Lambda Legal Helps Senate Address "School-to-Prison Pipeline"

The  Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights will hold hearings tomorrow on how to end the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

Lambda Legal submitted testimony explaining the negative impact of school disciplinary actions that push students out of schools and into juvenile justice systems. These actions ravage some of the most marginalized and victimized students in schools: those who are or who are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning (LGBTQ).

Among our findings:

• LGBT students face harsher punishments for similar infractions than their heterosexual counterparts.
• Bullying and harassment leads LGBT students and students perceived to be LGBT to take matters into their own hands, resulting in higher rates of school violence, discipline and incarceration.
• LGBT students who do not feel safe at school are more likely to be truant, to drop out, and to engage in other risky behaviors such as substance abuse and sexual exploitation.

Read our testimony here.