The House Committee on Courts of Justice has tabled a school discipline bill, essentially consigning it to oblivion. The bill, described as an effort to disrupt the “school to prison pipeline,” would limit the practice of charging students found guilty of disorderly conduct in school with a misdemeanor.
“We’re criminalizing conduct that really needs to be corrected,” said one of the bills’ sponsors, Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond.
But the Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys and the Virginia Sheriffs’ Association both opposed the legislation, and some subcommittee members expressed concern that the bill would eliminate a useful disciplinary option, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Here’s the quote in the article that caught my attention: “The whole issue of a school-to-prison pipeline is a myth,” said Bryan Haskins, the commonwealth’s attorney for Pittsylvania County.
What? The school-to-prison pipeline issue is a myth? I haven’t heard that reported anywhere else. All I’ve seen is charge after charge of institutional racism. Perhaps Haskins knows something that that never gets reported in the mainstream media, whose antenna are exquisitely sensitive to the viewpoints of of the social justice lobby.
Unfortunately, no evidence from Haskins was forthcoming in the T-D article that would have backed up his statement. Perhaps some enterprising reporter could ask him how he justifies such a counter-claim.
