"CHICAGO -- A recent poll seems to imply that the general public does not understand, and maybe has never heard of, the school-to-prison pipeline.  It is a national trend in which children -- more often than not, minorities -- are…

"T. McClain is an exacting young man. He wears a pale yellow polo shirt buttoned to his Adam’s apple. In that habit he mirrors Marcus Tucker, who does the same with his gray polo shirt. In another context, they might be…