Do Badges belong in Classrooms?

It was summer 2017: I entered the doors of John Bowne High School and was met with a set of metal detectors to go through and a line of police officers guarding every hallway watching my every move. It felt cold, unwelcoming, uncomfortable…my initial thoughts were “Do students really need to experience this every day? How do students learn in an environment like this?” A summer spent commuting to John Bowne HS in Queens, New York introduced me to the idea of police and surveillance within schools, a foreign concept that I’d soon come to learn was the reality for millions of students across the country.

Although police officers, “School Resource Officers’’, are found badged and armed in almost half of all public schools across the United States today, recent debates have questioned their true effectiveness and impact, pushing for their widespread removal. School Resource Officers are sworn police personnel, members of law enforcement, who are placed within public schools to patrol hallways, protect students from both internal and external threats, and maintain overall safety. In theory, SRO’s sound like a viable and necessary safety protocol that schools could utilize to protect their students and schools from crime. However, most recently there has been a call for their divestment and removal. The presence of SROs inside schools hasn’t been proven to be an effective safety measure but rather has been proven to have more negative impacts on youth. SRO’s demoralize students in an environment where they are in most need to feel motivated and emotionally supported. Moreover, the presence of School Resource Officers in “high crime areas” and “low performing schools” directly correlates with their placement in predominantly low-income and colored communities. This inadvertently puts vulnerable youth at risk of being pushed out of school and into the criminal justice system. While many argue that School resource Officers are necessary for American education as safety precautions, I argue that SRO’s should be replaced and defunded due to the fact that they consistently uphold hostile environments, lead to the disproportionate criminalization of BIPOC youth, and fuel the school-to-prison pipeline system.

In 1975, only about 1% of public schools in America had police presence and today 48%, or almost half of all public schools in America have police stationed and on guard inside of schools (Whitaker). In the United States, police were first seen within schools during the era of segregation to maintain “law and order”. Following the Columbine school shooting of 1999 and the drug and crime epidemic of the 1990s, there was a renewed call for more security to be enforced. Thus, in the past 50 years, we see a dramatic increase in SROs and discussions about the safety and surveillance of students within schools. The analysis of the effects SRO’s have reflects their negative impacts on youth over the years and the need to reevaluate this policy that was intended to keep students safe and improve their wellbeings’.

From a surface level, School Resource Officers are critical staff members in place to keep students safe in the case of a school shooting or other imminent danger. However, with the introduction of the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 which “mandated a yearlong out-of-school suspension for any student caught bringing a weapon to school” (Nelson and Lind) a Zero Tolerance Policy began to be adopted by schools and was expected to be carried out by School Resource Officers. Less leniency was given for any type of “disruptive behavior” or minor infraction, for which School Resource Officers were expected to step in and enforce more serious consequences such as suspensions, expulsions, or potential arrests to prevent more serious infractions. This resembles the idea behind the Broken Window policing theory that became popular in the 1990s by U.S. police “which emphasizes the importance of cracking down on small offenses in order to make residents feel safer and discourage more serious crimes” (Nelson and Lind). As described by the various authors, “in schools, it translated into more suspensions for offenses that previously hadn’t warranted them — talking back to teachers, skipping class, or being otherwise disobedient or disruptive.” (Theriot, Matthew T., and Orme). This depicts that instead of preventing crime and school shootings, their intended purpose, school police officers are directly linked with increased arrests for noncriminal youthful behavior. These arrests and discipline are seen mainly among students of color and students with disabilities. The enforcement and carrying out of zero-tolerance policies by police personnel shows how quickly their presence can have a domino effect that leads to lower performances in school, potential dropouts, and introductions into the criminal justice system for BIPOC youth and other marginalized groups.

Once handed over to the police, or these School Resource Officers, zero-tolerance policies have been proven to push students who need it the most out of schools, which leads to the discussion of the disproportionate distribution of SRO’s and the over criminalization of marginalized groups by these SRO’s. Not only are School Resource Officers found in predominantly minority high schools but they disproportionately discipline BIPOC youth at higher rates and they are overcriminalized as a result. SRO’s are mainly found in inner-city public high schools in large metropolises like Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, etc. This has a correspondence with the demographic that they are usually composed of: predominantly minority and low-income students. This is justified by the fact that these inner cities are dangerous areas with high crime rates and subsequent safety concerns for students. In this paper, I want to highlight the issue of policing in NYC’s public schools specifically as it is a good example of the general national trend.

