According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), there are “1.7 million students attending schools with police officers but no counselors, 3 million students attending schools with officers but no nurses, 6 million with police officers and no school psychologists and 10 million students in schools with officers but no social workers” (ACLU, 2020). While the United States Department of Education recommends that there be one school counselor for every 250 students, only three states meet this ratio (ACLU, 2020).

Students of color are disproportionately affected by policing in schools. The racial disparities in the number of students arrested at school are daunting. In some states, Latinx students are 1.3 times as likely to be arrested as their white counterparts, Indigenous students are twice as likely, and Black students are eight times as likely to be arrested in school as their white peers (ACLU, 2020). 

These numbers do not mean that students of color participate in more criminal behavior than their white peers but are being penalized for their conduct at much higher rates. This kind of discrimination in which people of color are treated unfairly by police is not unique to schools. Studies from the University of Michigan found that Black people were arrested at higher rates than their White counterparts for committing the same crime. Even after their arrests, Black people were given sentences that were an average of 10% longer than White people for the same crimes (Starr, 2019). 

According to the New York Times, in San Francisco, Black people make up 41% of those arrested, although they only make up 6% of the city’s population (Goldestein, 2020). Similarly, The Civil Rights Data Collection found that in the 2015-2016 school year, Black students made up 31% of those who were arrested in school, although they only made up 15% of the student population (Thomsen, 2019). 

While there are no studies that show that police in schools are helping to protect students, there is clear data that police in schools are harming students and grossly contributing to the prevalence of the school-to-prison pipeline. According to PBS, in the 2013-2014 school year, about 8,000 schools in the United States reported about 70,000 arrests (PBS, 2017). Not only does this contribute to the overpopulation of prisons and an increase in juvenile arrests, but having police in schools also contributes to greater levels of police violence. In 2019, at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, students reported police using pepper spray on them to break up a fight. In the same year, an officer at a school in North Carolina “repeatedly slammed an 11-year-old boy to the ground” (Goldestein, 2020). 

Removing officers from schools is not a novel idea. In fact, Minneapolis, Seattle, and Portland have already promised to end policing in their schools. The Seattle superintendent has stated that the presence of police officers in schools “prohibits many students and staff from feeling fully safe” (Goldestein, 2020). A police-free education system is not only possible but essential as the negative effects of police in schools continue to outweigh the feeling of security police presence is intended to provide. To protect students, reduce juvenile arrests and limit the increasing prison population, we must ensure that our representatives put an end to policing in schools. 

Recap:

• Police in schools disproportionately affects students of color and leads to an increase in juvenile arrests, prison population, and police violence 
• Police presence in schools is not essential and can be harmful to students who have negative interactions with police on campus 
• We must advocate for our representatives to end policing in schools to protect students across the country from police violence and arrests 

Citations:

ACLU (2020, July 09). ACLU news & Commentary. Retrieved May 01, 2021, from https://www.aclu.org/news/criminal-law-reform/police-in-schools-continue-to-target-black-brown-and-i… 

Blad, E., & Harwin, A. (2017, February 27). Analysis reveals racial disparities in-school arrests. Retrieved May 01, 2021, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/analysis-reveals-racial-disparities-school-arrests 

Goldstein, D. (2020, June 12). Do police officers make schools safer or more dangerous? Retrieved May 01, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/schools-police-resource-officers.html 

Starr, Sonja B. “Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal Sentences.” M. M. Rehavi, co-author. J. Pol. Econ. 122, no. 6 (2014): 1320-54. https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2413&context=articles 

Thomsen, J. (2019, April 30). Education department data shows black students are DISPROPORTIONATELY suspended, arrested. Retrieved May 01, 2021, from https://thehill.com/regulation/384594-ed-dept-data-reveals-black-students-are-disproportionately-sus…