{"id":55199,"date":"2020-12-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=55199"},"modified":"2020-12-14T10:21:14","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T18:21:14","slug":"why-getting-back-to-normal-doesnt-have-to-involve-police-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-getting-back-to-normal-doesnt-have-to-involve-police-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Why getting back to \u2018normal\u2019 doesn\u2019t have to involve police in schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Since COVID-19 forced many of America\u2019s schools to teach kids remotely, parents and elected officials have been rightly concerned about when things will get back to normal.<\/p>\n

But there are certain aspects of education where a return to a prepandemic \u201cnormal\u201d may not be in the best interests of America\u2019s students.<\/p>\n

I believe that stationing large numbers of police officers inside public schools is one reality ripe for reform. I say this not only as a\u00a0scholar of the politics of education<\/a>, but as former deputy chancellor of New York City\u2019s public schools. I served right before New York City\u2019s mayor at the time \u2013 Rudolph Giuliani \u2013 moved to have the\u00a0police department take over school security<\/a>\u00a0for the city\u2019s school system.<\/p>\n

A look back at that decision \u2013 and its consequences \u2013 can help inform the ongoing discussion about whether or how police belong in America\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n

Police takeover<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Upon becoming mayor in 1994, Giuliani moved forward with the extraordinary step of shifting the responsibility for school discipline\u00a0to the New York City Police Department<\/a>, which he ultimately got the\u00a0then-independent<\/a>\u00a0Board of Education to\u00a0approve in 1998<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Giuliani wanted schools to have a\u00a0more visible police presence<\/a>, even though there was evidence that\u00a0violence in the city\u2019s schools was rare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As the city\u2019s deputy schools chancellor in the early 1990s, I opposed this move, as did\u00a0then-Chancellor of Schools Ram\u00f3n Cortines<\/a>, and his successor,\u00a0Rudy Crew<\/a>. We all expressed concerns that it would not make schools safer, but would negatively affect the entire school climate and impede educational progress.<\/p>\n

At the time, when the Division of School Safety reported to me, it had roughly\u00a02,900 school safety officers<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 none of whom were police officers \u2013 and a budget of about\u00a0US$72 million<\/a>. By 2020 under New York City\u2019s police force, staffing for school safety officers roughly doubled in size, growing to\u00a05,511<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And some budget reports now document spending growing to over\u00a0$400 million<\/a>. But the massive spike in staffing and spending is part of a larger social justice problem known as the \u201cschool-to-prison pipeline<\/a>,\u201d in which exposure to the justice system takes place as a result of even minor infractions at school.<\/p>\n

Disparities in discipline<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Nationally, Black boys get suspended once or more during the school year at more than\u00a0three times the rate<\/a>\u00a0that white boys do. In one state, Indiana, Black students\u2019 probability of being suspended or expelled in a school year is\u00a0roughly 16% higher<\/a>\u00a0than it is for white students.<\/p>\n

Research<\/a>\u00a0has shown that Black students are \u201cmore likely to be seen as problematic and more likely to be punished than white students are for the same offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2018 school year,\u00a0roughly half of U.S. schools<\/a>\u00a0had some law enforcement officials stationed in them. This is evidence that many U.S. school systems have been following a more visible form of school discipline with closer and deeper connections to policing and law enforcement than in the past.<\/p>\n

Alternatives to police<\/strong><\/h4>\n

I believe there is a different way.<\/p>\n

School districts such as\u00a0Oakland<\/a>, California, and\u00a0Denver<\/a>, Colorado, have moved to eliminate or phase out police presence in schools.<\/p>\n

There are plans to use the savings, at least in the case of Oakland, toward more counselors, social workers and workers who focus on\u00a0restorative justice<\/a>, which involves practices such as peer mediation, restitution and community service instead of punitive measures, such as suspension or expulsion.<\/p>\n

The results of pilot studies in both Oakland and Denver were quite positive. In Oakland,\u00a0graduation rates increased 60%<\/a>\u00a0in schools that implemented restorative justice practices, and\u00a0suspensions fell by 56%<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The incoming administration \u2013 through the U.S. Department of Education \u2013 has an opportunity to focus attention and resources away from having more police in schools. Instead, the administration of President-elect Joe Biden can provide funding incentives that would encourage school districts to increase school safety and school success, by investing more heavily in counselors and other forms of student support.<\/p>\n

As I see it, by doing so, America\u2019s schools will be safe, but also\u00a0more students will graduate<\/a>\u00a0and fewer young people will be fed into the school-to-prison pipeline.<\/p>\n

Author Bio: <\/strong>Stanley S. Litow is Visiting Professor of the Pratice, Public Policy at Duke University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since COVID-19 forced many of America\u2019s schools to teach kids remotely, parents and elected officials have been rightly concerned about when things will get back to normal. But there are certain aspects of education where a return to a prepandemic \u201cnormal\u201d may not be in the best interests of America\u2019s students. I believe that stationing […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":55200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[357238],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-55199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-policing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy getting back to \u2018normal\u2019 doesn\u2019t have to involve police in schools - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-getting-back-to-normal-doesnt-have-to-involve-police-in-schools\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why getting back to \u2018normal\u2019 doesn\u2019t have to involve police in schools - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since COVID-19 forced many of America\u2019s schools to teach kids remotely, parents and elected officials have been rightly concerned about when things will get back to normal. 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