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A researched thread on why police should NOT be in our schools, anywhere in America.
Police in schools harm Black & Brown kids & students with disabilities.
So don’t come with your antecdotal story about how Officer ___ is so nice at your school...
Research not anecdotes.
Police in schools harm Black & Brown kids & students with disabilities.
So don’t come with your antecdotal story about how Officer ___ is so nice at your school...
Research not anecdotes.
“Research shows that the mere presence of police officers in school increases the likelihood that a student will be referred to law enforcement for adolescent behavior. School-based arrests, which fall more harshly on students of color...”
https://www.povertylaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/handcuffs-in-hallways-final.pdf
https://www.povertylaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/handcuffs-in-hallways-final.pdf
“About 14 million students attend schools across the U.S. where they walk the halls alongside police officers but don't have access to counselors, nurses, psychologists or social workers...” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/students-color-students-disabilities-arrested-school-police-report/story?id=61454820
“Disabled students...are three times more likely to be arrested than their peers. School policing is still very disproportionately harming students of color, students with learning disabilities, and the students who identify as LGBTQ”
https://psmag.com/.amp/education/after-parkland-schools-upped-police-presence-has-it-made-students-safer
https://psmag.com/.amp/education/after-parkland-schools-upped-police-presence-has-it-made-students-safer
“...a Stockton student was handcuffed with zip ties on his hands and feet, forced to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation and was charged with battery on a police officer. That student was 5 years old.” https://www.kcra.com/amp/article/5-year-old-handcuffed-charged-with-battery-on-officer/6395087
“According to the U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection for 2015-'16, the most recent data available, over 290,600 cases in schools were referred to law enforcement or resulted in arrest.” https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/30000-children-age-10-arrested-us-2013-fbi/story?id=65798787
“school-to-prison pipeline” (STPP) to describe how harsh school disciplinary policies and law enforcement policies intersect to feed young people into the criminal punishment system. This system criminalizes rather than educates students..” https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-the-school-to-prison-pipeline-works
“The report also found that officers assigned to Chicago Public Schools last year accumulated more than $2 million in misconduct settlements for actions that occurred on and off school grounds between 2012 and 2016.” https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-police-schools-met-20170207-story.html
Our schools are broke to educate students but we have millions to police them. https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/08/29/chicago-approves-33-million-for-school-police-despite-student-criticism/
A few amazing organizations who have been doing this work in some cases for years are:
GKMC
Black Lives Matter Chicago
National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
Assata's Daughters
Voyces
Alliance for Educational Justice
No Cop Academy
Students Strike Back
GKMC
Black Lives Matter Chicago
National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
Assata's Daughters
Voyces
Alliance for Educational Justice
No Cop Academy
Students Strike Back
“Two Baltimore school police officers have been charged after cellphone video showed one slapping and kicking a teen while the officer stood by.” https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/baltimore-school-officer-charged-after-hitting-teen-video-n534871
“..mere presence of police in school increases the likelihood that a student will be referred to law enforcement for adolescent behavior. School-based arrests, fall more harshly on students of color, put students in direct contact with the justice system.”
https://www.povertylaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/handcuffs-in-hallways-final.pdf
https://www.povertylaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/handcuffs-in-hallways-final.pdf
“Two seniors at Bolivar Central High School in Bolivar, Tennessee, were arrested for wearing sagging pants to school and spent 48 hours in jail.” https://archive.thinkprogress.org/these-teens-were-jailed-for-wearing-saggy-pants-this-isnt-unusual-at-all-a69c064031a1/
Diagnosed as autistic, Kayleb kicked a trash can at Linkhorne Middle School in Virginia. A police officer assigned to the school witnessed the tantrum, and filed a disorderly conduct charge against the sixth grader in juvenile court. https://publicintegrity.org/education/virginia-tops-nation-in-sending-students-to-cops-courts-where-does-your-state-rank/
“Research shows that these policing functions are usually located in communities of color. Low-income students and students of color are much more likely to experience intense security conditions in their schools than other students” https://www.idra.org/resource-center/at-what-cost-a-review-of-school-police-funding-and-accountability-across-the-u-s-south/
Even during a Chicago police training to help police be in schools (remember police shouldn’t be in schools) a cop said with reporters there, “If a student crosses the line, “I’m going to police their ass.” https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/7/15/20695055/school-cops-chicago-cps-public-police-taser-marshall
“For immigrant and undocumented students, bringing police into the school building can lead to deportation for themselves or their families.”
