Tangle: A Community Conversation To Fix School Discipline
The Power of Stories is an archive of projects submitted every year to Building Healthy Communities (BHC) Statewide Convening. It showcases work created throughout California highlighting the power of individual and collective efforts to promote health and demonstrates how stories have the power to re-imagine and transform our communities. Produced in partnership with the California Endowment.
Project submitted by: Cornerstone Theater Company
Project summary: Personal narratives become part of a series of plays exploring harsh school discipline policies and their impact on students and their communities.
BHC site: Long Beach
There is an alarming overuse of harsh discipline in school districts throughout California, resulting in hundreds of thousands of students being expelled and suspended from school for non-violent misconduct. Cornerstone Theater Company and The California Endowment have teamed up to launch a projectthat raises awareness about the root causes and health consequences of suspensions, expulsions and other punitive policies. This project utilizes Cornerstone's 28 year tested theater-making methodology to build bridges between the many diverse communities grappling with these policies all over California and motivate dialogue and change.
The process begins by reaching out to local, grassroots organizations and convening story telling events to hear and document how school discipline policies such as truancy tickets, suspensions and expulsions affect youth, parents, educators and concerned community members. The stories gathered from community members are then used to craft short plays performed by community members and professional actors for the community. The plays involve facilitated discussion with the audience about the impact these policies have on youth and community, and efforts to advocate for alternatives to harsh school discipline.
