Can We De-Police Schools and Assure Safety for Students and Staff?
A world turned right side up … the grandchildren of the civil rights demonstrators of the sixties seized the day, injustices centuries old bubbled and erupted, maybe our quiescent world is changing.
In New York State a number of police accountability and transparency concepts rapidly passed the legislature, signed by the governor and became law.
Cries of “defund the police” were heard across the nation, n some school districts zero tolerance and armed police are commonplace in schools.
The sharp criticism of the police is not new; the Black Lives Matter in Schools movement has been calling for “counselors not cops,’ as part of their platform.
School policing is looked upon as repression,
School policing is inextricably linked to this country’s long history of oppressing and criminalizing Black and Brown people and represents a belief that people of color need to be controlled and intimidated. Historically, school police have acted as agents of the state to suppress student organizing and movement building, and to maintain the status quo. Local, state and federal government agencies, designed to protect dominant White power institutions, made the intentional decision to police schools in order to exercise control of growing power in Black and Brown social movements
In New York City the de Blasio administration removed police from schools and ended the position of Youth Officer in precincts. If there is a situation requiring CONTINUE READING: Can We De-Police Schools and Assure Safety for Students and Staff? | Ed In The Apple
