The court’s role in Dismantling the school-to-Prison Pipeline

The juvenile justice system in America is a paradox when it comes to promoting the welfare of our nation’s young people. We have come a long way from old English common law which treated children as adults under the "vicious will” doctrine,1 to creating juvenile courts with the understanding that children, despite a willful act, still possess a formative mind and should be treated differently from adults. Despite this progression, decisionmakers continue to promulgate laws and policies that treat children as adults in contradiction of the philosophy underlying the creation and role of juvenile courts. The zero tolerance policies of many school systems across the country area prime example of this paradoxical treatment of children. In an attempt to address discipline, school systems have adopted a “get tough” approach using out-of-school suspension, expulsion, and arrests.