Entertained and Educated by Anna Deavere Smith

Several years ago I noticed a police car parked outside Berkeley High School.  I thought, "What the hell?  Is there a riot or something?"

Daily at Berkeley High

Soon afterward, I saw one parked at Albany High School and another at El Cerrito High, and it slowly dawned on me that it's now routine in many American high schools to have a cop on campus during school hours.  But why?

Anna Deavere Smith, that remarkable actress/social commentator, whom I LOVE (have seen"Twilight Los Angeles, 1992," and "Let Me Down Easy" several times), has a work in progress at Berkeley Repertory Theater called, "Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education,"  in which she explores what's going on with cops in schools.

Not good.  

It goes like this:  a kid acts up in high school (or middle school or even elementary school).   This could involve truancy, swearing at a teacher, scuffling with another student, excessive noise, loitering, or the catch-all  "disruptive behavior and willful defiance."  The kid is no longer sent to see the equivalent of Mr. Cunningham or Miss Williams, the Dean of Boys and Dean of Girls, respectively, when I was in high school, for a stern talking-to and perhaps a phone call to the parents.

Mr. Cunningham and Miss Williams, Del Mar High School, 1966
No encounter with them was good news, starting with skirt- and hair-lengths

In many schools, Mr. Cunningham/Miss Williams have been  replaced by police or armed "school resource officers"  who enforce zero-tolerance policies meant to keep schools free of violent crime (think Columbine).  Given that climate, the kid might be suspended, expelled, endure an involuntary transfer to another school, or be ticketed for a misdemeanor.  Some kids are arrested at school.  Many end up in court.


Of all the times I've seen Anna Deavere Smith perform, this is the work that brought me to tears.
African American children are now three times more likely to be suspended or expelled. Students with disabilities and LGBTQ kids are also suspended at higher rates.  Ditto Latino children and other children of color.

Acting out has become criminalized.  What are school administrators thinking?

Well.  There's no evidence that school safety has improved, even though many of these kids are shunted off to disciplinary alternative schools, to court,  to juvenile hall,  down the pipeline to jail for so many of them.

In  Act 1, Ms. Smith explores the school-to-prison pipeline that ends hope and opportunity for so many of these kids.  She interviewed educators, students, ex-students, prisoners, and politicians in Northern California, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and she's woven those interviews into a heart-wrenching, damning exploration of how society has so often failed poor children of color.

Act 2 consists of audience groups meeting to discuss these issues.  My friend Suzanne and I were tempted to weenie-out and leave early (public speaking!), but we stuck with it.  My group was facilitated by an ultra-sensitive,  heavily tattooed young woman named "SK." 

We were given pads of paper, pens, Whole Foods animal cookies, and asked to express ourselves on two topics:  What we'd like the situation in schools to look like in ten years, and what we could do personally to help.  I said nothing, but I scribbled like mad.

Question 1:   First of all, no police on campus as a matter of course.  Schools  would become full-service facilities focussed on helping children and their families in a multitude of way, including mental health services, medical screening, food, and even clothing.  Society would recognize the limits of what teachers can do (oh, please!) and provide counselors and social workers and school nurses who would be assigned to children and their families.  Schools would become an all-purpose resource for the school community.

Question 2: Then SK asked what we could do personally to help, and all I could think of was getting out of my comfort zone and exposing myself to communities and cultures other than my own.   

Did I know about the school-to-prison pipeline before this performance?  No.  My volunteer work at the food pantry has helped me to see some of the  issues that face poor people who are not Caucasian or middle class.  It's been enlightening, chastening, and sad, but I could do more, and I hope I do.

Coming up:  There's hope!  Some school districts have come up with innovative solutions to combat this tendency to criminalize adolescent behavior, Oakland Unified  School District among them.