I was inspired to produce this website concerning the school-to-prison pipeline in Asheville, North Carolina because I attended two years of high school in the area before transferring to boarding school up North. At Asheville High School, I noticed the segregation between races, mainly Black and white, from the cafeteria to classroom demographics. I was discouraged by my administrators to take higher-level honors and advanced placement classes. It was evident that the standard that applied to me, and those who reflect my ethnicity, were not applied to other students. I will infer that they discouraged me from higher education because they believed I did not have the capacity to think at that level. I was eager to prove them wrong and enroll in advanced courses to increase my chances of future opportunities. I took a majority honors class and a few AP courses. I cannot name one other Black student in my AP classes and I could count the number of BIPOC students in my honors classes on one hand.
I recently had a conversation with my old classmate and long-time friend. People in high school would describe him as a social butterfly. Standing six feet tall, Tom was a black male, scholar-athlete. He described his experience at Asheville High in a similar manner. He recalled his interactions with the college counselors and administration concerning higher-level classes. He was excelling in one of his subjects and wanted to take a higher-level course. The response from the counselors was astonishing. They told him since he was already taking honors classes, it would be a lot to juggle and he would likely fall behind. They said they were going to recommend him for a standard class, although he had aced the class and his final exam. From the discouragement and diversion of taking advanced classes, Tom stayed in lower-level classes. The impact teachers, counselors, and administrators have on students’ motivation and success is extremely important and should not be overlooked.
The presence of law enforcement on campus and different standards students are held to on public high school campuses encouraged me to ask questions about the relationship between students and punishment. In particular, I wanted to explore the school-to-prison pipeline in Asheville. Although there are few public statistics in the Asheville area surrounding this issue, I can conclude from surrounding cities and North Carolina state information that Asheville is no exception.
Ondessa Kiliru (author)
