ACLU White Paper Says Guidelines Needed For Police In Schools

more: http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/edu/40839prs20090825.html?s_src=RSS

ACLU White Paper Says Guidelines Needed For Police In Schools (8/25/2009)

Students' Rights Need To Be Respected While Ensuring School Safety

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

NEW YORK – Allowing police officers to patrol school campuses without specific guidelines outlining their roles and responsibilities can create a harmful environment that unnecessarily pushes students out of school and into the criminal justice system, according to a new white paper released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The white paper provides specific policy recommendations for the use of police in schools so that police officers deployed to schools are given the tools necessary for maintaining safe school environments while respecting the rights of students and the overall school climate.

"It is essential that the work of police on school campuses be guided by formal standards and policies," said Catherine Y. Kim, staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program and co-author of the white paper. "As the number of police officers on school campuses across the country continues to grow, there is a real risk that without concrete guidelines, student behavior will be unnecessarily criminalized and school environments will become increasingly toxic."

The white paper identifies six key policy guidelines that should govern the use of police in schools, including distinguishing between disciplinary misconduct to be handled by school officials and criminal offenses to be handled by law enforcement, and the promotion of non-punitive approaches to student behavior.

Seems like a bad idea to have police based at schools.

There was a story a few months ago about a girl who was walking into a hallway of her school she wasn't supposed to go, and when a policewoman told her to stop and she didn't, the policewoman tased her.

I've also read about police based at schools who read all the students' MySpace pages.

about minor infractions or things that can even happen at a "Mayberry" school, like yelling, acting out....police are called in for?! why? this is what kids do-they are a bundle of nerves and growing up, if it is really serious, suspend them or put them on notice-but handcuffs and criminalizing? america is seriously psychologically messed up.

He liked young boys a lot. We had the science teacher supplying the moonshine. We had the cop to all our parties, to ward off the fuzz. I'm glad it didnt lead to a lofe of crime.