https://dignityinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WhyCounselorsNotCops.pdf
https://dignityinschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WhyCounselorsNotCops.pdf
“Too many Black youth go to school in environments that perpetually violate their humanity and this sense of safety. Each of the incidents illustrate the need to invest in counselors instead of cops....” https://blacklivesmatteratschool.com/2019/02/06/counselorsnotcops-black-girl-at-pennsylvania-high-school-brutalized-in-latest-assault-by-a-school-police-officer-black-lives-matter-at-school-rallies-around-the-country-on-feb-6-7th-%EF%BB%BF/amp/
“...4th grader was acting unruly and not following the teacher’s commands. That’s when a security resource officer stepped in and put the child in handcuffs.” https://www.wdtn.com/news/dayton-public-schools-responds-after-4th-grader-is-handcuffed/
School cop threatens to shoot student
“You’re going to get shot, you come another f------ foot closer to me,” the deputy said. “You run into me, you’ll get f------ shot.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/10/school-police-threat/
“You’re going to get shot, you come another f------ foot closer to me,” the deputy said. “You run into me, you’ll get f------ shot.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/10/school-police-threat/
“Officer Jake Perry of Camden, Ark., was placed on leave. He allegedly put the student in a hold that caused the student to black out, according to an NBC report.” https://thehill.com/homenews/news/482564-arkansas-police-officer-put-on-leave-for-appearing-to-put-student-in-chokehold
“...black children at schools with SROs in Connecticut, which included 19 New Haven schools in 2015-16 when the data was analyzed, were nearly twice as likely to be referred to law enforcement than in schools without officers in schools.” https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Study-Cops-in-schools-mean-more-arrests-no-13777340.php
“Latino students are six times more likely to be arrested at a school with a school resource officer — a sworn police officer — than at a school without one.” https://ctmirror.org/2019/04/18/study-latinos-students-more-likely-to-be-arrested-at-schools-with-police-officers/
“Data from the U.S. De-
partment of Education confirms that students of color and students with disabilities are saddled with a disproportionate number of the school-based arrests...that result from an increased police presence in schools.”
https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=mjrl
partment of Education confirms that students of color and students with disabilities are saddled with a disproportionate number of the school-based arrests...that result from an increased police presence in schools.”
https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=mjrl
“When John Haygood, a 10-year-old boy with autism, was arrested last week at a school in Florida, he kept repeating that he didn't know what was happening, as seen in shaky cellphone video taken by his mother.” https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/21/health/autism-florida-10-year-old-arrested-bn/index.html
“We just need someone to understand and support us. We don’t need SROs. We need more counselors. We need more nurses. We need more mental health providers. We need more social workers,”Classical High School sophomore Jason Rodriguez said. http://turnto10.com/news/local/providence-student-union-rallies-to-remove-sros-add-counselors
“A wave of high-profile incidents suggests that black and brown students are also more likely to face violence from school police.”
