Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Mea Aitken - Kids of Colour
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Mea Aitken - Kids of Colour
Picture this. a young person at school is disrupting their maths lesson. Consequently they are sent out the classroom. A few days later they get into a fight so they are sent to a room, isolated from peers and forbidden from having break time. Their poor behaviour persists throughout term and in the end they are suspended, remaining at home on their own for 3 days. Finally, after trying everything the school permanently excludes the young person and they are sent to a pupil referral unit, with other young people who have been excluded, away from any of their peers.
Although simified, These multiple forms of escalating exclusions are common if not exclusive behaviour management practices in secondary schools across the country.
As an added measure of 'safety' police presence in schools has been increased in recent years and as we saw in the abhorrent case of child Q, state violence against minoritised and racialised groups in schools, the place where our young people should feel safeguarded against prejudice, is a serious, threatening reality.
If that wasn't scary enough 60% of youth offenders were permanently excluded from school meaning there is a clear trajectory from these punitive practices and sanctions to the criminal justice system.
In addition, for those who are racialised as black the statistics are even worse. According to the chief inspector of probation “There is a disproportionate number of black and mixed heritage boys in the youth justice system. This is what is known as the schools to prison pipeline.
My guest today is Mea, youth worker, campaigner and project officer at Kids of Colour, an organisation that provides the space for young people to explore their lived experiences of racism in school.
Once a young contributor to their brilliant video series, telling her own story, Mea now campaigns with Kids of Colour against the racial injustices faced by minoritised communities across the country …. and she has an idea. What if we put healing at the centre of education rather than punishment? What if 'challenging behaviour' was actually recognised as a struggle to exist within a narrow oppressive system?
What would education look like then?
Enjoy…
https://kidsofcolour.com/
Schools to prison pipeline: https://www.connectedsociologies.org/curriculum/policing/school-to-prison-pipeline/
View all episodes
By Ollie Briggs
5
11 ratings
Picture this. a young person at school is disrupting their maths lesson. Consequently they are sent out the classroom. A few days later they get into a fight so they are sent to a room, isolated from peers and forbidden from having break time. Their poor behaviour persists throughout term and in the end they are suspended, remaining at home on their own for 3 days. Finally, after trying everything the school permanently excludes the young person and they are sent to a pupil referral unit, with other young people who have been excluded, away from any of their peers.
Although simified, These multiple forms of escalating exclusions are common if not exclusive behaviour management practices in secondary schools across the country.
As an added measure of 'safety' police presence in schools has been increased in recent years and as we saw in the abhorrent case of child Q, state violence against minoritised and racialised groups in schools, the place where our young people should feel safeguarded against prejudice, is a serious, threatening reality.
If that wasn't scary enough 60% of youth offenders were permanently excluded from school meaning there is a clear trajectory from these punitive practices and sanctions to the criminal justice system.
In addition, for those who are racialised as black the statistics are even worse. According to the chief inspector of probation “There is a disproportionate number of black and mixed heritage boys in the youth justice system. This is what is known as the schools to prison pipeline.
My guest today is Mea, youth worker, campaigner and project officer at Kids of Colour, an organisation that provides the space for young people to explore their lived experiences of racism in school.
Once a young contributor to their brilliant video series, telling her own story, Mea now campaigns with Kids of Colour against the racial injustices faced by minoritised communities across the country …. and she has an idea. What if we put healing at the centre of education rather than punishment? What if 'challenging behaviour' was actually recognised as a struggle to exist within a narrow oppressive system?
What would education look like then?
Enjoy…
https://kidsofcolour.com/
Schools to prison pipeline: https://www.connectedsociologies.org/curriculum/policing/school-to-prison-pipeline/