Following the mass shooting at a Texas primary school, schools across the country have promised to step up security and increase the presence of law enforcement on campus – in part to reassure parents and students.
But school police can make some students more restless, no less. Especially for black students and other colored students, their personal experience with the police can make them feel insecure and alienated from school when they see employees on campus.
Graduate Malika Mobley saw three different school resource officers patrolling the campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. Once on his way home from school, Mobley saw police officers detain a visibly insane classmate and push the student into the back of a police car.
“They cried, ‘Why are you doing this to me?’ I didn’t do anything, “said Mobley, co-chair of the Wake County Black Student Coalition. “I was just forced to stay there and there was nothing I could do.”
From 2020, the student group advocates the removal of police officers from school buildings in favor of investing in counselors and support staff for students.
“We don’t see the police presence as part of the decision,” Mobley said. “If you really think about why the police don’t make us safer, you can make connections with all kinds of tragedies that affect the most marginalized among us.”
Police officers have been a regular presence in schools across the country for decades, often in the form of school resource officers tasked with building relationships with young people to promote trust in law enforcement, ensure security and enforce the law. Critics say having armed police on campus often leads to disproportionate arrests and punishments of black students, leading to what they call a school-to-prison pipeline.
Researchers found that black students reported feeling less secure around police officers than their white peers, and that employees in predominantly black school districts were more likely to view students themselves as a threat.
Black students and other colored students are also disproportionately likely to have negative interactions with police in schools, ranging from referral to law enforcement to arrest or detention, said Catherine Dunn, director of the Learning Opportunity Learning Program. Since 2007, the Progress Project has documented at least 200 cases of police officers in schools attacking students, she said.
“This shows all the physical injuries that young people are experiencing from the police,” she said. “It’s also the experience of being humiliated and feeling like a criminal, because you have to walk down the hall to your class with a few armed cops who aren’t there for your safety, who you see arresting your friends, attacking your friends. ”
In 2018, following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the state legislature passed laws requiring public schools to have either law enforcement or armed personnel present on campus.
A study of the impact of the law by F. Chris Curran, a professor at the University of Florida, found that the increased police presence was followed by an increase in school arrests and the number of reported behavioral incidents. He said there are many factors to consider when deciding on the role of the police in schools.
“I would like to see that the conversation includes considered considerations of potential benefits, reduction of certain behaviors, but also potential unintended consequences if this increases the likelihood of students being arrested or potentially increases racial differences in discipline and arrest rates.” said.
Although there are examples of school staff who have intervened in incidents of gun violence, the Koran said law enforcement presence does not always guarantee that there will be no shooting or other violence or that the officer will be effective in stopping immediately. per perpetrator and minimizing casualties.
In a statement released this week on best practices for school security after the shooting in Uwalde, Texas, the National Association of School Resources Officers stressed the importance of having a “carefully selected, specially trained SRO on its campus when the school is in session.” “
The non-profit group has rejected criticism that employees are contributing to the pipeline from school to prison. Officials who follow his best practices say they do not arrest students for disciplinary issues that are usually solved by teachers.
As elsewhere in the country last week, the police presence was stepped up outside of North Carolina schools to reassure families after the shooting in Uwalde, Texas.
Wake County schools have 75 school resource staff, drawn from several local law enforcement agencies.
The Wake County Coalition of Black Students’ campaign to remove officers stems in part from student stories of bad experience with officers, including a 2017 incident in which a school resource officer was filmed picking up a black girl and pushing her to the ground, he said. Chalina Morgan-Lopez, a graduate who is co-chair of the student group.
“I think it’s a reasonable answer to want more school staff, especially from people who really feel protected by law enforcement, even though it’s not my life experience,” Morgan-Lopez said. “But I think people need to keep in mind … that officers actually do more harm than good.
Last summer, the school system made several changes to its school resources program, including a new grievance process involving staff and adjustments to training to better prepare them for the school environment, said Lisa Luten, a spokeswoman for the school system. The review is based on community feedback the district sought after the assassination of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, Luten said.
“This is not a new conversation for us,” she said. “It definitely brought him back to the world.”
Ma, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, writes about education and justice for the AP team on race and ethnicity. Follow her on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/anniema15
The Associated Press’s reports on race and ethnicity are supported in part by the scientific education department of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. AP is solely responsible for all content.