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Usually students get reprimanded without the involvement of law enforcement for cutting a cafeteria line at school, but according to a complaint filed by a coalition of civil and children’s rights groups, students attending schools in Wake County risk getting handcuffed and thrown in jail. 

From Huffington Post: 

In the 74-page complaint [filed Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Justice], a coalition of civil- and children’s-rights groups representing eight students alleges that the district has failed to take meaningful steps to “stem the tide of students being pushed out of school and into juvenile and criminal court systems.”

Over the past five years, the district’s use of law enforcement officers to deal with disciplinary issues has landed thousands of students in court, keeping them out of school, according to the complaint.

Read more at Huffington Post

The complaint goes on to state that black students and those with disabilities is disproportionately high. While black students account for just a quarter of the district’s student population during the past few years, they’ve received as many as three-quarters of the district’s school-based delinquency complaints in a given year.

The Wake County School System’s leadership is reviewing the complaint.

Thoughts on the complaint?

How can we further push to eradicate the effects of the school-to-prison pipeline on black youth?

Sound off below!