With bullying concerns rising and school violence becoming more prominent, public and private schools alike are looking at hiring full-time police officers and security personnel to patrol campuses. This increase in school security has the legal system alarmed. Situations that used to be handled in Principal’s Offices are now ending up in the court systems.
The New York Times article, With Police in Schools, More Children in Court (April 12, 2013), takes a good look at what is happening nationwide as schools struggle to balance violence on campus with disciplinary issues.
The effectiveness of hiring police officers and security personnel to deter crime is unclear. Denise Gottfredson, a criminologist at the University of Maryland who is an expert in school violence, says, “There is no evidence that placing officers in schools improves safety.” She continues, “It increases the number of minor behavior problems that are referred to the police, pushing kids into the criminal system.”
Recent reports from civil rights groups, including the Advancement Project in Washington and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York, say a large share of students are sent to court for relatively minor offenses. Black and Hispanic students, as well as those with disabilities, are disproportionally affected.
According to the Times article, Texas is among the top states at the center of this controversy. It is reported that police officers in Texas schools write more than 100,000 misdemeanor tickets each year. Students may face hundreds of dollars in fines, community service, and, in some cases, permanent criminal records that can affect applications for jobs or military service.
Texas is not alone in the headlines. A report from the Advancement Project says that Mississippi schools place kids in a “pipeline to prison,” using the juvenile criminal system as a replacement for normal school discipline. The report highlights a case where a five-year-old was sent home in a police car for violating dress code although his mother had tried to color his shoes black with a marker.
Police officers are brought in to provide safety, but often end up handling discipline and handing out charges of disorderly conduct or assault, said Michael Nash, the presiding judge of juvenile court in Los Angeles and the President of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. “You have to differentiate the security issue and the discipline issue,” he said. “Once the kids get involved in the court system, it’s a slippery slope downhill.”
Countering Nash’s opinion is Mo Canady, the Executive Director of The National Association of School Resource Officers. He says the negative impacts have been exaggerated, and that when the right people are selected and schooled in adolescent psychology and mediation, both schools and communities can benefit. “The good officers recognize the difference between a scuffle and a true assault.”
Michael Dorn and Chris Dorn co-authored, School/Law Enforcement Partnerships: A Guide To Police Work in Schools that outlines proven techniques from the most widely known model school law enforcement program in the nation—Bibb County, Georgia, School District Police Department. It provides considerable information on addressing problems of weapons in schools, establishing or improving school resource officer programs, and reducing crime on and near campuses.
Additional ISM resources of interest:
Private School News Vol. 12 No. 1 Safer With Armed Guards?
ISM’s Monthly Update for Business Officers Vol. 11 No. 5 Your School’s Security
ISM’s Monthly Update for Risk Managers Vol. 3 No. 1 Crisis Planning–It’s Your Job
ISM’s Monthly Update for School Heads Vol. 11 No. 7 Life After Newtown