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/identities/2018/9/20/17856416/school-discipline-policing-black-students-report
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/identities/2018/9/20/17856416/school-discipline-policing-black-students-report
“Since September 2011, students have been Tasered or shot with a stun gun by school-based police officers at least 120 times” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/school-safety-students-police-abuse_n_5b746a4ce4b0df9b093b8d6a
“70% of students involved in school-
based arrests or referred to law
enforcement are Black or Latino”
http://agendatobuildblackfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BYP100-Agenda-to-Keep-Us-Safe-AKTUS.pdf
based arrests or referred to law
enforcement are Black or Latino”
http://agendatobuildblackfutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BYP100-Agenda-to-Keep-Us-Safe-AKTUS.pdf
“Black and Brown kids know all too well that the cops violently assaulting protestors, are the same ones placed in our school hallways, assaulting and racially profiling us.” https://grassrootscollaborative.salsalabs.org/policefreeschools2020/index.html
“The National Association of School Psychologists has argued that armed guards increase student fear, rather than making them feel safer. This could harm the learning process, the NASP suggests.” https://www.thetrace.org/2019/04/guns-armed-guards-school-shootings/
“Given the clear benefits of investing in school mental health resources, it would make sense...to increase school-based health professionals. Instead, funding for police in schools has been on the rise.” https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/cops-and-no-counselors
“The consequences of involving students in the criminal justice system are severe, especially for students of color, and may negatively affect the trajectory of students’ lives.”
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6209&context=law_lawreview
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6209&context=law_lawreview
Last year Chicago Public Schools said schools had the individual choice to take police out of an individual school BUT if a school did that the money earmarked for police could not be used for anything else...
#PoliceFreeSchools https://chicago.chalkbeat.org/2019/9/11/21108842/chicago-s-school-councils-were-granted-authority-over-school-police-all-voted-to-keep-them
#PoliceFreeSchools https://chicago.chalkbeat.org/2019/9/11/21108842/chicago-s-school-councils-were-granted-authority-over-school-police-all-voted-to-keep-them
“this...empirical analysis revealing that police in schools is predictive of greater odds that students will be referred to law enforcement...lawmakers & schools should consider alternative methods to create safer learning environments.” https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/facultypub/766/
“Many school administrators make decisions about school safety and policing that are not based on research...there is strong evidence to suggest that the presence of police in schools can have a negative effect on students.“
https://www.aclupa.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/police_and_pennsylvania_schools_report_digital_10.14.2019.pdf
https://www.aclupa.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/police_and_pennsylvania_schools_report_digital_10.14.2019.pdf
“An investigative report by the ACLU of Southern California and Public Advocates shows that tens of millions of dollars earmarked for programs to aid high-need students were instead unlawfully spent by school districts on school police...” https://www.aclusocal.org/en/press-releases/report-millions-student-funds-illegally-diverted-school-police
“The goal is to pressure school boards to drop contracts to staff school resource officers, or SROs, and use the funds to pay for more mental health experts, counselors, nurses, librarians and other staff they say are lacking on their campuses.” https://chronicleofsocialchange.org/featured/in-sacramento-youth-activists-push-to-get-police-out-of-schools/39845
“...in schools where coaches trained students and staff in restorative justice, reports of misconduct dropped by 31%, out-of-school suspensions dropped by 50%, and “severe incident reports” were down 43.8%, significantly more than the district as a whole.” https://www.chicagoreporter.com/whats-the-alternative-to-police-in-schools-restorative-justice/
“We don’t want our schools to be ground zero for the school-to-prison pipeline.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/06/12/schools-police-george-floyd-protests/
“My entire high school career—had it not been for the pandemic—would have been spent being policed every day in school,” she says. “It’s too much… Police do not belong in our schools.” https://time.com/5848959/school-contracts-police/
“After the handcuffings, both children had repeated nightmares, started bed-wetting, and would not let their mothers out of their sight.” https://www.aclu.org/blog/disability-rights/disability-rights-and-education/children-cruelly-handcuffed-win-big
“If re-allocated, the $33 million currently allotted to 180 SROs in CPS could fund positions for 317 social workers, 314 school psychologists, or 322 nurses.The time is now to invest in real safety for Chicago’s youth...”
https://copsoutcps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/CopsOutCPS-Report-6.16.20-1.pdf
https://copsoutcps.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/CopsOutCPS-Report-6.16.20-1.pdf