The New York City public school system is the largest in the nation serving over a million students and is a good reflection of the SRO model within the U.S.. New York City offers a conventionally “good education”, but many of the schools within the system are still extremely overcrowded, under-resourced, and over policed. Many schools have more police than school counselors, nurses, coaches, etc, a common occurrence across the nation. As Vox writer Kristin Henning describes, the story in New York City begins in 1957, when “representatives from the NYC Police Department described Black and Latinx students in low-income neighborhoods as “dangerous delinquents’’ and “undesirables’’ capable of “corroding school morale.” (Henning). The narrative held by representatives of the NYPD was the motivating factor on decisions to establish these “safety officers” within schools to keep students safe from those looking to “corrode school morale”. Furthermore, in the 1960s, a highly publicized violent incident in a Brooklyn high school sparked widespread concern over youth behavior and student safety in the educational setting. This prompted a local committee to create solutions that would station law enforcement officers in schools to police students.

In addition to their racial bias, the presence of SROs takes away funding from developmental programs and has the potential to take away more opportunities from marginalized students. As writer Johanna Miller states about New York City, “ ..the city over-invests in expensive policing measures for schools that are disproportionately low income, black, and Latino, these schools remain under-resourced in fundamental areas that harm student learning. Students in these schools also are more likely to be subjected to zero-tolerance policies that involve police personnel in minor, non-criminal incidents and rely too heavily on suspensions.” (Miller). Miller emphasizes the situation of overfunding of police in NYC schools that are struggling to provide their students with resources and a supportive learning environment. The Children’s Defense Fund NY shows the budget allocated to policing in NYC public schools: “What was a $1.5 million budget request in 1968 is now a $431 million annual expenditure for school policing.” (Unthinkable). This directly reflects the larger importance placed on policing and the prison industrial complex system in America which is the complete opposite of other nations, in Europe per se.

The New York City school system reveals some of the main issues with policing: It is heavily concentrated in schools with high populations of vulnerable low income and BIPOC youth that are seen as “dangerous” or “threatening., takes funding away from programs that are needed to support youth mentally and emotionally, and puts youth at risk of entering the prison pipeline. As long as there are police officers within schools they will continue to carry out their law and order and “zero-tolerance” policies that criminalize petty or minor offenses that in a wealthier, predominantly white school would be considered just “playing around” (Turner).

In addition to the racial bias SRO’s originated through, SRO’s have shown to overstep their power and turn to violence, depicted in videos surfacing the internet of them throwing children out of their seats, tasing and handcuffing kids, etc. The violence they default to is due to their insufficient training of dealing with students because at the end of the day, they are police officers; they’ve been taught to maintain law and order and to respond with force. “Although they are encouraged to have extensive training in school-based policing topics like crisis and classroom management and adolescent development, there are no consistent training requirements so the level and quality of training received by SROs vary across schools and districts.”​​​​ (Matthew). They are not comprehensively trained to deal with and respond to youth in the right manner and are especially not trained to deal with students experiencing trauma or other mental health issues. This is important to consider because SRO’s are not prepared to deal with low-income and minority students who are already significantly disadvantaged due to their socioeconomic status and backgrounds. These youth in low-income neighborhoods are likely already facing various emotional issues due to economic hardships or familial issues. The presence of SRO’s is counteractive as having police stationed in environments that should be safe, nurturing, and enriching spaces and escape outlets can cause more stress and pressure on at-risk students. This can be detrimental to their future educational paths and lead to early enrollment in the criminal justice system. “Studies have also found that emphasizing a positive school climate — in which students feel safe, welcomed, and nurtured — decreases suspensions and expulsions while increasing student attainment. Creating equitable school climates — that is, schools that nurture and protect the rights and capacities of every student — will mean ending our reliance on school policing and recognizing how the criminalization of youth of color has denied students access to equitable education.” (Hinger and French-Marcelin).

Some may argue that police officers should remain in schools and be offered comprehensive mental health and adolescent behavior training, however, I argue that this is not an effective method of solving the larger issues that come with policing and the narrative that it continues to hold in America. Some claim that SRO’s play various roles and are all-in-one staff members, safety upkeepers, counselors, etc. Tiffany Cabán, a democratic socialist running for city council with experience as a public defender, counterargues this with her statement: “The presence of school safety officers leads to the increased likelihood of arrest or up charging children for minor problems into really serious legal issues…We see it all the time. We say, ‘We just need to get police officers more training in mental health response.’ No, we need to make sure we have dedicated, skilled workers and not retrofit that job. There’s no place for that in a school.” (Salaam). With her legal experience in the public defense sector, Salaam argues that the presence of police officers and personnel in schools needs to be abolished altogether due to their constant imminent threat to funnel children and youth into the criminal justice system. Offering mental health training to these police personnel will likely not change much as they still have the power and potential to charge and discipline students in violent and long-term detrimental ways.

