At the Law Offices of Katie Walsh, we are acutely familiar with the school-to-prison pipeline that is the reality of many young Americans. Problems students experience in the classroom are often dealt with in punitive ways, starting with suspension and potentially moving on to expulsion. In more severe cases, certain offenses committed at school can…
Continue reading ›Pepper spray, like mace, is a non-lethal form of restraint that law enforcement agents utilize on a regular basis. The ingredients result in inflammation of the eyes and lungs, causing temporary vision loss and shortness of breath. Once disabled, officers are better able to restrain subjects. While the agent is less-than-lethal, there are instances when…
Continue reading ›School suspension and expulsion rates is a topic of significant concern in the United States. The data tells us that when young people are excluded from participating in class, due to behavioral issues, they are at severe risk of facing problems later in life. Evidence shows that discipline inside the classroom, as well as outside…
Continue reading ›Published research tells us that the brains of young people are not fully developed. Meaning, partially, youths are at risk of making life-changing decisions without fully grasping what can result. Many criminal and juvenile justice advocates claim that the current method of handling teenagers who break the law is woefully inappropriate. Moreover, many voters in…
Continue reading ›Driving under the influence is a severe offense in the State of California, even when nobody is injured. Those who are convicted of a DUI often pay enormous fines and are required to serve some jail time and lose their license for varying lengths of time. Each case is different, and punishments may look different…
Continue reading ›While the U.S. Supreme Court deems access to social media platforms protected by the First Amendment, that doesn’t mean that some people can’t be restricted. A California state appeals court ruled that a “narrowly tailored” limit on social media use for a juvenile on probation was legal, NextGov reports. When reviewing the case in question,…
Continue reading ›At the Law Offices of Katie Walsh, we would like to draw your attention to the California School Dashboard. The California School Dashboard is the place where parents, families, students, and teachers can see how well our schools and students are doing and where improvement is warranted. Please take a moment to watch a short…
Continue reading ›The National Center for Youth Law (NCYL) a non-profit law firm based in Oakland, California, helps low-income children and aims to transform the multiple public systems serving vulnerable children. The organization leads campaigns to reform education, child welfare, public health, behavioral health, juvenile justice, and workforce development. In the realm of juvenile justice, the NCYL’s…
Continue reading ›In 1974, Congress passed the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). Lawmakers wrote the bill to address some of the glaring inconsistencies in approaches to juvenile justice from one state to the next. Most Americans are unaware that there are more than 56 different juvenile justice systems in the U.S. Each of which is…
Continue reading ›Last week, the State of California released school suspension data and takeaways are, at best, concerning. At The Law Offices of Katie Walsh school suspension and expulsion is a topic of vital importance; much of the work we do is representing juveniles who have had problems in the classroom. We follow the data carefully to…
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