Commissioner Gregory Adams to convene panel discussion on school-to-prison pipeline crisis

DeKalb County Commissioner Gregory Adams will host a panel discussion on the so-called school-to-prison pipeline.

The leadership summit will be held Dec. 18, 9 a.m. to noon, at the Manuel J. Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce Drive, Decatur. Along with the office of DeKalb County School District Superintendent R. Stephen Green, Adams is convening a panel of local leaders to join in a think tank environment to discuss solutions.

In recent years, a significant amount of public policy attention has been given to the consequences of youths falling out of the path of completing their education and adequately situating themselves for stable adult life.

Throughout metro Atlanta and in DeKalb County, several organizations have connected with various agencies to help reduce the numbers of young people failing to graduate from high school. Some collaborating efforts have systematically reduced the number of disciplinary classroom cases that historically would have ended up as suspensions and expulsions. Acknowledging these facts, this summit hopes to deepen a focus on those who continue to fall through any safety-net gaps.

“As I transition from my seat as Super District 7 Commissioner to a more agile posture of direct public policy action, it continues to be critical that we congregate our relationships and intellectual assets around problems that too many of us do not want to expose to the light of continual conversation,” Adams said. “There are problems, nevertheless, that still haunt us in measurable and undeniable ways.”