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Are teachers ceding too much discipline to in-school police officers?

October 19, 2016 —When a major disciplinary issue flares in their classroom, teachers often face a tough choice: Can I handle this myself – or do I need backup?

Over the past two decades, teachers have increasingly asked for reinforcement in the form of a school resource officer (SRO), a police officer specifically assigned to a school or district. Sometimes they respond to emergencies, like the presence of an active shooter. But more frequently, a new American Civil Liberties Union report shows, teachers are turning to police to handle something far more minor, such as a student who is disruptive but not physically threatening.

During the 2013-14 school year in California, more than 20,000 students – a majority of them low-income children of color or children with disabilities – were disciplined by school police for minor infractions that teachers would have handled in the past, the ACLU found. More than 9,500 of those interventions resulted in arrests; at their extreme, they involved strip searches, excessive use of force, and pepper spray.

http://www.csmonitor.com/EqualEd/2016/1019/Are-teachers-ceding-too-much-discipline-to-in-school-police-officers

 

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