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Rodney Robinson, a history teacher at a Virginia juvenile justice center, plans to use his new platform as 2019 National Teacher of the Year to highlight the school-to-prison pipeline and the need for juvenile justice reform.

Much like last year鈥檚 selection of Mandy Manning, a teacher of refugee and new immigrant students, Robinson鈥檚 win, , highlights the unique needs of a special student population.

But Robinson鈥檚 students are just regular teenagers, he said.

鈥淭hey like cheesy teenage romance novels. Their favorite show is Teen Wolf. They鈥檙e just kids. They鈥檝e made mistakes, and America is a country of second chances. We just want to make sure they have a quality education to take full advantage of their second chance,鈥� he said.

Robinson, a 19-year veteran educator, has spent the past few years teaching history in the Virgie Binford Education Center, a school inside a juvenile detention center in Richmond, Virginia.

He wants to use his new platform to work on issues like equitable school funding, increasing the hiring pool for teachers of color, and ending the school-to-prison pipeline, particularly by limiting out-of-school suspensions.

Robinson, called 鈥淏ig Rob鈥� by his students, also wants to take advantage of the recent bipartisan support for reforming the justice system.

鈥淢y goal now is to get the juvenile justice system involved in some of those reforms,鈥� he told 社区黑料. 鈥淭his is a bipartisan effort, and we need to take advantage of this momentum right now.鈥�

Young people leaving the juvenile justice system face some of the same problems adults do when leaving the prison system, Robinson said. Beyond education, they need social services to keep them from re-offending, which they often do just out of a need to survive, he added.

Two of Robinson鈥檚 former students, who are now teaching elementary school, were highlighted on CBS This Morning, which revealed the news Wednesday morning.

鈥淚 was always taught 鈥� it鈥檚 your job to bring up the next generation so they can be there for their generation,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t means that I鈥檓 putting forth my mission.鈥�

Check out our past Teacher of the Year coverage:

鈥�2016 winner Jahana Hayes, who was elected to Congress last year

鈥�2017 winner Sydney Chaffee, and finalists Chris Gleason, Megan Gross and Athanasia Kyriakakos

鈥�2018 winner Mandy Manning, her visit to the White House, and her public teach-in to challenge immigration policies

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