Implementing School Based Teen Courts in a Rural Context: Making Schools Safer By Interrupting the School to Prison Pipeline

Background/Significance: The School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPP) is a serious problem plaguing schools across the United States. STPP refers to the school policies and practices that push students, especially at risk youth, from public schools into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Given the negative outcomes for youth involved in the criminal justice system, it is vital to find ways to interrupt STPP; one such mechanism is school based Teen Court (TC), which disciplines students for transgressions, while allowing them to stay connected to school. TC is a restorative justice program that diverts first-time offenders from the juvenile justice systems and holds them accountable for their transgression through prosocial sanctions. Traditionally, TC is implemented in the community, however, schools are increasingly using TC as a form of discipline. Minimal research has evaluated the effectiveness of school based TC’s. The current study examined changes in pre-test and post-test perceptions of school danger, violent behavior, anxiety, friend rejection, bullying victimization, and self-esteem in youth from 12 schools that implemented TC with youth from 12 control schools.

Methods: Twenty-Four schools from two rural counties in North Carolina participated in the current study; 12 were randomly assigned to participate in school based TC (n=1,793) and 12 were randomly assigned as control schools (n=1,661). Data were collected using the School Success Profile Plus prior to the implementation of TC and again about one year after TC had operated in the 12 intervention schools. Following multiple imputation, 10 imputed data sets were created and combined using Rubin’s rule and paired samples t-tests were run.

Results: For school danger, there was no significant change in the TC schools pretest to posttest t(1792) = -0.642, p = 0.529, d = -0.018; however, perceptions of school danger increased significantly in the control schools t(1660) = -2.404, p = 0.027, d = -0.070. The mean score of violent behavior decreased significantly in the TC schools t(1792) = 1.967, p = 0.053, d = 0.053; there was not a significant corresponding decrease in the comparison schools. The mean anxiety score decreased significantly in the TC schools t(1792) = 2.209, p = 0.030, d = 0.061, but did not decrease significantly in the control schools. Friend rejection and bullying victimization decreased significantly pretest to posttest in the TC schools, but did not change in the control schools.

Implications: The current study provides preliminary evidence that school based TC is an effective way to improve perceptions of school climate, individual functioning, and interpersonal relationships. Current findings tentatively indicate that the presence of Teen Court could function to prevent the natural increase in anti-social behavior that occurs over the school year. Youth in TC schools reported decreased violence and did not report increased school danger. Further, interpersonal relationships improved following TC. Perhaps the restorative justice mentality of TC infiltrated the school climate, making youth more prosocial and less aggressive.