As one Illinois teacher put it: “If we’re treating with dignity, I think we’ll get a lot more out of them.” More concretely, schools should put a moratorium on referring student misbehavior to police and amend student conduct codes to be more flexible to each student’s unique situation. To support students, schools must make an immediate commitment to building a trauma-sensitive virtual environment that keeps students engaged and builds positive relationships with teachers and fellow students. Many districts have doubled-down on the punishment and surveillance tactics that have characterized American education the last 30 years and have used the virtual window into students’ homes to justify punishments that make an already difficult time nearly impossible for students. As students expose their bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens to their classes, teachers have an unprecedented view into a student’s family life. The officer entered his bedroom, confirmed the item was a toy, and told him he could have faced criminal charges for “Interference with the staff, faculty, or students of educational institutions.”Įlliot’s story, which happened on only the third day of school, underscores a crisis of student and family privacy happening across the country. The teacher saw him move the toy and told the school’s principal that Elliot was “waiving around a toy gun” and that she “assumed it was a toy gun but was not certain.” Despite Elliot’s mother emailing the teacher that it was just a toy, the police came to Elliot’s house.

Elliot is a 12-year old Black boy with disabilities from Colorado who made national headlines last month after he was suspended for five days and questioned at his home by police for displaying a neon green toy gun.

Two months into virtual schooling, it appears the school-to-prison pipeline has rebranded as the Zoom-to-prison pipeline.

Zoom earth 2 prison