Agenda Item # 10.2 - Rene Casas | Received 05/16/2022CAUTION: This email originated from an External Source. Please use proper judgment and caution when opening
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From:Council Member Zachary Hilton
To:City Clerk
Subject:Alternatives to SRO"s Gilroy Unified School District (GUSD) MOU
Date:Monday, May 16, 2022 12:24:01 PM
Attachments:City Council Alternatives to SROs - GUSD MOU.pdf
no_police_in_schools_-_summary (1) (1).pdf
no_police_in_schools_-_report_-_aclu_-_082421 (1).pdf
Thai,
Can you please add this letter as public comment tonight for the SRO’s?
Thanks.
Zach Hilton
Gilroy City Council Member
www.zachhilton.com
#HiltonForCouncil @zachhilton_ca
From: Rene Casas <rene@youthall.org>
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 11:27 AM
To: Council Member Zachary Hilton <Zachary.Hilton@ci.gilroy.ca.us>; Council Member Zachary
Hilton <Zachary.Hilton@ci.gilroy.ca.us>; zach.hilton@ci.gilroy.ca.us <zach.hilton@ci.gilroy.ca.us>
Subject: EXTERNAL - Fwd: Alternatives to SRO's Gilroy Unified School District (GUSD) MOU
Fyi...
Youth Alliance Rene Casas, MSW
Director of Strategic Partnerships and Policy
rene@youthall.org
Youth Alliance
Office: 831.636-2853 ext. 43 | Fax: 831.636.2850
310 Fourth St., Suite 101
Hollister, CA 95023
www.youthall.org
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Rene Casas <rene@youthall.org>
Date: Mon, May 16, 2022 at 11:25 AM
Subject: Alternatives to SRO's Gilroy Unified School District (GUSD) MOU
To: Mayor Marie Blankley <marie.blankley@ci.gilroy.ca.us>, Council Member Fred Tovar
<fred.tovar@ci.gilroy.ca.us>, <rebeca.armendariz@ci.gilroy.ca.us>,
<dion.bracco@ci.gilroy.ca.us>, <zach.hilton@ci.gilroy.ca.us>, <peter.leroe-
munoz@ci.gilroy.ca.us>, <carol.marques@ci.gilroy.ca.us>, <jimmy.forbis@ci.gilroy.ca.us>
Dear Mayor, City Council Members, and City Administrator for the City of Gilroy,
I am forwarding an attached document City Council Alternatives to SRO's- GUSD MOU on
behalf of the Coalition of Concerned Parents, Students, Community Leaders, Educators, and
Advocates. This is an abridged letter previously sent to GUSD leadership.
As a coalition, we urge you not to bring back law enforcement officers to GUSD campuses.
As advocates concerned with the inequitable treatment of youth, which criminalizes
adolescent behaviors and results in the disproportionate incarceration of Black and Brown
youth and students with disabilities, we respectfully ask that you DO NOT put SRO’s in our
GUSD schools. We ask for the need to address the lack of data requirements in the current
MOU and establish a multi-stakeholder committee that is focused on alternatives. In addition,
we ask that you address the community and gun violence as a public health crisis and invest
resources and time in engaging youth, families, and community in coming together to explore
alternatives to keeping youth and schools safe during this challenging time for our community.
Please see the attached document highlighting the following;
Research on the Harms of SRO's to Students and School Climate
IMPACTS of the Current Global Pandemic on Students
Positive investments that support students
Evidence-based Alternative Models to Law Enforcement on Campus
Culture and Climate Ambassadors (CCA) and Culture Keepers (CK)
In addition, attached is both a full report and a summary of ACLU's No Police in Schools
research. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or any organizations that have
expressed their support in the attached document. I want to thank you for all the work you
have and continue to do to find support for our students at GUSD.
In Community,
Youth Alliance Rene Casas, MSW
Director of Strategic Partnerships and Policy
rene@youthall.org
Youth Alliance
Office: 831.636-2853 ext. 43 | Fax: 831.636.2850
310 Fourth St., Suite 101
Hollister, CA 95023
www.youthall.org
May 16th, 2022
To: Marie Blankley, Mayor, marie.blankley@ci.gilroy.ca.us
Fred Tovar, Mayor Pro Tempore, fred.tovar@ci.gilroy.ca.us
Rebeca Armendariz, Council Member, rebeca.armendariz@ci.gilroy.ca.us
Dion Bracco, Council Member, dion.bracco@ci.gilroy.ca.us
Zach Hilton, Council Member, zach.hilton@ci.gilroy.ca.us
Peter Leroe-Munoz, Council Member, peter.leroe-munoz@ci.gilroy.ca.us
Carol Marques, Council Member, carol.marques@ci.gilroy.ca.us
CC: Jimmy Forbis, City Administrator, jimmy.forbis@ci.gilroy.ca.us
From: Coalition of Concerned Parents, Community Leaders, Educators, and Advocates
Re: Alternatives to Law Enforcement at Gilroy Unified School District (GUSD)
We write as concerned parents, community leaders, educators, and advocates from local organizations to urge
you not to bring back law enforcement officers to Gilroy Unified School District’s campuses. As advocates
concerned with the school-to-prison pipeline, which criminalizes adolescent behaviors and results in the
disproportionate incarceration of Black and Brown youth, we call on you to instead put the funds allocated for
SROs towards the well-being, health, and increase of safe spaces of our youth. Alternatives that are youth-focused
will help in building school and community safety, investing in restorative justice practices, youth Wellness
Centers, and establishing a Task Force to Reimagine youth and young adult Safety. Our students have experienced
unprecedented challenges and trauma this past year and now more than ever need to be met with caring,
trauma-informed, and culturally appropriate responses, not punishment. Our reasons are as follows:
Research Has Conclusively Shown that Police in Schools Do Not Make Students Safer and Their Presence
Harms School Climate
We know that investment in law enforcement personnel fundamentally fails to make schools safer for students.
We have years of peer-reviewed research demonstrating that school police do not reduce crime or delinquency
or increase safety. A research review by West Ed of 40 years of evaluations of school policing, showed no positive
impact on school crime or delinquency and no impact on the level of student victimization. Further research
1
demonstrates that students’ perceptions of safety are significantly lower in schools with police presence and that
females, African-American, Latino, and Low SES students feel significantly less safe in schools with higher levels of
security. In addition to not improving student behavior or decreasing rates of victimization, the presence of
2
school police is associated with higher rates of suspension overall and with greater racial disparity in
suspension rates. Finally, the presence of school police has been shown to reduce high school graduation and
college enrollment/attendance. Exposure to a three-year federal grant for school police is associated with a 2.5
percent decrease in high school graduation rates and a four percent decrease in college enrollment rates.3
Some proponents of SROs have argued that SROs help with de-escalation on campuses when fights occur, and
with truancy issues. Here is what we know: law enforcement should not be in the business of handling school
discipline, and their presence results in the criminalization of typical adolescent behavior. Law enforcement is not
the appropriate entity to address the many and complex underlying reasons for truancy, fights on campus, or
mental health crises. In fact, research shows that 65% of students feel law enforcement tends to escalate
situations, 60% say police are "overly aggressive," and 48% perceive the police as not trustworthy (Turner, 2019).
Furthermore, Black
1 Stern and Petrosino, What Do We Know About the Effects of School-Based Law Enforcement on School Safety, WestEd
Justice and Prevention Research Center, April 2019.
2 Finn, J.D. & Servoss, T.J. (2014). Misbehavior, suspensions, and security measures in high school: Racial/ethnic and gender
differences. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children at Risk, 5(2), Article 11; 3 Servoss, T.J. & Finn,
J.D. (2016, April). Racial/ethnic disparities in school exclusions: The role of school security. Paper to be presented to the Annual
Meeting of the American Educational Research Association.
3Emily K. Weisburst, Patrolling Public Schools: The Impact of Funding for School Police on Student Discipline and Long-term
Education Outcomes, NBER, October 2018
and Latino boys with disabilities make up 5% of California students but 13% of referrals to law enforcement and
15% of school arrests.4
The IMPACTS of the Current Global Pandemic Response
Youth, now more than ever, need counselors, social workers, and supports to help them during these
unprecedented times. It is money well spent to have counselors and student support teams check in on
students and their well-being, develop trusting relationships, work on college applications, and other important
issues in students’ lives.
The pandemic has exposed long-standing systemic inequities in education resulting in critical gaps in opportunity
and academic achievement. The pandemic and associated restrictions and consequences have taken a
considerable toll on youth and their mental health. According to a large research study of children around the
world, youth mental health difficulties during COVID have likely doubled, with 1 in 4 youth globally experiencing
elevated depression symptoms and 1 in 5 youth globally experiencing elevated anxiety symptoms.5
As schools have reopened their doors to in-person instruction, many students, families, educators, and community
partners are ready to think about things getting “back to normal.” However, the old “normal” was already
underserving California’s most vulnerable children and youth. Our limited understanding and coordinated
response systems to respond to students’ who have lost loved ones, are acting out with fights or exhibiting feeling
unsafe, cannot cause us to return to outdated models of policing our students for behavior. Instead, our
opportunity is to respond to students and staff with restorative and compassionate systems of support. The
pandemic has altered our understanding of how schools could and should operate, and a major infusion of funding
has opened the door to reimagining school safety and climate.
In response, we must begin by nurturing students’ and educators’ social and emotional well-being to support
academic progress. We must strengthen the foundation of our education system in order to eradicate systemic
racial and other inequities, build trust among students, families, staff, educators, and community leaders, and
strengthen systems for continuous improvement. You as elected leaders can lay the groundwork for long-term
systemic transformation that enables schools to be restorative places where students feel safe, supported,
heard, and fully engaged in learning.
