Photo contributed by authors | JJ Wilson, Bria Symonds, Ashely Hill, Vanessa Gray, Vanessa Thomas, Angelina Simmonds at Dartmouth High School after speaking to students.
THEIR EDUCATION, OUR FUTURE Changing the narrative of the school-to-prison pipeline in Nova Scotia schools BY BRIA SYMONDS & JJ WILSON
WHY SCHOOL PIPELINING? As we finished our first semester of our introduction into social work, we realized that we both have a passion for working with youth and improving correctional facilities. The discussion of school-to-prison pipelining was appearing more frequently in social settings and we felt it was time to start doing research. Originally our research around the school-toprison pipeline was for a class project that unpacked critical
28 Connection | Winter 2020
race theory (CRT). With CRT originating in America, much of our research was American based. We saw similar outcomes of pipelining happening in Nova Scotia with Black students being mistreated in classrooms, and thought a change needed to happen. The school-to-prison pipeline is a phenomenon that has been happening for decades, but the term started to be used in
