The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 17

summer conFerence

The School-to-Prison Pipeline:
A Peace Camp Sermon
by Kate Polaski

T

his year I witnessed a part of the school-to-prison pipeline at
work. I knew what the pipeline was, but being a privileged
child and student, I had never seen it up close.
This year I attended "Northwest School of the Arts," a
school in what most would call the rougher part or the "ghetto"
of Charlotte, NC. Many of the students there are underprivileged
and live in poverty.
One of these students is an African-American boy. He is 14
years old and a chorus major. I've heard him sing before. He has
an amazing voice. In February of this year, during class, he stole
my cell phone right off a library table.
I was dismayed, confused and, frankly, very angry. I had just
returned from Cuba and lost all the pictures I had taken of the
beautiful country and people. I didn't find out who had done it
until a week later. I informed one of my teachers so I might get
my phone back.
My mom and I had a long conversation about whether we
wanted to press charges against him. Even though I was mad, I
couldn't see him sent into our criminal system, a place from which
he might never return. Instead, my mom and I turned our minds
toward helping my peer and his family. I remember a discussion
I had with my school police officer shortly after our decision.
"Does your mother work for the church, by any chance?"
"Yeah, she does, how did you know?"
"She wants to help."
We really did want to help. I didn't want this boy to grow up
to be just another nameless face inside our brutal prison system. I
wanted him to have a chance. A chance to redeem himself from
the system. A chance to redefine himself as an artist and a singer.
A chance to follow his dreams.
A few weeks later, my social studies teacher told me that the
boy had been suspended for stealing a teacher's cell phone. My
teacher called the boy an idiot who didn't learn and told me, "You
should have pressed charges."
I was outraged. Who was my teacher to judge a boy whose
story he didn't know? Who was he to think that the future of this
young man could and should be decided by one bad choice he
made when he was fourteen?
I think it's not anyone's place to push him farther into the
hole our government has dug for him. Our school system does
that well enough by itself.
You see, when someone gets into trouble at school, they
get suspended. They aren't allowed to go to school. They aren't
allowed to learn, a right I remind you that is guaranteed to all of

us in international law, in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights.
These students need to be in school, but our school system
doesn't seem to understand that. They find themselves evicted
from a public school simply because they haven't learned yet.
They need more time in our schools and they find themselves
getting less.
The cradle-to-prison pipeline doesn't just affect a group of
people. It affects individual people. It affects the chorus major I
wish I could call my friend. It affects people whose family's hopes
are resting on them. It affects people who have dreams for their
future. Not only that, but it robs people of those futures and
robs society of beneficial citizens. The pipeline robs our entire
country. When something affects our entire country, we tend to
do something about it.
We can't do this something on our own. We have to ask for
god's help and for god to guide our actions. We have the will
and god has the way. May it be so.
-Kate	Polaski	is	a	"Peace	Camp"	child.	Her	mother,	now	the	BPFNA	
executive	director,	was	the	Summer	Conference	coordinator	for	many	years.	

Right:	Kate	Polaski	
leads a children's
sermon	during	
Youth	Sunday	this	
year at Park Road
Baptist Church (a
BPFNA	Partner	
Congregation)	in	
Charlotte, NC. Photo
courtesy	of 	LeDayne	
McLeese Polaski.

Baptist Peacemaker

OCT-DEC 2016 17



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016

No label
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - No label
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 2
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 3
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 4
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 5
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 6
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 7
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 8
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 9
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 10
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 11
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 12
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 13
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 14
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 15
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 16
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 17
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 18
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 19
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 20
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 21
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 22
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 23
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 24
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 25
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 26
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 27
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 28
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 29
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 30
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 31
The Journal of the Baptist Peacemaker October-December 2016 - 32
https://www.nxtbook.com/allen/bapp/34-2
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com