Positive Investments that Will Support Students and Keep Them Safe
GUSD has increased its investments and partnership in services to address trauma and other mental health issues.
However, critical support services, training, and staffing are still needed at the high schools and middle schools
where police officers are being proposed. These include
● Trauma-sensitive and healing-centered behavior practices including more school-based counselors,
social workers, psychologists, and nurses.
● Further investment and more effective implementation of restorative justice practices and staffing
that decriminalize student mental health.
● Training for all school personnel in prevention and support strategies including but not limited
to relationship-building, trauma-informed de-escalation, and restorative principles.
● Build trusting relationships with students and reduce racial trauma on students of color.
● Staffing schools with mentor-coaches trained to intervene, de-escalate, and proactively address issues
and behaviors.
● Wellness Centers that support students’ emotional and mental health needs.
4 Ni Amir Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, et al. “No Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools, ACLU
California, August 2021
5 Nicole Racine, Brae Ann McArthur, et. al. “Global Presence of Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Children and
Adolescents During COVID-19: A Meta-analysis, JAMA Pediatrics, American Medical Association, 2021.
● A district and school site safety team that reflects equity and a positive culture and climate to reimagine
safety practices and establish restorative responses to the increased student behavioral support needs
instead of referring to the police or referring for suspension.
Alternative Models to Law Enforcement in Schools
Just as research points to what doesn’t work, this same evidence base shows us what works to prevent violence
both in school and out of school. One proven program we want to highlight is the Student Safety Coach Model
summarized in Wilder Research Report (June 2020). Since the 2014-15 school year, Wilder Research has been
working with Intermediate School District 287 in Minnesota to evaluate various programs. In 2017, District 287
replaced School Resource Officers with Student Safety Coaches (SSCs) and built a school safety model focused
on relationships, de-escalation, and healing-centered approaches. Importantly, their Strategic Priority of
replacing
6
SROs with SSCs was central to the District’s move to become a racially conscious, trauma-sensitive
and healing-centered school district. The Student Safety Coach Model Approach:
● Trauma-sensitive and healing-centered behavior practices
● Decriminalize student mental health
● Reduce racial trauma for Students of Color
● Build trusting relationships with students
● Proactively address issues and behavior
● Restorative practices
The district employs Student Safety Coaches (SSCs) and two Student and Staff Safety Managers. Each school has
two SSCs, and then two floats respond to incidents as needed. Student Safety Coaches vs. School Resource
Officers: The role of an SSC is very different from the role of a police officer in schools. Police intervene in student
incidents only 2% of the time, just a fraction of the involvement of SSCs with students. As such, the value SSCs
bring to the school community goes far beyond the role of police officers, which was primarily focused on the
criminalization of student behaviors.
Key Data Points include:
"SSCs build relationships with students, which helps tremendously when trying to de-escalate them during and
after a crisis. SSCs give students a designated go-to person if they are struggling in class or with a situation
outside of school. SSCs help students process their feelings and communicate them effectively in more situations
than not. SSC's help students practice SEL (social-emotional learning) skills on a daily basis."7
● Program Data (SY17-18 through SY19-20, note: spring 2020 data not included due to distance learning) ●
Stronger relationships: Almost 30% of student interactions with SSCs were positive student outcomes ●
Incidents with police involvement decreased by over half over the first two years: Incidents shifted from
needing police involvement to being addressed through de-escalation and/or mental health support.
On average, about 2% of SSC interactions with students resulted in needing police response (37 police
responses in 17-18, 12 police responses in 18-19, and 15 police responses in fall 19)
● Significantly Fewer Arrests: In the pilot year (2016-2017), one school resolved 95% of incidents without
police intervention. Arrests dropped from 65 to 12 in that school in the first year alone. Now, the
average number of student arrests across the entire district is five.
A second alternative model that could be adapted by GUSD is the re-envisioned role of school safety staff
being implemented in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). OUSD eliminated the Oakland School Police
Department and launched a community-driven process for completing the revised District-wide Safety Plan to
explore ways to create revised positions in a way that reflects equity and a positive culture and climate and to
reimagine safety practices and transform school culture.
6 Lindsay Turner, ISD 287’s Student Safety Coaches, Summary of Literature and Staff Survey School Year 2019-2020,
Wilder Research, June 2020.
7Lindsay Turner, ISD 287’s Student Safety Coaches, Summary of Literature and Staff Survey School Year 2019-2020, Wilder
Research, June 2020.
As part of their Culture and Climate Department, Culture and Climate Ambassadors and Culture Keeper positions
were created to act as student support personnel. Their presence helps eliminate reliance on police officers
except in extreme situations when safety or the law requires a police response. These redesigned roles act as
the student support personnel rather than police and will be utilized by school administrators to address the
overwhelming amount of incidents that were wrongfully being referred to school police per previous school
policies. A Coordinator of Safety assists in the supervision of the CCA’s and acts as the liaison between the
District and the Police Department. Importantly, this role also oversees the Student Safety Plan.
Culture & Climate Ambassador (CCAs) and Culture Keepers (CKs): Site-based school safety
support Relationship Building Support and Monitoring Supportive Intervention
•Building positive relationships and
trust, day-to-day, with students,
staff, and community, to make
supports more effective
•Greeting students & families
•Getting to know students &
families
•Consistent positive engagement,
even in times of conflict or tension
•Day-to-day reading of social
dynamics, looking out for potential
escalations, and checking-in using
tact, patience, and courtesy
•Monitoring designated areas
•Being attentive to, stepping in, and
notifying appropriate personnel in
regard to potential conflicts,
tensions, harassment, & harm to
students
•As needed, intervening using
trauma-informed de-escalation,
restorative practices, connecting
with appropriate staff
•Implementing school site safety
response plans
•Utilizing skilled practices to defuse
and support challenging situations
Research has shown that the majority of students who are currently being criminalized at schools have
mental health needs, behavioral health needs, and/or have disabilities . Policing and criminalization
8
disproportionately impact them and often cause deeper harm or trauma. These students and their
schools need stronger support.
Growing national research shows that negative encounters with law enforcement lead to adverse
mental health outcomes, including symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder .
When
9
schools lack adequate staff in these roles to support students’ social and emotional needs as well as the
needs of students with disabilities, educators become more frequently overwhelmed and resort to calling
the police in distress.
Importantly, the policy choice here is not between police-patrolled campuses and neglect of legitimate safety
and discipline; it is between an enforcement and criminalization approach to safety that science has shown to be
ineffective and an evidence-based approach to safety that prioritize mentoring, relationship-building, strong
community norms, and care for young people and produces real reductions in suffering and harm (Scott et al.,
2017).
It is well known that schools across the state are grappling with complex student behaviors resulting from the
pandemic and re-acclimating to in-person instruction, returning with increased learning needs, personal and
family trauma, or health issues due to losing family members and friends. These complex issues need proper
innovative solutions that provide positive and holistic supports to Gilroy students as they struggle to recover from
the pandemic. Gilroy students need warm and supportive spaces more than ever.
8 Amir Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson, No Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and
Supportive Schools, ACLU California, August 2021
9 Amir Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson, No Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and
Supportive Schools, ACLU California, August 2021
The growth of school policing and school hardening devour resources from already underserved schools and
contribute to hundreds of thousands of youth being funneled into the criminal justice system. Gilroy students
10
need warm and supportive spaces more than ever, and they should be greeted at school with robust
mental health and academic supports rather than the presence of police officers.
Importantly, building out an alternative model supports school staff and students and furthers GUSD’s goals. As a
coalition, we respectfully ask that you DO NOT put SRO’s in our GUSD schools. But instead, create a working task
force that can provide more targeted listening sessions (which can be supported by a few of the community-
based organizations listed below) while further exploring alternatives to help GUSD school teams and students.
To that end, the following organizations have expressed their support with services and leadership:
● C.A.R.A.S.
● Dolores Huerta Foundation for Community Organizing
● Fresh Lifelines for Youth
● Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
● MILPA
● National Center for Youth Law
● Silicon Valley De-Bug
● Youth Alliance
● Young Women’s Freedom Center
We thank you for your time and await your response.
10 Amir Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson, No Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and
Supportive Schools, ACLU California, August 2021
ATTACHMENTS
1. RESEARCH
No Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools, ACLU California, August 2021, Amir
Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson,
https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/no_police_in_schools_-_report_-_aclu_-
_082421.p df; Civil Rights Data Collection Data set 2017-2018. https://ocrdata.ed.gov/
See, e.g., Tanner-Smith, E. E., Fisher, B. W., Addington, L. A., & Gardella, J. H. (2018). Adding security,
but subtracting safety?
Black and Brown students report feeling less safe at schools with SROs.
Nakamoto, J., Cerna, R., and Stern, A. High School Students’ Perceptions of Police Vary by Student Race and
Ethnicity : Findings from an analysis of the California Healthy Kids Survey, 2017/18. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.
https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/resource-high-school-students-perceptions-of-
police.pdf
Latino boys make up 28% of California’s students but 44% of student arrests.
No Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools, ACLU California, August 2021, Amir
Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson,
https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/no_police_in_schools_-_report_-_aclu_-
_082421.p df; Civil Rights Data Collection Data set 2017-2018. https://ocrdata.ed.gov/
Black and Latino boys with disabilities are 5% of California students but 13% of referrals to law enforcement
and 15% of school arrests.
No Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools, ACLU California, August 2021, Amir
Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson,
https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/no_police_in_schools_-_report_-_aclu_-
_082421.p df; Civil Rights Data Collection Data set 2017-2018. https://ocrdata.ed.gov/
Black and Latine students’ behaviors are more likely to be framed as criminal activity as opposed to school
policy or education code violation.
No Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools, ACLU California August 2021, Amir
Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson,
https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/no_police_in_schools_-_report_-_aclu_-
_082421.p df; Racial and Identity Profiling Act 2019, Open Justice,
https://openjustice.doj.ca.gov/exploration/stop-data-k12
Interactions with police result in far harsher consequences for Black and Latine students and confirm that
those students are being criminalized on campus. Responses to call for services resulted in a citation 30% of the
time for white students, 44% of the time for Latine students, and 34.6% of the time for Black students. No
Police In Schools: A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools, ACLU California August 2021, Amir Whitaker, Ed.D.,
Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson,
https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/no_police_in_schools_-_report_-_aclu_-
_082421.p df; Racial and Identity Profiling Act 2019, Open Justice,
https://openjustice.doj.ca.gov/exploration/stop-data-k12
There is no clear evidence that having SROs on school campuses increases school safety but studies do show
that the presence of SROs can create a less inclusive social school climate.
ACLU Pennsylvania, “Summit on School Policing, Research on the Impact of School Policing,” July 2019,
Aaron Kupchick, University of Delaware, https://www.endzerotolerance.org/impact-of-school-policing.
6
Exploring schools’ use of multiple visible security measures. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 43, 102–
119; Addington, L. A. (2009). Cops and cameras: Public school security as a policy response to Columbine.
American Behavioral Scientist, 52, 1424–1446; Phaneuf, S.W. (2009).
Stern and Petrosino, What Do We Know About the Effects of School Based Law Enforcement on School
Safety, West Ed Justice and Prevention Research Center, April 2019,
ttps://www.wested.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/04/JPRC-Police-Schools-Brief.pdf.
Bachman, R., Randolph, A., & Brown, B. L. (2011). Predicting perceptions of fear at school and going to and from
school for African American and White students: The effects of school security measures. Youth & Society, 43,
705–726; Perumean-Chaney, S. E., & Sutton, L. M. (2013). Students and perceived school safety: The impact of
school security measures. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 38, 570–588.
Why and When Do School Resource Officers Engage in School Discipline? The Role of Context in Shaping
Disciplinary Involvement. American Journal of Education 126 (November 2019), the University of
Chicago; 0195-6744/2019/12601-0002 (page 37).
Finn, J.D. & Servoss, T.J. (2014). Misbehavior, suspensions, and security measures in high school:
Racial/ethnic and gender differences. Journal of Applied Research on Children: Informing Policy for Children
at Risk, 5 (2), Article 11, https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk/vol5/iss2/11.
Hirschfield, P. J. (2008). Preparing for prison? The criminalization of school discipline in the USA.
Why and When Do School Resource Officers Engage in School Discipline? The Role of Context in
Shaping Disciplinary Involvement. American Journal of Education 126 (November 2019), the University
of Chicago; 0195-6744/2019/12601-0002 (page 36).
ISD 287’s Student Safety Coaches: Summary of Literature and Staff Survey School Year 2019 –
2020 Turner, L. (JUNE 2020)
https://www.wilder.org/sites/default/files/imports/ISD287_StudentSafetyCoaches_Summ_6-20.pdf
School Policing and School Resource Officers: Considerations and Recommendations. Report from the
Santa Clara County Juvenile Justice Commission, December 2020
https://www.scscourt.org/documents/jjc/2020/JJC%20SCHOOL%20POLICING%20REPORT.pdf
Additional Resources:
School Admin Guide to Police-Free Responses
7
No Police in Schools:
A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools in CA
Over the past few decades, police have become a dominant
fixture in California schools. Their presence has devastating
and discriminatory impacts on tens of thousands of California
students. Policing in the U.S. has historical roots in slave
patrols, which violently abducted Black people who escaped
enslavement, and in the forced dislocation of Indigenous youth
to “boarding schools” designed to erase their cultural ties. As
communities across the country came together to reevaluate
the role of police in enacting racism in the wake of George
Floyd’s murder by police officers, youth activists continued to
advocate to remove police from schools. Since then, school
districts in Oakland, Los Angeles, Pomona, and Claremont,
among others, have fully eliminated or made progress towards
eliminating school police.
The report, “No Police in Schools,” analyzes school police
data from the U.S. Department of Education’s 2017-18 Civil
Rights Data Collection (CRDC), the 2019 California Racial
and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) Stops dataset, and data
from Stockton Unified School District on police in schools.
The data conclusively show harmful and discriminatory
policing patterns in schools. School police contribute to the
criminalization of tens of thousands of California students,
resulting in school pushout and harmful contact with juvenile
carceral systems for many. Critically, the data suggest that
schools underreport the number of assigned law enforcement
officers, so these problems are likely even more severe.
KEY FINDINGS
Students were far more vulnerable to arrest and referrals
to police in schools with assigned law enforcement than in
schools without.
• Black students’ arrest rates are 7.4x higher in schools
with assigned law enforcement than in schools without,
and their law enforcement referral rates are 4.7x higher.
• Latine students’ arrest rates are 6.9x higher in schools
with assigned law enforcement than in schools without,
and their law enforcement referral rates are 4.4x higher.
• Students with disabilities’ arrest rates are 4.6x higher
in schools with assigned law enforcement than in schools
without, and their law enforcement referral rates
are 4.8x higher.
School police disproportionately arrest and cite Black
students, Latine boys, and students with disabilities.
• Black students are 3x more likely to be referred to law
enforcement compared to white students.
• Black girls are 6% of California’s female student
population but 18% of female student arrests.
• Latine boys are 28% of California’s students but 44% of
student arrests.
• Students with disabilities are 11% of California’s students
but 26% of student arrests.
• Black and Latine boys with disabilities are 5% of
California’s students but 13% of referrals to law
enforcement and 15% of school arrests.
Figure 1.
Arrest Rates in Schools With and Without Assigned Law Enforcement
All Students
Latine
Asian
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Black
White
Two or More Races
Students with
Disabilities (IDEA)
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00
Schools Without Assigned Law Enforcement
Schools WITH Assigned Law Enforcement
Read the full report at aclusocal.org/no-police-in-schools
RECOMMENDATIONS
No school in California should have assigned law enforcement officers. School districts should not be able to create their own
police departments or reserve forces, nor should they coordinate with any outside law enforcement agency to station law
enforcement on a school campus.
To achieve justice for our youth and to provide them with the education they deserve, we must reevaluate the entire system:
reimagining safety without police and school hardening measures, reinvesting in the positive supports that actually help our
students, and fundamentally changing the culture of our schools.
CASE STUDY: STOCKTON USD
Stockton Unified School is instructive as a case study of the devastating and discriminatory impacts of school police.
It took years of advocacy to obtain the data, and they show deep inequities in the district.
Figure 6.
Bookings/Citations per 1000
Students Enrolled, 2019-2020
Calculated by number of bookings and citations (from PRA data,
Student Arrests and Referrals to Police) divided by students
enrolled in that racial/ethnic group, times 1000 for academic year
2019-20. Total enrollment numbers pulled from CA Dataquest.
This includes individuals who were booked/cited more than once.
Rounded to nearest decimal point.
Data analysis by the Social Movement Support Lab.
Race or Ethnicity
Black
Native American
Multiracial
Latine
White
Filipino
Asian
12.4
6.1
5.2
2.6
1.9
0.7
0.6
Figure 7.
Yearly Trends: Bookings/Citations per 1000 Students Enrolled in
Stockton USD by Race/Ethnicity, 2017-2020
2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020
Academic Year
From Student Arrests and Referrals to Police, PRA Data. Calculated as number of incidents/bookings per 1000 students enrolled in academic years 2017, 2018,
and 2019. Total enrollment pulled from Dataquest. Numbers rounded to nearest whole number. Not all racial groups included for purposes of visualization.
Data analysis and visualization by the Social Movement Support Lab.
Race or Ethnicity
Black
Filipino
Latine
Multiracial
Native American
20
15
10
5
0
24
12
6
15
9
12
9
3
55
3 33
1
1. Dublin Unified
2. Moreno Valley Unified
3. Bret Harte Union High
4. Hanford Joint Union High
5. Upper Lake Unified
6. Sausalito Marin City
7. Santa Ynez Valley Union High
8. Apple Valley Unified
9. Chowchilla Union High
10. Lassen Union High
TOP DISTRICTS FOR
LAW ENFORCEMENT
REFERRAL RATES
From Enforcement to Education | 1
A Vision for Safe and Supportive Schools in CA
IN SCHOOLSNO POLICE
From Enforcement to Education | 2
AUTHORS
Amir Whitaker, Ed.D., Jessica Cobb, Ph.D., Victor Leung, Linnea Nelson
CONTRIBUTORS
Tia Martinez (Forward Change), Karen Meacham, Jesus Ramirez, Veronica Santana, Priya H. Talreja, Justine Tsai, the Social Movement Support
Lab, the Stockton Education Equity Coalition, and Students Deserve
EDITOR
Jenna Pittaway
PHOTOS
Jesus Sanchez (p. 13), Selena Thomas (p. 25), Rogelio Vivero (p. 28)
DESIGN
Caylin Yorba-Ruiz
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Tara Coughlin, Patrick Cremin, Ruth Cusick, Hannah Benton Eidsath, Marelyn Garcia, Michael Harris, Harold Jordan, Oscar Lopez,
Carl Pinkston, West Resendes, Kathy Sher, Tedde Simon, Angela McNair Turner, Atasi Uppal, Ashleigh Washington, Jasmine Williams,
and Joseph Williams
PUBLISHED AUGUST 2021
From Enforcement to Education | 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary
Introduction
Law Enforcement Harms Students and Does Not Improve Safety
The Presence of Law Enforcement in Schools is Rooted in White Supremacy
Available Data Sources
Findings
The CRDC Shows Students of Color and Students with Disabilities in California are
Under—Supported and Overpoliced
Racial Profiling Data Show Stark Disparities in Law Enforcement Stops
of Children and Youth at School
Case Study: Stockton USD’s Law Enforcement Program Creates Deep Inequities and
Damages School Climate
Demographics
Student Discipline
Student Interactions with School Police
Student Educational Outcomes
SEEC Recommendations for SUSD
Advocating for Change in Other School Districts
Los Angeles Unified School District
Moreno Valley Unified School District
Fremont Unified School District
Limitations in the Available Data
Conclusion
Recommendations
ACLU SoCal Youth Liberty Squad’s Fight for #CounselorsNotCops
Appendices
4
6
8
11
12
14
23
31
37
39
40
41
44
From Enforcement to Education | 4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report analyzes federal, state, and
local datasets to demonstrate the harmful,
discriminatory, costly, and counter—productive
impact of police in schools across California. The
data from the U.S. Department of Education’s
Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), the California
Racial and Identity Profiling Act stops dataset,
and Stockton Unified School District (Stockton
USD) highlight harmful and discriminatory policing
patterns in schools that contribute to tens of
thousands of California students being criminalized,
pushed out of schools, and shunted into the
juvenile justice system every year. Critically, the
data suggest that the number of law enforcement
in schools is significantly underreported, so the
problems are likely even more severe.
This report finds that schools with assigned
law enforcement are far more likely to arrest
students or refer them to law enforcement
across all student groups. For example, analysis
of the 2017—18 CRDC shows that a school with
assigned law enforcement is 4.7 times more likely
than a school without assigned law enforcement to
refer a Black student to police and 4.4 times more
likely to refer a Latine1 student to police. Similarly,
a school with assigned law enforcement is 7.4 times
more likely to arrest a Black student and 6.9 times
more likely to arrest a Latine student.
No schools in California should have a permanent
police officer. Local educational agencies should
not be able to create their own police departments
or reserve forces, nor should they coordinate with
any outside law enforcement agency to station
law enforcement on a school campus. School staff
should never call a police officer to campus unless
there is an imminent danger of serious physical
injury or death to a person on school property.2
They should not rely on surveillance measures—
such as online monitoring software or cameras
equipped with facial recognition software—of
students and their families because these measures
replicate the same harms as law enforcement
presence on campus. School staff should never
request the involvement of a law enforcement
officer in a situation that can be safely and
appropriately handled by the district’s internal
student resources and procedures. Schools should
instead implement policies and invest in resources
that actually support students and keep them
safe. Resources offering strategies to create a
better vision of schools, including social emotional
learning, restorative justice, and positive behavior
interventions and supports are listed at the end of
this report.
1 “Latine” is a gender—inclusive term used in this report to replace the terms “Latina(s),” “Latino(s),” “Latinx(s),” and “Hispanic.”
From Enforcement to Education | 5
Racial profiling data from 2019 show that California’s 15 largest law enforcement agencies
disproportionately stopped Black students on school campuses. Black students comprised 26% of stops of
students by these agencies but were only 7.6% of the population of the schools where the stops were made.
In Stockton Unified School District, Native
American students are 1.4% of student enrollment but
5% of students booked or cited by police, and Black
students are 10% of enrollment but 29% of students
booked or cited by police.
In Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles
USD), a non—scientific survey of 5,730 students found
that 87% of students who responded were in favor of
defunding the police.
In LAUSD
of student respondentswere in favor
of defunding the police
In SUSD,
Native American
students make up
but only 1.4% of enrollment
of citations
Latino boys are 28% of California’s
students but 44% of student arrests.
Latino boys in CA
44%student
arrests
28%students
Black students are 6% of California
students but 15% of student arrests.
They are more than three times as likely
to be arrested than their white peers.
Black Students in CA 6%
students
15%
student
arrests
Black and Latino boys with disabilities
are 5% of California’s students but
13% of referrals to law enforcement
and 15% of school arrests.
Black & Latino boys
with disabilities 5%
students
15%
student
arrests
From Enforcement to Education | 6
In 2015, a Stockton USD police officer unlawfully
strip searched a 14—year—old student.3 Less than
a year later, Los Angeles school police pepper
sprayed and handcuffed a Black high school
student for walking away from a fight. In 2019,
Los Angeles school police pepper sprayed a group
of Black students, including spraying a 15—year—
old girl in the face, purportedly to “de—escalate”
a fight. That same year, in Moreno Valley, a team
of officers tackled, handcuffed, and pressed a knee
on the back of an 11—year—old Black student with
disabilities, who weighed 70 pounds, for not leaving
a classroom.4 These are just a few among many
similar incidents reported by California students.
Some of the officers received discipline, but most of
them did not. Some of the incidents were reported
in the news, but most of them were not. Despite
the generally accepted belief that stationing police
on school campuses makes schools safer, in reality,
the practice harms students and does not improve
safety.
For years, students—mostly Black, Indigenous,5
and Latine—have stepped forward to recount
mistreatment and brutal harms at the hands of law
enforcement officers in California schools. These
students have painstakingly documented how school
police do not protect youth but instead criminalize,
oppress, and abuse them. They have organized to
demand that school and state officials stop wasting
money on law enforcement and instead invest
in school—based mental health resources, arts
education, and other support services. Year after
year, policymakers have refused to listen.
As this report shows, police remain a dominant
fixture in California schools and their presence
continues to have a devastating and discriminatory
impact on tens of thousands of California students
who are pushed out of school and into the criminal
(in)justice system.
In May 2020, a video depicting the murder
of George Floyd at the hands of four police
officers ignited massive protests in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. In the ensuing weeks, mass uprisings
proliferated across the country against unchecked
police brutality and the murder of Black people by
police. Across California, thousands of people took
to the streets, marching in support of Black Lives
Matter, calling to defund the police, and demanding
accountability and justice. This mass movement
created new opportunities for youth organizers to
demand accountability from school leadership to
remove law enforcement from K—12 schools.
On June 24, 2020, the Black Organizing Project
won a hard—fought, nine—year campaign to
eliminate the Oakland Unified School District
Police Department, thereby freeing up millions of
dollars to support students’ social and emotional
well—being, including school—based social workers,
psychologists, restorative justice practitioners, and
other mental or behavioral health professionals.
On July 1, 2020, a large coalition led by Students
Deserve, Black Lives Matter, Brothers Sons Selves,
Community Asset Development Re—Defining
Education (CADRE), Labor Community Strategy
Center, and many others, convinced the Los
Angeles USD Board of Education to reduce the $70
million Los Angeles USD Police Department budget
by $25 million and to reinvest it in a Black Student
Achievement Plan. That summer, local advocates in
West Contra Costa Unified School District (West
Contra Costa USD) finally persuaded the school
district to end its $1.5 million contract with police
officers, eliminating its school resource officer
(SRO) program. At the same time, Sacramento
City Unified School District (Sacramento City USD)
ended its contract with the local police department.
Fremont Unified School District (Fremont USD)
also voted to remove its police officers after a
comprehensive investigation by a Task Force
appointed by the District Board of Education.
INTRODUCTION
5 Throughout this report, the term Indigenous is used to refer to populations that the data sources label American Indian, Alaska Native and
Native American. These persons belong to the Indigenous tribes and villages of the continental United States and Alaska. Other students,
such as Latine, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations students, among others, may also identify as Indigenous but are placed in a separate
category in the data sets analyzed here.
From Enforcement to Education | 7
Sadly, only two months later, newly elected
members of the Board reneged on that commitment
despite alarming Task Force findings that Fremont
Police Department officers patrolling school
campuses were far more likely to target Black and
Latine students. Students, families, and educators
continue to run local campaigns to remove school
police in Fremont, Los Angeles, Long Beach,
Stockton, Moreno Valley, Kern County, San Diego,
Pomona, San Jose, Ventura, South San Francisco,
and other districts across California.
As advocates make change across the state, they
understand that deep inequities will persist even
without police in schools. Black youth will still
be more likely to attend schools that are grossly
underfunded, to be subject to discipline because
of implicit and explicit racial biases, and to be
referred to outside law enforcement for low—level
or non—criminal violations. To achieve justice for
our youth and provide them with the education
they deserve, we must fundamentally transform
the cultures of our schools to be equitable
and supportive of all students. We must also
start meaningfully investing in arts educators,
counselors, nurses, psychologists, social workers,
and other resources that support healthy school
communities. The time for change is now.
Eliminates Its
School Police
Department
Oakland Unified
School District
On June 24, 2020, the Black Organizing Project
(BOP) achieved an unprecedented victory when
Oakland Unified School District (Oakland USD)
became the first district in California to vote to
eliminate a school police department. The hard—
won victory came after nine years of organizing
in BOP’s Bettering Our School System campaign,6
which mobilized a coalition of students, families,
community members, and school staff to
oppose school police as part of a legacy of mass
incarceration and psychological warfare rooted in
anti—Black racism.
BOP continues to implement its People’s Plan
for Police—Free Schools by advocating for the
Oakland USD to limit student referrals to all law
enforcement agencies.7 BOP has co—convened
with the District to reimagine safety practices and
transform school culture to “focus on building an
anti—racist and restorative system that creates
conditions conducive to learning, especially
for Black and Brown students, and students
with special needs, who have historically and
disproportionately been subjected to racism,
exclusion, and criminalizing practices in schools.”8
The ACLU has long called for
the elimination of all permanent
law enforcement in schools,
including in The Right to Remain
a Student (2016),9 Bullies in Blue
(2017),10 Cops and No Counselors
(2019),11 and Our Right to
Resources (2020).12
From Enforcement to Education | 8
Little to no credible research establishes a link
between law enforcement and increased school
safety. In 2020, Professor Aaron Kupchik at the
University of Delaware surveyed the existing
research on school—based law enforcement and
found numerous reliable studies showing that (1)
the presence of school police can make schools less
inclusive and (2) stationing police at schools either
has no impact on student crime rates or is instead
associated with increased student misconduct, even
after considering other school characteristics.13
Similarly, a 2018 study of a North Carolina grant
program concluded that middle schools that hired
school police failed to reduce serious incidents such
as homicide, bomb threats, weapons possession,
assault, or alcohol and drug use.14 In fact, studies
show that a police officer’s regular presence at a
school predicts a greater likelihood that students
will be referred to the police for lower—level
violations such as disorderly conduct, even after
controlling for neighborhood crime levels and other
demographic variables.15 Sometimes, school staff
call police to address bullying issues, especially
when increasingly desperate students and
parents feel their complaints are not being taken
seriously by school staff, but school police are not
equipped to handle student conflict effectively or
appropriately, and adding police to schools does
not result in a reduction in bullying.16
Instead, police presence in schools is correlated
with student alienation, poor school climate, and
decreased feelings of safety.17 Many students feel
that school police practices are fundamentally
unfair, so police presence on campus damages
their trust and engagement with other school
staff.18 Police presence in schools also often
correlates with punitive practices such as searches,
interrogations, drug—sniffing dogs, pepper
spraying, police intimidation, verbal abuse, sexual
harassment, handcuffing, and excessive force
against students.19
A 2018 Texas study found that schools that
received additional federal funding to hire
law enforcement officers between 1999—2008
experienced decreases in graduation rates and
college enrollment rates.20 The same study found
that school police were associated with an increase
in middle school discipline rates.21 A 2018 U.S.
congressional report examined statistics on
school police and expressed concern that police
presence in schools may “result in more children
either being suspended or expelled or entering
the criminal justice system for relatively minor
offenses.”22
The negative effects of school police and
surveillance fall heavily on students of color.23
Black and Brown students, as well as low—income
students, are more likely to attend schools with
heightened policing and surveillance, including
law enforcement, even when neighborhood crime,
school crime, and school disorder are factored
in.24 Moreover, the presence of law enforcement
does not represent the same thing for white and
Black students: a 2020 study found that school
police in a district serving more white students
were primarily concerned about external dangers
that may harm students such as intruders, while
school police in a district serving more Black
students “were primarily concerned with students
themselves as threats.”25 The findings of this report
further confirm the results of multiple studies that
demonstrate a correlation between law enforcement
and higher rates of exclusionary discipline for
Black, Latine, and low—income students relative to
their peers.26 School police presence is associated
with poorer academic achievement, particularly
among Black boys.27 Further, a 2020 survey of
students in New Orleans found that most Black
students do not report feeling safer in the presence
of police.28 For Black youth, therefore, police
contact can result not only in increased discipline,
but also in psychological trauma and anxiety.29
LAW ENFORCEMENT HARMS STUDENTS
AND DOES NOT IMPROVE SAFETY
From Enforcement to Education | 9
In a previous report, the California affiliates of
the ACLU analyzed data from the 2013—14 school
year and found that Black students were three
times, Native American students were two times,
and Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students were
one—and—a—half times more likely than white
students to be arrested at California schools.31
More recent analysis of nationwide data by the
Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality
and New York University found that, compared to
white girls, Black girls had 3.66 times the risk of
arrest at school and Native American girls had 3
times the risk of arrest.32 In 2020, The Children’s
Partnership released a report collecting studies
on law enforcement in schools which ultimately
concluded that “policing [is] a racist institution
that produces persistent and chronic inequities
and [has a] disparate impact on the health and
wellbeing of children[.]”33 Finally, in 2021, a
study compared 33 schools that enhanced police
staffing with 72 schools that did not and found that
“increases in offenses and exclusionary reactions
due to increased [school police] presence were
most evident for Black and Hispanic as opposed to
White students.”34
Having a disability makes a student even more
likely to be targeted by police in school—and
when those students are also Black or Latine,
they will carry the highest risk of any student
demographic group of being targeted by school
police. Students with disabilities are nearly three
times more likely to be arrested and referred to
law enforcement than students without disabilities
(and this disparity increases up to tenfold in some
states).35 When those students with disabilities
were also Black boys, they were five times more
likely than all students to be subjected to school
arrests.36 Latino boys with disabilities experienced
school arrest rates 10 times higher than the rates
for all students in three different states.37 A recent
national study confirmed these findings, explaining
that “[s]tudents with disabilities experience high
and racially disparate rates of referrals to law
enforcement,” with 811 school districts having
rates of referral to law enforcement for secondary
students with disabilities between 2% and 45% in
2017—2018, including many districts in California.38
In 53 districts, the law enforcement referral rates
for Black students with disabilities in secondary
school exceeded the rates for their white peers by
at least 5%.39 School policing subjects students to
the traumatizing intersectional impacts of racism
and ableism.
“There was a huge brawl that
took place where security
and police showed up and
brutalized brown students
near the main entrance of
Chaffey High School.
This is one of the many
incidents that students
experience due to security
or even OPD [Ontario Police
Department]...
Yet, where are the mental
health counselors that are
trained accordingly and
do not resort to calling the
police?
Students got seriously hurt.”
CHAFFEY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT30
From Enforcement to Education | 10
“The police system was built by white
supremacy. There’s this superiority ingrained
in the institution that can be extremely
harmful, especially to our Black and Brown
folks. There’s no way folks who are not white
feel safe with officers.
Instead, our Brown and Black communities
deserve resources such as expanded and
improved counseling services that can help
destigmatize therapy in our cultures, hence
have spaces where one can learn to heal from
inter—generational trauma.”
FORMER LOS ANGELES USD STUDENT
From Enforcement to Education | 11
The uprisings against police brutality and calls for
racial justice in 2020 forced policymakers to reckon
with the inequalities and white supremacy40 that
have persisted since the foundation of the U.S.
Policing in America is rooted in slave patrols—
squads that enforced laws enslaving Black people
by violently capturing and punishing any enslaved
person who attempted to escape to freedom—
beginning in the early 1700s as part of a formal
system to implement and protect systemic white
supremacy.41 After the Civil War, local sheriffs in
the south started to function like slave patrols to
enforce segregation, Black Codes, convict leasing
laws, and the disenfranchisement of freed Black
people.42
In California, the 1850 Act for the Governance and
Protection of Indians legalized the enslavement
of Indigenous people for decades thereafter. The
federal government also sanctioned and funded
massacres of California’s Tribal communities,
genocide, and dispossession of Indigenous people
from their ancestral lands.43 Public education was
a tool of this oppression. Indigenous students
were separated from their families and forced
into boarding schools and other hostile school
environments where their community beliefs,
values, language and education system were
subjugated to colonial settler culture.44 In fact, the
Yurok word for “police” translates to “they take
people” from the Boarding School Era when law
enforcement officers took Yurok children from their
communities and put them in boarding schools.45
This legacy of violent oppression continues to the
present day, as Native Americans are killed by law
enforcement at a higher rate than any other group,
and Indigenous youth are far more likely to suffer
the most severe punishments in the juvenile legal
system.46
School police share similar origins as a tool for
the enforcement of white supremacy against
Black, Indigenous, and Latine youth. In 1948, a
security unit designed to patrol schools in newly
integrated neighborhoods was the genesis of what
would become the Los Angeles School Police
Department.47 In 1950s Oakland, white anxiety
over the city’s changing racial demographics led
the police to surveil, monitor, and even arrest
youth whom school staff described as “delinquent.”
According to historian Donna Murch, “in this
context, the discourse of ‘juvenile delinquency’
took on a clear racial cast, leading to wide—scale
policing and criminalization of Black youth.”48 And
in 1968, when 15,000 Chicano students walked out
of Los Angeles classrooms to demand culturally
relevant curriculum and bilingual education, they
were met with armed police who assaulted and
arrested them. In the aftermath of the protest, 13
youth organizers faced up to 66 years in prison.49
Still, by 1970, there were only 200 school police
nationwide.50 Today, several school districts
by themselves maintain a school police force
with significantly more than 200 officers. For
example, in 2016, the Los Angeles School Police
Department employed more than 400 police
officers, and Chicago Public Schools had at least
248 police officers in schools.51 There are now
more than 40,000 police officers in schools across
the country.52 As a result, during the 2015—16
school year, more than 14 million students in the
United States attended schools that have a police
officer but no counselor, nurse, social worker, or
psychologist.53
Critically, police officers are not evenly distributed
among all schools. Instead, they are concentrated
in schools serving more students of color. This
historical context explains why many communities
are demanding the complete removal of police from
schools to end generations of violence and injustice.
THE PRESENCE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT IN SCHOOLS
IS ROOTED IN WHITE SUPREMACY
“The ‘sheriff’ security guards have a
Blue Lives Matter [sticker] on their
car. Multiple students had it as phone
backgrounds and stickers.
As a Brown kid, I don’t feel safe.”
RANCHO CUCAMONGA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT
From Enforcement to Education | 12
This report focuses primarily on analyses of three
datasets: the U.S. Department of Education’s
Office for Civil Rights 2017—18 Civil Rights Data
Collection (CRDC), the California Racial and
Identity Profiling Act stops dataset, and data from
local school districts obtained through California
Public Records Act (PRA) requests.
On October 15, 2020, the U.S. Department of
Education released its most recent set of CRDC
files (2017—18). These files contained information
related to its Office for Civil Rights’ enforcement
responsibilities over public schools and their
respective local educational agencies (LEAs) (e.g.,
school districts) throughout the nation. All data
contained in the CRDC are reported by LEAs in
response to a detailed questionnaire. The CRDC
dataset includes information about comprehensive
public schools, charter schools, schools in juvenile
justice facilities, alternative schools, adult schools,
and all other public school types serving grades
pre—K through 12.
The authors of this report accessed the 2017—18
CRDC data files and analyzed data on California
schools pertaining to law enforcement officers
assigned to schools, school security and support
personnel, student demographics, school—based
referrals to police, arrests, and criminal offenses.
This report presents analyses of the most recent
2017—18 dataset.
California’s Racial and Identity Profiling Act of
2015 (RIPA) was designed to eliminate racial and
identity profiling in law enforcement, in part by
requiring the collection of data on police stops.
Under RIPA, law enforcement agencies must report
this data to the California Attorney General. RIPA
defines a “stop” as a detention and/or search of an
individual, including both pedestrian and vehicle
stops.54 When officers report RIPA data, they are
required to indicate their perception of the identity
of the person stopped, including race/ethnicity,
gender identity, sexual orientation, age, and
disability status.
Officers are also required to report whether
the stop is of a K—12 public school student and
whether the stop takes place at a K—12 school
site.55 The authors of this report examined data
from the public datafile for stops made in 2019
by the 15 California law enforcement agencies
employing more than 667 sworn personnel,
focusing specifically on stops of students aged 5—19
at school. This data analysis was supplemented by
reference to the RIPA data dashboard and the 2021
Annual Report from the RIPA Board.56
Finally, some school districts and law enforcement
agencies maintain their own data related to law
enforcement. Because California lacks uniform
requirements about how school districts must
collect and report data, each school district
does it differently—if at all. This report analyzes
data provided by Stockton USD as a case study
because—as a result of years of work from
advocates and researchers—that district has
provided one of the most complete datasets about
policing publicly available in California. Specifically,
Stockton USD has released data about the numbers
of law enforcement officers on campus, arrests,
citations, and calls for service; and disaggregates
that data by race, age, gender, low—income status,
foster youth status, and disability status of the
student, among other categories.
AVAILABLE DATA SOURCES
From Enforcement to Education | 13
CAROLINE, POMONA STUDENT UNION
YOUTH ORGANIZER AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT
“I know none of us deserve the conditioning
that occurs from being policed. We all deserve
to be asked, “How are you feeling?” Cared for
at the moment we need it the most. Instead,
when we are deemed a problem,
we are alienated from our own communities.”
From Enforcement to Education | 14
The CRDC Shows Students of Color and
Students with Disabilities in California are
Under—Supported and Overpoliced
The CRDC shows that students of color and
students with disabilities are especially vulnerable
to referrals to police and arrest in California:
• Black students are three times as likely
as white students to be referred to law
enforcement. Black students were referred
to law enforcement at a rate of 9.8 per 1,000
compared to the rate of 2.8 for white students.
• Black students are 6% of California enrollment
but 15% of student arrests. Black girls are 6%
of the female student population but 18% of
female student arrests.
• Latino boys are 28% of California’s students but
represent 44% of student arrests.
• Students with disabilities are 11% of
California’s students but 26% of student arrests.
• Black and Latino boys with disabilities are 5%
of California’s students but 13% of referrals to
law enforcement and 15% of school arrests.
Further, our analysis shows that schools with an
assigned law enforcement officer had higher rates
of student arrest and referrals to law enforcement
than schools without an assigned law enforcement
officer.57 For all student racial/ethnic and disability
groups, referral rates were at least three times
greater in schools with assigned law enforcement
officers.58 The data reported in Tables 1 & 2 also
clearly show that students with disabilities and
Black students are especially vulnerable to referrals
to police and arrest.
FINDINGS
Rate of Referral in
Schools without Assigned
Law Enforcement
Table 1.
Average Rates of Referral to Police (per 1000 students) in Schools with and
without Assigned Law Enforcement by Racial/Ethnic Group and Disability
All Students*
Latine*
American Indian/
Alaska Native*
Asian
Native Hawaiian/
Pacific Islander*
Black*
White*
Students with
Disabilities (IDEA)*
1.7
1.7
2.6
0.7
1.7
3.9
2.0
3.2
7.7
7.5
9.3
4.1
12.5
18.3
8.7
14.8
4.5x
4.4x
3.6x
7.4x
4.7x
4.4x
4.6x
Rate of Referral in
Schools with Assigned
Law Enforcement
Increased Likelihood
of Referral in Schools
with Law Enforcement
*indicates stastically significant difference at p>0.05 or better
From Enforcement to Education | 15
Table 2.
Average Arrest Rates (per 1000 students) in Schools with and without
Assigned Law Enforcement by Racial/Ethnic Group and Disability
All Students*
Latine*
Asian
Native Hawaiian/
Pacific Islander
Black*
White*
Two or More Races
Students with
Disabilities (IDEA)*
0.11
0.10
0.03
0.07
0.26
0.11
0.16
0.29
0.68
0.69
0.13
0.48
1.93
0.86
1.18
1.39
6.2x
6.9x
4.3x
7.4x
7.8x
7.5x
4.8x
Rate of Arrest in Schools
without Assigned Law
Enforcement
Rate of Arrest in
Schools with Assigned
Law Enforcement
Increased Likelihood
of Arrest in Schools
with Law Enforcement
*indicates stastically significant difference at p>0.05 or better
Figure 1.
Arrest Rates in Schools With and Without Assigned Law Enforcement
All Students
Latine
Asian
Native Hawaiian/
Pacific Islander
Black
White
Two or More
Races
Students with
Disabilities (IDEA)
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00
Schools Without Assigned Law Enforcement
Schools WITH Assigned Law Enforcement
Further, regardless of whether a school has an assigned law enforcement officer, Black students are
targeted for arrest and referral to law enforcement as compared to students in most other racial/ethnic
groups. The significant over—policing of Black and students with disabilities is illustrated in Figure 1.
From Enforcement to Education | 16
These disparities in referrals to law enforcement
and arrests are more acutely visible when the data
are examined at the district level. For example, in
Sacramento City USD, 75% of arrests were of Black
students, even though Black students comprise only
16% of students enrolled. In Redondo Beach Unified
School District, Soledad Unified School District,
and Sierra Sands Unified School District, 100% of
referrals to law enforcement were of students with
disabilities, even though students with disabilities
comprise 15% or less of students enrolled in
each of those districts. The top districts for law
enforcement referral rates are listed in Table 3
below (See Appendix B for the top districts for
arrest reates).
The available data are unclear about the impact of law enforcement on Native American
or Indigenous students, though they suggest that Native Americans are being
disproportionately criminalized. The data show that Native American students are nearly
35 times more likely to be arrested in those schools, but the sample size is small, with only
21 arrests for Native American students. The data are inconclusive, in part, because Native
American students are likely to be underreported as many of them are subsumed into the “two
or more races” category.
In 2010, the Census Bureau found that those identifying as American Indian/Alaska Native
on the census were the most likely of any respondent to report more than one race. Of the 5.2
million AI/AN respondents, 44% (2.3 million) reported AI/AN and at least one other race.59
American Indian/
Alaska Native*
0.08 2.78 34.8x
Table 2.
Average Arrest Rates (per 1000 students) in Schools with and without
Assigned Law Enforcement by Racial/Ethnic Group and Disability
All Students*
Latine*
Asian
Native Hawaiian/
Pacific Islander
Black*
White*
Two or More Races
Students with
Disabilities (IDEA)*
0.11
0.10
0.03
0.07
0.26
0.11
0.16
0.29
0.68
0.69
0.13
0.48
1.93
0.86
1.18
1.39
6.2x
6.9x
4.3x
7.4x
7.8x
7.5x
4.8x
Rate of Arrest in Schools
without Assigned Law
Enforcement
Rate of Arrest in
Schools with Assigned
Law Enforcement
Increased Likelihood
of Arrest in Schools
with Law Enforcement
*indicates stastically significant difference at p>0.05 or better
From Enforcement to Education | 17
Law enforcement proponents attempt to explain
the correlation between police in schools and
heightened rates of arrests and referrals by
speciously arguing that schools with assigned
permanent law enforcement officers are inherently
more dangerous. Baldwin Park Unified School
District serves as an instructive counterexample
to this assertion. From 2010—2017, the District
had no police on staff. It then hired six officers in
September 2017 and increased the police force to
nine officers in 2019.60 According to the CRDC, the
District reported 114 referrals to law enforcement
in 2015—16. Law enforcement referrals more than
doubled to 347 in the 2017—18 CRDC after the
District hired the police officers. Critically, during
that time, arrests actually fell from 70 to 52,
suggesting that the officers were called for issues
that did not warrant arrests and should have been
handled by school staff. See Appendix C for more
details and trends.
Table 3.
Top Districts for Law Enforcement Referral Rates
by Race and Disability Status Per 1,000 Students
STATE
Dublin Unified
Moreno Valley Unified
Bret Harte Union High
Hanford Joint Union High
Upper Lake Unified
Sausalito Marin City
Santa Ynez Valley
Union High
Apple Valley Unified
Chowchilla Union High
Lassen Union High
Calaveras Unified
Baldwin Park Unified
Lemoore Union High
Klamath-Trinity Joint
Unified
Fort Bra Unified
Capay Joint Union
Elementary
Centinela Valley
Union High
Healdsburg Unified
23,727
1,538
2,108
30
163
36
5
35
426
33
23
81
347
51
25
43
4
130
31
6,207,885
11,315
33,198
686
3,792
843
120
945
12,867
1,129
824
2,905
12,918
1,958
1,009
1,848
182
6,311
1,521
3.8
139.9
63.5
43.7
43.0
42.7
41.7
37.0
33.1
29.2
27.9
27.9
26.9
26.0
24.8
23.3
22.0
20.6
20.4
6.9
131.3
5.5
117.6
84.9
86.4
0.0
71.4
62.1
12.0
154.9
65.3
0.0
86.8
0.0
73.2
111.1
24.4
37.0
9.8
440.1
134.3
0.0
111.8
166.7
83.3
200.0
68.1
111.1
105.3
62.5
55.6
99.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
49.5
90.9
4.0
141.1
52.9
41.1
46.7
70.0
0.0
36.4
34.5
23.2
23.4
29.9
28.5
23.5
0.0
17.4
26.3
13.6
23.7
5.9
0.0
40.5
125.0
40.0
85.4
0.0
200.0
0.0
0.0
63.5
61.2
0.0
44.1
27.5
55.6
0.0
0.0
0.0
3.1
0.0
45.3
0.0
0.0
0.0
61.5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
76.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
109.1
0.0
2.8
200.1
52.1
45.5
21.8
15.7
0.0
31.8
22.9
36.5
22.9
25.2
12.5
15.6
20.8
29.8
19.8
32.8
14.8
1.8
75.6
20.5
0.0
18.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
28.7
100.0
0.0
0.0
6.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
9.0
0.0
SCHOOL DISTRICT
OR LEA
Student
Referrals
Student
Enrollment
Referrals
to Law
per 1,000
Students
with
Disabilities
Black Latine Native
American
Pacific
Islander
White Asian
From Enforcement to Education | 18
Racial Profiling Data Show Stark Disparities
in Law Enforcement Stops of Children and
Youth at School
During 2019, California’s 15 largest law
enforcement agencies reported 2,602 stops of
students aged 5—19 in schools under the Racial and
Identity Profiling Act.61 Of the students stops, 1,189
were Latine students, 683 were Black students,
and 4 were Indigenous students. Black students
are significantly over—represented in these data,
comprising 26% of law enforcement stops although
Black students are only 7.6% of the population of
the schools where the stops were made. Over 9%
(241) of the 2,602 police stops involved children
aged 12 or younger, and 26 stops were of
children aged five through nine.
Of the stops of students made by these major law
enforcement agencies, 16% (411) were made “to
determine whether student violated school policy.”
That is, sworn law enforcement officers detained
and confronted children and youth over supposed
school rule violations. Another 7.5% (195) of
the stops were made for the reason of “Possible
conduct under Education Code.” Among stops
recorded as based on education code violations,
29.2% fell under sections (c) and (d) of Education
Code § 48900, the sections pertaining to substance
possession or use. Only 5.6% of stops based on
the education code were for Education Code §
48900(b), which regards possession of a weapon,
explosive, or other “dangerous object.”
The RIPA dataset indicates that Black and Latine
students’ behaviors are more likely to be framed by
police as criminal activity as opposed to a school
policy or education code violation. Nearly 40%
(996) of the reported stops of students at school
were marked as having occurred in response to
a “call for service.” Nearly two—thirds (66.1%) of
these stops were for “reasonable suspicion” of a
crime, which means the officer claimed to have
reasonable suspicion that the person stopped was
engaged in criminal activity, while 24.1% involved
violation of a school policy or the Education Code.
This proportion shifted with racial demographics.
Roughly 31% of stops related to calls for police
intervention with white students involved a
suspected school policy or Education Code
violation, compared to 19% of such calls for Latine
students and 17% for Black students. Figure 2
provides a visual representation of the reasons for
stops disaggregated by race.
Figure 2.
Reason for Student Stops by Race
All Students
Asian
Latine
Black
White
0%25%50%75%100%
Reasonable Suspicion School Policy Violation Ed Code Policy Violation Other
From Enforcement to Education | 19
The most common reported suspected “offenses”
for stops based on “reasonable suspicion” of a
crime were for offense codes related to marijuana
possession (21.5%), assault and battery without
injury (17.8%), and fighting (11.9%). All of these
suspected “offenses” can also be treated as
violations of the Education Code, and it is up to
the person recording to select the category to
assign.
A review of the list of “offenses” cited by police
reveals numerous actions that appear patently
trivial—or even absurd—as a justification for
calling police to campus to confront a child or
youth. These offenses include:
• Vandalism
• Send false fire alarm
• Offensive words in a public place or at
school
• Annoying phone calls
• Loitering at school
• Display in public, imitation firearm
• Minor attending a prizefight
• Minor buying smoking paraphernalia
• Willful disturbance of a school zone
• Loud/unreasonable noise at school
• Gambling
Black students suffer harsher consequences when
their teachers or administrators call police to
campus. Police handcuffed 15.7% of all students
stopped in response to calls for service and 27.1%
of all Black students stopped in response to calls
for service. Within these incidents, law enforcement
handcuffed five Black children aged 12 or younger—
the youngest of these children was only 8 years
old. Three of these five students, a 10—year—old
girl, a 12—year—old girl, and an 11—year—old boy,
were placed in a patrol car in addition to being
handcuffed. Two of the five students were arrested:
one for the suspected “offense” of “threatening a
school employee” and the other for “assault with a
caustic chemical.” For the other three children, the
stop ended with a psychiatric hold. These five cases
represent five very young Black lives impacted by
the trauma of handcuffing and police car detention
instead of proper care and support by school
adults.
Table 4 provides a breakdown of the most common
actions (handcuffing, parole car detention,
search of student, search of property, and
seizure of property) taken by police during stops
disaggregated by race.
Table 4.
Police Actions During Student Stop by Race62
All Students
Asian
Black
Latine
White
16%
11%
27%
11%
12%
Handcuffed
12%
13%
14%
9%
15%
Patrol Car
Detention
34%
47%
34%
35%
30%
No Action
29%
26%
33%
27%
24%
Student
Searched
18%
18%
20%
14%
21%
Property
Searched
13%
11%
8%
17%
15%
Property
Siezed
From Enforcement to Education | 20
Stark disparities mark the resolution of police
stops of students. For white students, stops in
response to calls for service resulted in a citation
30% of the time and a custodial arrest without a
warrant 11.8% of the time.63 By contrast, 44.8%
of stops of Latine students resulted in a citation
and 13.3% resulted in custodial arrest without
a warrant. For Black students, 34.6% of these
stops resulted in a citation and 20.4% resulted in
a custodial arrest without a warrant. The RIPA
stop data show that these police interactions have
far harsher consequences for Black and Latine
students and confirm that those students are being
disproportionately criminalized in schools.
Table 5.
Results of Student Stops by Race
All Students
Asian
Black
Latine
White
5%
5%
4%
4%
4%
Warning
36%
13%
34%
44%
30%
Citation
15%
8%
20%
13%
12%
Custodial
Arrest w/o
Warrant
12%
37%
7%
12%
16%
Psychiatric
Hold
26%
11%
26%
25%
29%
Referred to
Administrator
12%
21%
14%
12%
13%
Referred to
School
Counselor
In California, statutes that require
school staff to notify police for certain
incidents are one significant driver
of student criminalization and the
school to prison pipeline. These laws
eliminate educator discretion and cause
unnecessary and damaging contact
between students and law enforcement.
For example, in California, school
staff must notify law enforcement if a
student possesses marijuana or alcohol,
has a box cutter, or is suspected of
being intoxicated on campus—no matter
the circumstances. In some instances,
these laws even authorize fines for
educators if they fail to report incidents.
Black students, Latine students, other
students of color, and students with
disabilities are disproportionately
referred to law enforcement, cited,
and arrested as a result of these zero
tolerance policies.
From Enforcement to Education | 21
Before the 2019 data was released in 2021, we
also examined the 2018 RIPA data dashboard
showing data from over 6,000 stops related to
truancy, school policy violations, and violations of
the Education Code. Many of these stops occurred
outside of schools. These stops are mostly low—
level, non—criminal offenses. Racial disparities are
similarly prevalent in these types of stops:
• Black youth comprised 8% of students in San
Bernardino County but were 21% of truancy
stops, 36% of stops for Education Code
violations, and 50% of stops for violating school
policies as reported by the San Bernardino
County Sheriff’s Department.
• Black youth comprised 7% of students in the
City of Los Angeles but were 22% of truancy
stops by the Los Angeles Police Department.
• Latine students comprised 65% of students in
L.A. County but 87% of truancy stops by the
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
• Black youth comprised 8% of students in San
Francisco but 30% of truancy stops by the
San Francisco Police Department.
• Black youth comprised 8% of students in San
Diego but 23% of truancy stops by the
San Diego Police Department.
