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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 11:23 pm
Time: 11:23 pm
Results for school crime (texas)
1 results foundAuthor: Fowler, Deborah Title: Texas' School-to-Prison Pipeline: Ticketing, Arrest & Use of Force in Schools. How the Myth of the "Blackboard Jungle" Reshaped School Disciplinary Policy Summary: Schools in Texas have historically been safe places for teachers to teach and students to learn—even in high crime neighborhoods, yet student discipline is increasingly moving from the schoolhouse to the courthouse. Disrupting class, using profanity, misbehaving on a school bus, student fights, and truancy once meant a trip to the principal’s office. Today, such misbehavior results in a Class C misdemeanor ticket and a trip to court for thousands of Texas students and their families each year. It is conservatively estimated that more than 275,000 non-traffic tickets are issued to juveniles in Texas each year based on information from the Texas Office of Court Administration (TOCA). Low reporting of juvenile case data by Justice of the Peace courts to TOCA suggests that the number of non-traffic tickets issued to students may very well grossly exceed that number. While it is impossible to pinpoint how many of these tickets are issued by campus police, the vast majority of these tickets are issued for offenses most commonly linked to school-related misbehavior—disruption of class, disorderly conduct, disruption of transportation, truancy, and simple assaults related to student fights. “Criminalization” of student misbehavior extends to even the youngest students. In Texas, students as young as six have been ticketed at school in the past five years, and it is not uncommon for elementary-school students to be ticketed by school-based law enforcement. School-based arrest of students is not as common, but does occur—and often without prior notice to parents or a lawyer being present during initial questioning of the student. The increase in ticketing and arrest of students, in Texas and nationwide, has coincided with the growth in school-based policing. Campus policing is the largest and fastest growing area of law enforcement in Texas, according to its own professional association. With counselors stretched to handle class scheduling and test administration duties, school administrators and teachers are increasingly turning to campus police officers (also known as School Resource Officers or SROs) to handle student behavior problems. Today in Texas, most public schools have a police officer assigned to patrol hallways, lunchrooms, school grounds, and after-school events. According to media accounts, police officers in some Texas schools are resorting to “use of force” measures more commonly associated with fighting street crime—pepper spray, Tasers and trained canines—when a schoolyard fight breaks out or when students are misbehaving in a cafeteria or at a school event. The intent is to keep schools and students safe, but there can be unintended consequences to disciplining public school students in a way that introduces them to the justice system or exposes them to policing techniques more commonly used with adults. This report is the third in a series of Texas Appleseed publications exploring the impact of school disciplinary policies on school dropout and future involvement in the juvenile justice system. The “school-to-prison pipeline” is a phenomenon documented in a growing body of state and national research, and it is a destructive path all too familiar to the hundreds of teens incarcerated in Texas Youth Commission (TYC) facilities. Their stories highlight being repeatedly suspended, expelled, ticketed and referred to court for minor offenses before committing the offense that triggered their incarceration in TYC. Lock up in TYC is the “end of the pipeline” for some, while others will be transferred or commit a new offense resulting in their imprisonment in an adult corrections facility. After three years researching these issues through data analysis, literature review, direct observations and interviews with stakeholders, our main finding is clear: Texas can interrupt this destructive cycle and prevent the loss of more young people to the “school-to-prison pipeline” through early interventions focused less on punishment and more on creating positive school environments that address students’ academic and behavioral needs. Recommendations for reform are included in this report. Details: Austin, Texas: Texas Appleseed, 2010. 214p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 14, 2012 at http://www.texasappleseed.net/images/stories/reports/Ticketing_Booklet_web.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.texasappleseed.net/images/stories/reports/Ticketing_Booklet_web.pdf Shelf Number: 124138 Keywords: Police Use of ForceSchool Crime (Texas)School Resource Officers |