Despite these issues, the United States seems to be the leading global contender when it comes to policing in schools, which in part has to do with the lack of emphasis placed on mental health in schools, the more lenient gun control regulations that span our nation, the stark wealth disparities between schools in America, the business of the private prison industrial complex system, etc.. Author Doriane Lambelot Coleman, said so clearly: “The reason we turn to metal detectors and student profiling is that we can’t get at the deeper stuff, but the Europeans can….Europeans may look at metal detectors, but it’s so clearly a Band-Aid. They just do a much better job taking care of their children.” (Bowman). This is a general sentiment reflecting how policies and schooling in Europe are sufficient enough that they don’t feel they need to police their students within schools. By also looking at Nordic educational systems we can see that not only do they provide all of their students equal access to various mental health and educational resources but their police within schools, if any, are part of larger community based systems that de-emphasize violence. “In the US, schools policing focuses mainly on enforcement and surveillance, with mentoring and education playing a secondary role…police presence seems here to be focused primarily on prevention and student safety” (Bradford and Yesberg). By examining the successful approaches that other countries take towards safety within schools, America could replicate them. We can use these models as a resource to better understand the many faults of the current SRO model in the U.S. Their ties to the prison industrial complex system, and the larger values they uphold of American policing, criminalization, and racism hinder their success and call for alternative solutions to safety within schools.

Schools are spaces designated to help individuals learn and grow: academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally. Primary and secondary schools are vital institutions; they are foundational support and sources of growth for children. Instead of trying to figure out why kids are acting the way they are, force and violence are the response with School Resource Officers, which traumatizes and ostracizes students. There needs to be a replacement of policing in schools with the complete redirection of funding towards educational programs, support services, and mental health resources so that these schools that require police officers can instead offer educational, physical, mental, and emotional support for their students. In America, the use of policing within academic institutions has proven to be more detrimental than its intended purpose and it must be demolished.

Works Cited:

Bowman, Darcia Harris. “Across the Atlantic, Europeans Take Different Approach to School Safety.” Education Week, 23 Feb. 2019, https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/across-the-atlantic-europeans-take-different-approach-to-school-safety/2002/05.

Bradford, Ben, and Yesberg, Julia A. Police in Schools an Evidence Review — Pshe-Association.org.UK. https://pshe-association.org.uk/sites/default/files/u36668/Police%20in%20schools%20Evidence%20Review%20FINAL.pdf.

Hinger, Sarah, and Megan French-Marcelin. “Bullies in Blue: Origins and Consequences of School Policing.” American Civil Liberties Union, 12 Apr. 2017, https://www.aclu.org/report/bullies-blue-origins-and-consequences-school-policing.

Matthew T. Theriot, John G. Orme. “School Resource Officers and Students’ Feelings of Safety at School — Matthew T. Theriot, John G. Orme, 2016.” SAGE Journals, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1541204014564472.

Miller, Johanna. “A Look at School Safety.” New York Civil Liberties Union, 4 Aug. 2017, https://www.nyclu.org/en/look-school-safety.

Nelson, Libby, and Dara Lind. “The School-to-Prison Pipeline, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 24 Feb. 2015, https://www.vox.com/2015/2/24/8101289/school-discipline-race.

Salaam, Erum. “New York Will Reassign 5,000 School Police Officers.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Sept. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/17/new-york-city-reassign-5000-school-safety-officers.

Theriot, Matthew T., and John G. Orme. “School Resource Officers and Students’ Feelings of Safety at School.” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, vol. 14, no. 2, 2014, pp. 130–146., https://doi.org/10.1177/1541204014564472.

Turner, E.O. “‘Softening’ School Resource Officers: The Extension of Police Presence in Schools in an Era of Black Lives Matter, School Shootings, and Rising Inequality.” Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13613324.2019.1679753.

Unthinkable — Staging.cdfny.org. https://staging.cdfny.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/10/CDF-NY-Report-History-of-Policing-in-NYC-Public-Schools.pdf.

Whitaker, Torres, Morton, Jordan, Amir, Sylvia, Michelle, Harold. “Cops and No Counselors.” American Civil Liberties Union, https://www.aclu.org/report/cops-and-no-counselors.