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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri
Time: 11:39 am
Time: 11:39 am
Results for policing in schools
1 results foundAuthor: American Civil Liberties Union of Washington Title: Students Not Suspects: The Need to Reform School Policing in Washington State Summary: Introduction In December of 2015, Tucker, a 13-year-old Black student in Washington state, was arrested as a result of an incident that started when he mumbled a curse word to himself. Tucker's teacher ordered him to go sit outside on a bench; when Tucker refused to go outside unprotected in the cold, his teacher called the school police officer. The officer grabbed Tucker, slammed him to the ground, and as Tucker flailed, put his knee of the back of Tucker's head. Tucker was then arrested and booked into juvenile detention. He was charged with the crimes of "disturbing school" and "disrupting a law enforcement officer." Thirty years ago, few schools would routinely use police to respond to such student discipline incidents. Fewer than 100 police officers patrolled public schools in the late 1970s. Today, the lines between the education system and the criminal justice system are increasingly blurred. More than 24 percent of elementary schools and 42 percent of high schools nationwide have school police officers embedded in school campuses. These numbers are even higher for predominantly Black or Latinx schools, 51 percent of which have regularly stationed school police. As the numbers of police officers regularly stationed in schools has risen, so too have arrests in school. In districts around the country, police are regularly assigned or called to schools and have the full power of the criminal law to control students and their behaviors. In Washington, this includes the power to refer children for prosecution for the crime of "disturbing school." In the 2013-2014 school year, the 100 Washington schools with the largest student enrollments reported referring over 3,400 students to law enforcement. Regular police presence increases the likelihood that students will be arrested or prosecuted for misbehavior. Arrest is an inappropriate and ineffective way to address the causes of juvenile misbehavior. In-school use of traditional law enforcement tools (including arrest) helps create a "school to prison pipeline" where students are funneled directly from their schools into the criminal justice system. The school to prison pipeline not only harms students, it harms communities. Students who are arrested are more likely to drop out of school, less likely to graduate and more likely to be further involved in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. School policing in Washington is largely unregulated; no state law or policy directly addresses the use of police in schools. No state agency systematically tracks police placement, program structure, or the impact on students. To investigate school policing in Washington, the ACLU reviewed public records from over 100 school districts, and spoke with parents, juvenile attorneys, police officers, educators, and community leaders. We found: - School policing is widespread. Eighty-four of Washington's 100 largest school districts have police officers assigned to schools on a daily basis. In addition, even schools without police officers assigned to campus may call police to respond to incidents of routine student misconduct. School policing is costly. Schools pay on average $62,000 (and as much as $125,000) per full-time equivalent officer per year. This money that could be more effectively spent on counselors, teachers, and other student support services. Police officers have broad discretion in almost all Washington school districts to arrest students for minor misbehavior. Having police in schools makes it more likely that students will be arrested. Washington's school police programs often lack written guidelines distinguishing between student discipline matters and crimes. This is particularly troubling because Washington law makes it a crime to disturb school, exposing students to criminal prosecution for routine misbehavior. Few of the police officers assigned to schools are required to undergo training on how to work in schools. Only 25 of the school/police contracts surveyed require police officers in schools to participate in any form of specialized training. This fails to account for the fact that schools are educational environments that should not be policed like a normal beat. Few schools collect any data on officer activities, including arrests. Only 14 school/police contracts require any form of data collection on officer activities. This makes it hard for districts to assess the impact of police in school, including the effects on students' constitutional rights and any discriminatory impact on students of color or students with disabilities. School police are rarely accountable to students, parents, and teachers. Only one school district has a clear civilian complaint process to address officer conduct in schools. In over 70 school districts, school officials have no clear role in supervising or evaluating police officers stationed in schools. In 55 districts, school officials have no input in the hiring or selection of an officer to be assigned to schools. The ACLU of Washington believes that police officers should not be a regular part of the school environment. Students, teachers, and school staff deserve safe, quality schools - but this cannot be accomplished by reliance on school policing. On the contrary, school policing as currently practiced in Washington - with few guidelines and scant oversight - may even make schools less safe by alienating students from school and contributing to the school to prison pipeline. Rather than investing in police, schools should prioritize counselors, mental health professionals, social workers, teacher training and evidence-based programs to improve the school climate, schools can help students reduce routine adolescent misbehavior and address the underlying social causes that may be contributing to it. This report documents and evaluates Washington's school policing and recommends policies that schools, law enforcement, and the legislature should adopt to protect students and ensure safe schools. Details: Seattle, Washington: ACLU of Washington, 2017. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 21, 2019 at: https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/students-not-suspects-need-reform-school-policing-washington-state Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/students-not-suspects-need-reform-school-policing-washington-state# Shelf Number: 155146 Keywords: Arrests in SchoolLaw EnforcementPolice in SchoolsPolicing in SchoolsSchool DisciplineSchool PolicingSchool SuspensionsSchool to Prison PipelineSchool Violence |