School resource officer Ben Fields put a recalcitrant student in a choke-hold and flipped her upside down at her desk; and then, for good measure, he flipped the desk of a student who verbally protested the treatment of the student who refused to give up her cellphone. CNN analyst and former police detective Harry Houck said she may have had it coming for disrupting the class and for disrespecting the officer's authority. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who initially called out the student for her disruptive and disrespectful behavior, also claimed that the student punched the officer in the chest. Lott later fired the officer for using what is "not a proper technique."
The media has not critically examined the question of whether police officers should be in schools. The Justice Policy Institute recommended in a 2011 study that it is time to "remove all law enforcement offices from schools"; also, there are no research findings that having cops in school reducers crime. Having cops in school helps contribute to an atmosphere of fear and intimidation and results in the criminalization of young people, especially those of color. Ben Fields, for example, was called "Officer Slam" by students at the South Carolina high school where they saw Fields slamming people around.
Beginning in the 1990s, the number of police officers in U.S. public schools has literally exploded. In 2009, The New York Times estimated that that there were more than 17,000 police officers based in schools. According to figures from the Department of Education ad the Department of Justice, 28 percent of all schools now have armed security officers assigned to them. [1]
Antecedents to the presence of so many police officers in public schools go back to 1994, when then-President Bill Clinton introduced the Gun-Free Schools Act, which led to the enactment of "zero tolerance" school policies. Shortly thereafter, political scientist John DiLulio introduced the idea of the "juvenile superpredator," heralding the arrival of a youth crime wave. On a broader societal basis there was the emergence of the belief that a rising tide of crime could not be handled by reform measures and more punishment and control was needed, as exemplified by "three strikes" laws and mandatory-minimum sentencing laws.
Turning now to the issues of punishment in schools and the disparities in how that punishment is administered, there are a number of sources that help paint that picture. PBS News-Hour found New York City charter schools were suspending kids a young as kindergarten age for behavioral infractions. One study shows that schools with school resource officers SROs) had nearly five times the arrest rate of.non-SRO schools, even after controlling for student demographics like income and race. A 2011 study by the New York Civil Liberties Union found that students with disabilities are four times more likely to be suspended than their peers. In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed a class-action lawsuit against the schools of Birmingham, Alabama, claiming that they were systematically using excessive force. The SPLC alleged that since 2006, more than 300 students had been assailed by SROs with a combination of pepper spray and a tear-gas agent called Freeze +P that causes extreme pain and skin irritation, and can impede breathing and vision. According to a report by Mother Jones, from 2010 to 2015, at least 28 students were severely injured by SROs. [3]
Finally, attesting to the prevalence of "use of force" incidents, in the absence of national data, The Houston Chronicle found that in the last four years, police in eight Houston-area school districts reported 1,300 "use of force" incidents.
ADDENDUM: DC By the Numbers - "Kindergarten Cop"
* 92 K - Students subjected to school-related arrests during the 2011-12 academic year.
* 16% - Portion of the student population that is black.
* 31% - Students arrested n school who are black.
* 24.3% - Suspension rate for black students in 2010.
* 7.1% - Suspension rate for white students the same year.
Footnotes
[1] "Policing Education," The Nation, November 23/30, 2015.
[2] Ibid.; [3] Ibid..
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