Resume

• 2008

  PhD

  Urban Affairs and Public Policy

• 2001

  JD

  Law

  William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal (Editor-in-Chief)

• 1997

  B.A.

  History

  Delta Phi Fraternity

  Omega Alpha Chapter (President

  Recruitment Chair

  Social Chair)

  Orientation Aide

• Research

  Policy Analysis

  Civil Litigation

  Community Outreach

  Legal Writing

  Legal Research

  Commercial Litigation

  Leadership

  Management

  Public Speaking

  Microsoft Office

  Booking Students: An Analysis of School Arrests and Court Outcomes

  The fate of school discipline and security in America is at a crucial turning point. While the “school-to-prison pipeline” has recently received an increasing amount of attention from policy makers interested in improving public education

  the recent shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut led to renewed calls for the heightened security measures that contributed to the rise of the pipeline. This article provides clear evidence that heightened disciplinary and security measures in schools are faulty policy responses

  as they have adverse impacts on the students they intend to protect and siphon resources away from policies that more effectively ensure student safety and success. More specifically

  the article analyzes a unique statewide database that contain all school arrests that occurred during a recent school year in Delaware

  including individual-level variables such as age

  race

  gender

  offense

  adjudication result

  and disposition result. The analysis reveals three troubling trends that have important policy implications. First

  the use of arrests in response to student misbehavior has resulted in a great number of students being arrested for minor misbehavior. Second

  a highly disproportionate rate of Black students faced arrests for their behavior in school and female students seemed to experience differential treatment. Third

  the juvenile justice system is forced to devote its scarce resources to processing a high volume of minor school arrests

  a plurality of which lead to diversionary services that could have been offered directly through schools in a much more efficient manner.

  Booking Students: An Analysis of School Arrests and Court Outcomes

  Mary Kate Kalinich

  Susan DeJarnatt

  Exclusionary school discipline can steer students away from educational opportunities and towards the juvenile and criminal justice systems. As many public school systems have turned to exclusionary school discipline practices over the past two decades

  they have also increasingly adopted charter schools as alternatives to traditional public schools. This research is examines the student codes of conduct for the charter schools in the School District of Philadelphia to consider the role of their disciplinary practices and the potential effects on charter students.\nWe analyzed every disciplinary code provided to the Philadelphia School District by charter schools within Philadelphia during the 2014-2015 school year. Our goal was to examine the provisions relating to detention

  suspension

  and expulsion

  along with other disciplinary responses

  to determine what conduct can result in disciplinary consequences

  what responses are available for various types of misbehavior

  and whether the code language is clear or ambiguous or even accessible to students or potential students and their parents or caregivers. We conclude that too many of the codes are not well drafted

  and too many follow models of punitive discipline that can be used to push out non-compliant or challenging students. Some codes grant almost complete discretion to school administrators to impose punitive discipline for any behavior the administrator deems problematic.\nWe hope that this work will spur future research on implementation of charter school discipline policies to illustrate how charter schools are using their codes. Further

  we hope to see the charter sector develop model disciplinary codes that move away from a zero tolerance punitive model towards disciplinary systems based on restorative principles.

  Charting School Discipline

  Aaron Kupchik

  The “school-to-prison pipeline” and the negative effects of suspensions

  expulsions and school arrests have received increasing national attention recently. Researchers have documented some of the potential harms of these exclusionary school discipline practices for students

  including academic difficulties

  increased misconduct

  and future justice system contact. However

  these investigations have been somewhat limited in scope

  as they tend to focus only on students’ academic outcomes and juvenile justice system involvement. In this paper we seek to expand upon prior studies by considering how school suspensions may affect youth in peripheral and long-lasting ways. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent to Adult Health

  we analyze whether being suspended from school relates to the likelihood of students experiencing a number of adverse events and outcomes when they are adults. We find that being suspended increases the likelihood that a student will experience criminal victimization

  criminal involvement

  and incarceration years later

  as an adult.

  School Suspension and Adverse Experiences in Adulthood

  Police officers stationed in public schools

  commonly referred to as school resource officers (SROs)

  have become commonplace in the United States over the past twenty-five years. Their primary responsibility is to maintain order and safety in schools

  but they also serve as counselors and mentors for students

  and teach classes related to drug and alcohol abuse

  gang avoidance

  and other topics. SROs’ presence in schools raises important legal questions because they interact with students on a daily basis and are directly involved in schools’ efforts to control student behavior through school discipline and security. Additionally

  a series of Supreme Court decisions has created an environment of limited rights for students in America’s public schools

  which is compounded by the heightened security environments found in the majority of schools. Amidst this environment

  it is important to consider whether students have any recourse if SROs take actions that seemingly infringe on students’ rights. This article seeks to address this specific question by analyzing students’ civil rights claims against SROs under Section 1983. The available case law demonstrates that the involvement of SROs in school discipline matters can quickly escalate these situations to include aggressive

  physical confrontations and arrests for relatively minor misbehavior. Yet

  Section 1983 rarely provides students with viable civil rights claims against SROs

  even when the SROs’ behavior seems egregious. These cases lend strong support to scholars and advocates’ concerns that the use of SROs

  along with other heightened school security and punitive discipline measures

  “criminalizes” public school students. They also demonstrate that changes in the ways SROs operate in schools are needed to protect students’ rights.

  Assessing Students' Civil Rights Claims Against School Resource Officers

  Over the past two decades

  school resource officers (SROs) have become an increasingly common fixture on the American educational landscape. Despite their prominence in schools

  significant investigation into their arrest-making behavior has not occurred. This paper uses responses to a statewide survey of SROs in Delaware to explore SRO arrest decision making. Guided by Black’s general theory of arrest

  it analyzes the effect of the school context on SROs’ arrest decisions. The SROs’ survey responses indicate that the factors highlighted by Black as influential to arrest decisions remain prominent in SRO arrest decision making

  but the school context influences their arrest decisions in a variety of critical ways.

  Arrest Decision Making by School Resource Officers

  Kerrin

  Stockton University

  White and Williams LLP

  Temple University

  Beasley School of Law

  University of Delaware - School of Public Policy and Administration

  Temple University

  Beasley School of Law

  Associate

  Civil litigation with a focus on products liability

  construction defect

  construction site accidents and medical malpractice.

  White and Williams LLP

  Stockton University

  Galloway

  NJ

  Assistant Professor of Public Law

  University of Delaware - School of Public Policy and Administration

  Stockton University

  Galloway

  New Jersey

  United States

  Associate Professor of Public Law