Do officers belong in schools? Districts cut ties, debate best path to safety.
| Austin, Texas
In the wake of George Floyd dying under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer three weeks ago, there is a growing call to reimagine, if not eliminate, policing in the United States 鈥� and change is starting in听public schools.
Reversing a decadeslong trend of heightened police presence, a handful of public school districts have gotten rid of their campus police forces in recent weeks, with others taking steps to discuss reductions and changes. The American Federation of Teachers also this week, with the union calling for school safety and policing to be decoupled.
Critics say ending school police programs is an emotions-driven overreaction. When properly trained, they argue, school resource officers (SROs) build positive relationships with students and parents, while protecting schools from outside threats including school shooters.
Why We Wrote This
George Floyd鈥檚 death is prompting a rethinking of policing in schools, where students of color are more likely than white counterparts to encounter officers. As partnerships dissolve, authorities ponder how to keep students safe while also treating them fairly.
The back and forth is in many ways a microcosm of the broader societal debate about differences in experiences with law enforcement, often based on race, and whether funding should be routed to counselors and social programs instead.听With the effectiveness of school police programs still relatively unclear, the negatives are now outweighing the positives for some school leaders.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know that the marginal costs of [school] policing have changed,鈥� says Emily Owens, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies school police programs.听What鈥檚 changed, she says, is that 鈥渢he marginal costs [are now seen as] so much higher than the perceived marginal benefits that people are finally demanding government leaders do something.鈥�
A cascade of cancellations
Mr. Floyd鈥檚 city moved first, with the Minneapolis Public Schools board voting unanimously in early June its SRO contract with the city鈥檚 police department. A few days later in Oregon the Portland Public Schools superintendent the discontinuation of the district鈥檚 SRO program with the city鈥檚 Police Department, which cost the district no money, and his intention to increase spending on counselors and social workers.
Last week the public school systems in ,听补苍诲 both voted to end their SRO programs. Their听$300,000 and $750,000 contracts, respectively, with local police departments will be put toward alternative safety programs and mental health resources for students, they said. Next week, the Los Angeles Board of Education phasing out police presence in the nation鈥檚 second-largest school district.
While Mr. Floyd鈥檚 killing was 鈥渁 horrible tragedy,鈥� this is one of the last things school systems should be doing, says Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, a nonprofit organization that offers trainings for SROs.听鈥淪chools that do that,鈥� he says, 鈥渁re losing potentially the best community-based policing they could have.鈥澨�
After decades, unclear results听
School police officers first began appearing in the 1950s. But beginning in the 1990s 鈥� and accelerating after a 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado 鈥� police presence has continuously expanded. Roughly half of U.S. students attend a school with an SRO, according to Shawn Bushway, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corp.
Yet this 鈥渄ramatic change in social policy,鈥� he says, has continued 鈥渨ithout much evidence.鈥澨�
鈥淭here鈥檚 some evidence it decreases serious violence鈥� in schools, he says, 鈥渂ut there鈥檚 some evidence it also increases negative outcomes for kids.鈥�
National Center for Education Statistics
听
A published last month found that SRO or police presence at a school corresponds with an increased probability that student incidents will be reported to law enforcement. Notably, that study failed to find evidence that these consequences disproportionately involve students of color.
Another found that federal grants for school police in Texas increased middle school discipline rates by 6% 鈥� driven primarily by low-level offenses and school code of conduct violations, and with Black students experiencing the largest increases in discipline. The study also found that "exposure to a three-year federal grant for school police is associated with a 2.5% decrease in high school graduation rates and a 4% decrease in college enrollment rates."
鈥淭hose affects are small, but significant,鈥� says Emily Weisburst, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, who authored the study.听鈥淲hen students are disciplined, their attachment to school decreases,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat can translate longer term into a lower likelihood of graduation.鈥�
The benefits of SRO programs are similarly difficult to evaluate.
The violent crime rate in schools, and the overall juvenile arrest rate in the U.S., have been declining in recent years 鈥� a period that coincides with an increase in schools with campus police officers. Whether there is a correlation between the two is unclear, however. Whether school police build trust and positive relations between law enforcement and students is also, at least empirically, unclear.
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 1992 through 2018; National Center for Education Statistics
听
Meanwhile, some research has found a more fundamental drawback to school police programs.
A Tulane University survey of almost 4,000 New Orleans charter school students during the 2018-19 school year 69% of white students felt safer in the presence of police compared to 40% of Black students. A of thousands of California high school students the year before also found that Black students felt less safe than other students in the presence of police officers, both in and out of school.
鈥淢any well-intended school leaders and school board members erroneously believe that they are making schools safer鈥� with school police programs, says Shaun Harper, executive director of the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not what students say.鈥�
鈥淎nd if they are in fact so good for the school community, why don鈥檛 we see them in predominantly white schools?鈥� he adds.
Momentum in Texas
Police do have a strong presence in predominantly white schools, but they are even more common in predominantly minority schools, statistics show.
In Texas, a coalition of advocacy groups is calling on the public school districts in four major cities in the state to scrap their school police programs.听All four districts have predominantly minority student bodies, and two of the districts, Houston and Dallas, have budgeted more than $18 million and more than $23 million, respectively, for policing and 鈥渟ecurity and monitoring鈥� services in recent years. All four districts have fallen short in the past two years of the 250-to-1 student-to-counselor ratio recommended by the American School Counselor Association.听
鈥淲e鈥檙e not just removing police officers, we鈥檙e removing police officers and adding the mental health services piece. So [potential] student threats are addressed that way,鈥� says Karmel Willis, an attorney with听Disability Rights Texas, one of the advocacy groups in the coalition.
For alternatives like restorative justice programs to work, research has shown, they need appropriate . But alternatives demonstrate that there is 鈥渁 different way, a better way, to ensure that there鈥檚 justice and accountability and restoration when harm is done in a school that doesn鈥檛 require any sort of law enforcement,鈥� says Dr. Harper.
Mr. Canady, from NASRO, says that schools 鈥渘eed more of everything.鈥澨�
鈥淢ental health experts aren鈥檛 trained on active shooter events. Who鈥檚 going to handle that?鈥� he says.听鈥淭here are still reasonable conversations to be had about strategies and reform,鈥� he continues. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 difficult to be had when 鈥� some people are in an absolute overcorrection mode.鈥澨�
The Houston Independent School District had a of 1-to-1,111 in 2018. Still,听decreasing听funding for the policing of schools 鈥渨ould jeopardize the safety of our students and staff,鈥澨齮he district said in a statement to the Monitor. 鈥淭he [police] department reflects the demographics of HISD students and families, and the personal relationships that HISD police officers work to cultivate and grow with students are an important component to improving academic outcomes.鈥澨�
All eyes on Minneapolis听
For those wanting to pull police out of schools, this current movement is less an overcorrection than a redefinition of school safety. For Andrew Hairston, director of the School-to-Prison Pipeline Project at Texas Appleseed 鈥� another advocacy group in the coalition 鈥� 鈥淚t鈥檚 encouraging and a little anxiety-inducing.鈥�
鈥淎ll eyes will be on Minneapolis and Denver and Charlottesville,鈥� he says.
And for school districts that do choose to end school police programs 鈥� whether they replace them with more counseling, more mental health resources, restorative justice programs, or other alternatives 鈥� it will be a step toward larger change.
鈥淚t is trying to build a world that鈥檚 never existed, to not rely on the criminal legal system, not rely on police to address social issues,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t would have to be something that鈥檚 invested in wholesale.鈥�
