Federal Government Must do More to Protect Students; Redirect Funding Away from Police in Schools and Invest in Counselors and Restorative Justice

WASHINGTON — Following the release of yet another a video depicting a school resource officer attacking a student, a coalition of racial justice advocates today highlighted the dangers of police in schools. The video showed the unnamed officer in a profanity-laced rampage as he slapped and kicked a Reach Partnership School student. Advancement Project, the Alliance for Educational Justice, the Baltimore Algebra Project and the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination in South Carolina, long time advocates for equity in education, urged the federal government and school officials to do more to protect students.

“Educators, administrators and government bodies have a duty of care to ensure students are protected from harm on school grounds,” said Efia Nwangaza, Executive Director of the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination in Greenville, South Carolina. “That didn’t happen in Baltimore and we are outraged. Schools should be havens of safety, yet we’re witnessing a crisis in the way youth of color are treated in schools.”

“Brittany Overstreet. Diamond Neals. Shakara Murphy. Niya Kenny; these are the names of just a few of the students who have been victimized by police in schools,” said Thomas Mariadason, a staff attorney with Advancement Project. “Baltimore aside, many of the recorded instances of police violence on school grounds involved girls of color, whose stories are not always appropriately highlighted. In sum, we should be looking at all the consequences of police in schools.”

In 2011, the Justice Policy Institute found “the presence of SROs [school resource officers] in schools has led to youth being arrested for disruptive rather than dangerous behavior...” The Justice Policy Institute also found that as the number of police in schools rose, referrals to law enforcement also increased.

“What happened in Baltimore is not an isolated occurrence but part of a broader pattern of police violence against youth of color,” said Thena Robinson Mock, project director for Advancement Project’s Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track program. “Last fall, a video surfaced of a South Carolina school resource officer dragging a teenage girl — who was wrongly charged after she was victimized — across her classroom. Adults in schools should build trust with students, not tear them down with verbal abuse, physical violence and intimidation.”

From years of research, we know children of color aren’t behaving any worse than their White counterparts, yet they are disciplined more frequently and more severely than others.

“The federal government hasn’t done enough to protect children in schools,” said Jonathan Stith, National Director of the Alliance for Educational Justice. “It’s time the federal government stopped funding police in schools and diverted those resources to counselors and restorative justice practices.”

“While we all want to protect our children and ensure their safety, police in schools are not the answer,” said Judith Browne Dianis, Advancement Project co-director. “Parents tend to envision police in schools as positioned near entrances to keep children safe, but too often police in schools are involved in disciplinary matters that would be better addressed via a trip to a guidance counselor.”

The groups on the call highlighted specific steps they are asking officials to take to further protect students:

- The federal government must release guidance detailing how they plan to limit the role of police in schools.
- School districts and administrators have a duty of care to provide better protections for students on school campuses.
- The federal government must redirect resources away from school police and invest them in supportive staff who will work to build trust and strengthen relationships with students.
- Presidential candidates should condemn the attack and outline what they would do to stop similar attacks in the future.
- Police in schools must be accountable to the student and schools must implement restorative justice; not just for students but for adults in the building. If this doesn’t happen, the officers involved in this most recent attack must be fired and criminally charged; the same way a student would be if he/she committed this level of offense.

“Instances of police brutality and violence against youth in schools should be neither tolerated nor normalized,” said Robinson Mock said. “It’s time school districts and the federal government heeded the call of parents, students and grassroots groups and implemented stronger protections for students. In addition to the officer and staff involved in the attack, Baltimore Public Schools as well as the Baltimore Police Department should be held accountable.”

For more information, contact Jennifer Farmer at jfarmer@advancementproject.org.