October 11, 2025
The educator noticed early on how a system constructed to teach might additionally punish
Earlier than she was an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, Dr. Karen Baptiste was a classroom trainer within the Bronx, standing in entrance of youngsters who reminded her of herself—Black, curious, and too usually underestimated. She noticed early on how a system constructed to teach might additionally punish, labeling youngsters earlier than they ever had an opportunity to point out who they might be.
“Kids don’t get up with the intent to fail, with the intent to be unhealthy, with the intent to disrupt,” she tells BLACK ENTERPRISE.
“At three and 4 years outdated, they already know once they’re cherished and once they’re not. Whenever you hear younger youngsters say that they’ve been advised that they’re unhealthy and so they can’t even spell the phrase unhealthy, that stays with you as a result of no one desires to be labeled as unhealthy.”
Along with her personal experiences, Baptiste, who usually goes by her nickname Dr. Ok, was additionally galvanized by nationwide headlines to provide and direct Preschool to Jail: A Nationwide Disaster, her award-winning documentary now nominated for a New York Emmy® Artistic Arts Award. The movie exposes how bias, misdiagnosis, and “zero tolerance” insurance policies create a direct line from early training to incarceration, particularly for Black youngsters and people with particular wants.
Whereas many individuals could be aware of the time period school-to-prison pipeline, Baptiste admits she modified the phrasing to preschool-to-prison as a result of as alarming as it’d sound, it extra precisely describes lots of the instances within the movie, and he or she believes the general public must be extra alarmed.
“I’ve had individuals ask me if I didn’t suppose this title was excessive,” she says. “And I simply reply again, the patterns of sending youngsters from faculty to jail is what’s excessive.”
For her, calling it Preschool to Jail forces individuals to confront an uncomfortable fact.
“Whenever you say faculty to jail, you consider an older youngster—a excessive schooler, somebody taller than you,” she explains. “Empathy decreases as youngsters become older. However while you say preschool to jail, you image this itty bitty, cute youngster. Individuals pause. They are saying, ‘That may’t be taking place.’ Sadly, it’s.”
When Baptiste realized her movie had been nominated for an Emmy, she didn’t consider it at first.
“I noticed it in writing and didn’t consider it,” she remembers. “I went on the lookout for the video as a result of I believed it could be a typo. I used to be with my mother after I discovered, and that was every little thing—as a result of she’s seen all of the struggles from this.”
Filming wasn’t straightforward. Baptiste says every little thing that would go flawed did—sound loss, footage issues, monetary hurdles—however she noticed it as affirmation that her work mattered.
“I knew it was going to be massive as a result of the satan was working extra time,” she laughed. “As soon as it was out, I needed to belief God’s plan.”
By means of the movie, Baptiste makes a transparent case: self-discipline in colleges isn’t nearly conduct—it’s about notion.
“There are a number of research completed that present that—they regarded on the three B’s: being a boy, being massive in your age, and being Black,” she mentioned. “These elements contribute to the pipeline as a result of punishments turn out to be harsher. Individuals transfer straight to punishment as an alternative of a teachable second.”
She believes the answer begins with altering how educators and policymakers view youngsters in disaster.
“Trainer prep packages ought to educate educators learn how to establish a toddler in disaster, not only a youngster being defiant,” Dr. Ok says. “Not each little bit of defiance comes from hurt or intent. Generally it’s ache.”
Past filmmaking, Baptiste leads Pioneering Prospects, a consultancy that helps faculty districts and firms construct cultures rooted in empathy and fairness. Her framework for “liberatory management” facilities on CARE: curiosity, accountability, regulation, and fairness.
“Curiosity cures assumptions,” she mentioned. “Accountability doesn’t imply punishment. Regulation means guaranteeing adults are emotionally wholesome, as a result of we have now a variety of dysregulated adults standing in entrance of individuals’s youngsters. And fairness means making intentional selections that convey therapeutic and belonging to the group.”
For Baptiste, systemic change begins with humanity.
“If I can join with you coronary heart to coronary heart, I’ll deal with you in another way,” she says. “I hear a variety of, we don’t have the funds for this. Love is free. Dignity, respect, collaboration—they’re free. Begin with the issues which are free.”
And simply as she requires therapeutic inside establishments, Baptiste additionally insists on therapeutic throughout the individuals who lead them.
“We have now a variety of dysregulated adults,” she provides. “As a result of an individual has a number of levels, we predict they’re match to face in entrance of youngsters—and so they’re not. If management fixes the tradition, the pipeline to exclusion dries up.”
That mindset is summed up in a phrase Dr. Ok usually repeats:
“I at all times say completely happy adults equal completely happy youngsters. If we create this house the place the adults are wholesome and complete and really feel cherished and revered, then that’s in flip going to have an effect on the youngsters.”
Baptiste’s message extends past school rooms.
“Everybody has a task in dismantling the pipeline,” she mentioned. “Faculty and district leaders can assessment who insurance policies are affecting. Mother and father can attend faculty board conferences and ask how self-discipline is dealt with. Even individuals with out youngsters ought to care, as a result of if youngsters are being harshly disciplined and traumatized, that impacts everybody.”
As Preschool to Jail continues to display throughout the nation, Baptiste has seen audiences moved to motion.
“This movie is sort of a love letter to youngsters,” she mentioned. “It’s to not make lecturers the enemy. It’s a blueprint for change.”
As she prepares for the New York Emmy® Artistic Arts Awards this weekend, Baptiste displays on the highway that introduced her from journalism scholar to educator to advocate and filmmaker.
“No matter whether or not we win, this nomination affirms that I’m doing God’s work,” she mentioned. “I’m talking up towards the hurt I’ve witnessed—and serving to others see that therapeutic is feasible.”
Watch: Preschool to Jail: A Nationwide Disaster is streaming on Amazon Prime, FOX SOUL TV, Kweli TV, and on its devoted web site.
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