can they nurture a better future for our black boys? Well, first of all, the system is set up for our young men to fail.

Primarily, let's start with the lack of African-American teachers and specifically African-American male teachers in our schools. Over 90 percent of K-12 teachers are white women. While most of their intentions are good, what does a white woman have in common with a Black man? They don't have the first-hand experience in black communities to fully sympathize with those students and their situations.

Black men are also more likely to be thrown into special education programs, and often it's without an actual diagnosis. A more aggressive demeanor is deemed as 'emotionally disturbed.' Instead of learning about a kid's at-home situation, the public school system has a bad habit of labeling an unruly or angry Black boy that could simply be having a bad day or week as an anger management student, thus furthering the "behind the 8-ball" mindset that society already tries to foster in our minds.

Another example, but not the last example, is the punishment of black boys being harsher than any other demographic. And this isn't limited to the public school system. As mentioned in the above examples, most school personnel can't relate to these boys. Thus when they act out, severe consequences often follow, 'just to play it safe.'

Black students make up 20 percent of children in public pre-schools—however, they make up half of those pre-k students suspended. Also, black boys receive two-thirds of all school suspensions nationwide.

What makes this so disturbing is that many Black boys, predominantly middle and high school age (12-18), are taken from their school in handcuffs or handed a long-term suspension, often for minor offenses like class disruption and tardiness or non-violent arguments with classmates. These boys are often first-time offenders or non-violent offenders. Remember me saying the 'behind the 8-ball' mentality? This further verifies that and gives these boys a jail-like mindset before they're even legal adults.

School suspensions and arrests are just the beginning of a life living on the other side of the law for so many Black kids. By 23, nearly half of black males have been arrested.

With the current pop culture, which promotes incarceration in the Black community, the public school system must send the opposite message and pay special attention to black males. They must find in-school solutions for most of these students. Cutting the budget for in-school counselors hurts the community even more because that's precisely what's needed. Black male students are being fast-tracked to incarceration, and it's more prevalent now than ever.

Our mission at Grand Gentlemen is to change that narrative and serve as an outlet for our Black boys to be themselves and see men that look like them doing positive things with their lives, schools, and communities. It's all about providing these kids with as equal of opportunities as possible, as well as the guidance they need to counter their often poor living situations.