“Policing Our Students” Report Points to New Directions for School Discipline
s a follow-on research project to its celebrated Million Dollar Hoods project, a research team led by UCLA Professor Kelly-Lytle Hernandez has released its “Policing-Our-Students” report, which documents the disparate impact Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) policing has on students of color.
Also led by Terry Allen, Isaac Bryan, and Andrew Teng, the Million Dollar Hoods team demonstrates that between 2014 and 2017, LASPD issued 24% of its arrests, citations, and diversions to black students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, even though those students represented less than 9% of the district’s total student population.
By contrast, Latinx students represented 74% of the student body and had 71% LASPD involvement, white students represented 10% of the student body and had 3% LASPD involvement, and “other” students represented 8% of the student body and had 2% of LASPD involvement.
Positive conditions for learning and safety do not exist when Black students are disproportionately subject to contact with law enforcement
Positive conditions for learning and safety do not exist when Black students are disproportionately subject to contact with law enforcement
“This racial disproportionately in contact with L.A. School Police disrupts opportunities to learn for black students,” says Terry Allen, a division lead and also a Ph.D. candidate at UCLA. “Contact with law enforcement can also impair mental health and well-being, induce trauma, erode trust in the criminal justice system, and negatively impact educational achievement, advancement, and subsequent attainment.”
“Positive conditions for learning and safety do not exist when Black students are disproportionately subject to contact with law enforcement,” Allen continues. “Schools must be wary that learning and safety are not comprised as they pursue approaches to reducing contact with law Continue reading: "Policing Our Students" Report Points to New Directions for School Discipline - LA Progressive