• Black youth comprised 4% of students in San
Diego County but 40% of police stops for
Education Code violations by the
San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
California’s RIPA dataset is among the first to track the perceived gender identity and
sexuality of students interacting with police. Research consistently demonstrates
that people from the LGBTQ+ community are disproportionately targeted and
harmed by police.64 Although RIPA is pathbreaking in this respect, RIPA relies on
officers to report their perception of a student’s gender and sexual identity, which
suggests that LGBTQ+ youth may be underreported in the data.
Despite these limitations, the RIPA data suggest disproportionate policing of gender non—conforming
youth for low—level violations. For example, 15% of all stops of youth reported as gender—
nonconforming by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department were to investigate an alleged
truancy violation, whereas only 3% of stops of cisgender students were to investigate truancy.
“I really hope they get rid of
school police. Growing up in
a low—income community
we see the way the police
treat our neighbors, parents,
tíos, tías, and even us
outside of school. We are
raised to be afraid of police
because what goes on in
our communities.
Some students have
classmates DIE at the hands
of police.
That energy is then brought
into school with the use of
police on campus.”
FORMER LOS ANGELES USD STUDENT
From Enforcement to Education | 22
Police should be removed from the SUSD
campuses! Due to police brutality and
systemic racism students already have so
much to deal with and worry about; and
being afraid of the possibility of going to jail
just due to their skin or for school infractions
is inhumane.
The 8 million dollars a year spent on
officers at SUSD can be spent on students.
Students deserve to have the best
education, healing space, and the newest
technology programs.
TELCIA, STOCKTON USD PARENT
From Enforcement to Education | 23
While this report has a statewide focus, an
analysis of Stockton USD is instructive as a case
study. This district exemplifies the difficulty of
obtaining local data and the inequities that come
to light once the data becomes available; SEEC
obtained the data only through repeated, sustained
advocacy over several years. Once SEEC received
and analyzed the data, it discovered severe
disproportionalities reflecting that Black students
and students with disabilities are particularly likely
to be targeted for arrest and citation by Stockton
USD police.
In 2015, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal
Justice released data showing that Stockton USD
police officers consistently respond to students with
brute and excessive force, arresting children under
the age of 10 at a rate 37 times higher than that
of the rest of California.65 Stockton USD’s response
to the report was to claim the data was inaccurate
or misleading. The ACLU submitted a PRA request
to the District about school police interactions with
Stockton students so that SEEC could conduct its
own analysis, but Stockton USD refused to provide
the data. After the ACLU successfully sued in 2016
to obtain the data,66 SEEC released analysis in
2017 showing that Black students were more than
two times as likely to be arrested by school police
than white students, and Black students were over
three times more likely than every other student
group in the school district to be arrested or cited
for the vague and subjective offense of “disturbing
the peace.”67
SEEC shared this information with the California
Department of Justice68 and helped those attorneys
identify and interview students impacted by the
school district’s discriminatory and damaging
police practices. SEEC also submitted detailed
recommendations for reform to the California
Department of Justice. In 2019, Attorney General
Xavier Becerra announced that his office had
entered into a settlement agreement with Stockton
USD “to address system—wide violations of civil
and constitutional rights of African American and
Latino students and students with disabilities.”69
The school district now claims that its issues
with harmful and discriminatory law enforcement
practices impacting Stockton’s Black, Native
American, and Latine students are no longer
present. In July 2020, SEEC submitted a new PRA
request to analyze the most recent data on school
police interactions with students and educational
funds spent by Stockton USD to station police in
schools (particularly while schools are in distance
learning due to the COVID—19 pandemic). The data
below was obtained by SEEC from that new PRA
request.
CASE STUDY: STOCKTON USD’S LAW ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM
CREATES DEEP INEQUITIES AND DAMAGES SCHOOL CLIMATE
For almost a decade, the Stockton Education Equity Coalition
(SEEC) has been centering equity for students in its advocacy to
challenge systems of power that are rooted in oppression.
SEEC works to eliminate school practices that push
Black and Brown students out of schools.
From Enforcement to Education | 24
In 2019, Stockton USD had 35,255 students,
making it one of the largest school districts in the
Central Valley. Eighty percent of Stockton USD
students are categorized as “socioeconomically
disadvantaged,” 23.4% are English Learners, and
11% are students with disabilities.70
Student Discipline
School policing is one part of the continuum of
the criminalization of students of color; student
discipline is another. Studies have shown not only
that Black students and other students of color
are far more likely to be subjected to exclusionary
discipline, but that such discipline has “negative
life outcomes, including adult incarceration and
employment.”71 Overall, the number of suspensions
has dropped significantly in Stockton USD,
from a high of 11.8% of students suspended in
2012—1372 down to 6.4% of students suspended
in 2018—19,73 though this lower rate was still
nearly twice the statewide suspension rate for
2018—19.74 These suspension numbers represent
a huge loss of learning time for Stockton USD
students: in 2015—16, when the overall suspension
rate was 10.2%,75 students lost a total of 12,819
school days to suspension.76 Moreover, while
overall suspension numbers have dropped, the
rate of suspension remains high among middle
school students: the suspension rate for 7th— and
8th—graders in 2018—19 (24 suspensions per 100
students) was three times higher than the rate for
9th— through 12th—graders (8 suspensions per 100
students).77 The data show that Black and Native
American students are also disproportionately
pushed out from Stockton USD schools. During
the 2013—14 school year, Black students were
suspended at over twice their rate of enrollment,
and Native American/Alaska Native students with
disabilities were suspended at nearly four times
their rate of enrollment.78 During the 2018—19
school year, the rates of suspension for Black 7th—
and 8th—graders were at least double statewide
suspension rates, with rates among Black 7th—
and 8th—grade girls at 55 suspensions per 100.79
Analysis by the Social Movement Support Lab
found that, from 2015—2019, Black students were
consistently suspended at 2 to 2.5 times their rate
of enrollment in Stockton USD, whether measured
by total number of suspensions or total number
of students suspended. During that same period,
Black students were also expelled at rates 3.5 to
4.5 times their rate of enrollment in the District.80
(See Figure 4.)
Demographics
Figure 3.
Distribution of Student Race/Ethnicity
in Stockton USD, 2017-2020
Calculated as an average of annual total enrollment for academic
years 2017, 2018, and 2019. Enrollment numbers from CA
Dataquest. Official categories are listed as African American,
American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Filipino, Hispanic or
Latino, Pacific Islander, Two or More Races, and White.
Percentages rounded to nearest whole number.
Data analysis by Social Movement Support Lab.
Latine
67%
Pacific Islander
0.5%
Filipino
4%
Multiracial
3%
Native
American
1%
White
5%
Asian
9%
Black
10%
From Enforcement to Education | 25
School is a place to learn, grow, be loved, be poured into.
School is not a place where children should have anything
taken from them, especially not their freedom. We know
reactionary policing is responsible for more than 85% of
arrests of children in our community, and over 80% of
juvenile probationers, and that the very dollars our schools
use for these punitive measures could be used to heal and
educate our community. We know more proactive solutions
like counseling, mental health services, and more summer
and after school programs like Freedom Schools are actually
beneficial for our children and our community.
We need to stop criminalizing our
children for being children.
CAMERON BROWN & BROWN FAMILY, STOCKTON USD PARENT
Figure 4.
Expulsions and Suspensions of Black Students in Stockton USD,
2015-16 through 2018-19
% of Students Suspended % of Cumulative Enrollment% of Expulsions
37%
25%
11%
55%
27%
12%
38%39%
26%
11%
27%
11%
2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018 2018-2019
From CA Dataquest. Percentages rounded to nearest whole number.
Data analysis and visualization by the Social Movement Support Lab.
From Enforcement to Education | 26
Student Interactions
with School Police
From July 2012 through November 2016, 41% of
student arrests and citations by school police were
for the lowest—level student incidents: disturbing
the peace, truancy, and curfew violations.81 During
that time period, Black students were over three
times more likely than every other student group
in the District to be arrested or cited for the vague
offense of “disturbing the peace.”
More recently, the data show fewer bookings and
citations overall, but continuing severe racial
disproportionalities. From 2017—2020, Black
and Native American students were significantly
overrepresented in bookings and citations
compared to their enrollment, as seen in Figure
5. Native American students were booked or cited
by Stockton USD police at five times their rate
of enrollment in school, and Black students were
booked or cited at nearly three times their rate of
enrollment. In 2019, as shown in Figure 6, Black
students were six—and—a—half times more likely
than white students to be booked or cited by
Stockton USD police, and Native American students
were over three times more likely than white
students to be booked or cited by Stockton USD
police.
During the pandemic, Stockton USD has been
relying on law enforcement to visit students’ homes.
In fact, all school requests for Stockton USD
police assistance from April—June 2020 were
for such “welfare checks” despite police being
some of the least qualified and trained on the
welfare of children. From July to September
2020, 66% of school requests for Stockton USD
police assistance were for “welfare checks.” Other
districts have more appropriately used mental
health professionals to check on students during the
pandemic.82
Figure 6.
Bookings/Citations per 1000
Students Enrolled, 2019-2020
Calculated by number of bookings and citations (from PRA data,
Student Arrests and Referrals to Police) divided by students
enrolled in that racial/ethnic group, times 1000 for academic year
2019-20. Total enrollment numbers pulled from CA Dataquest.
This includes individuals who were booked/cited more than once.
Rounded to nearest decimal point.
Data analysis by the Social Movement Support Lab.
Race or Ethnicity
Black
Native American
Multiracial
Latine
White
Filipino
Asian
12.4
6.1
5.2
2.6
1.9
0.7
0.6
Figure 5.
Distribution of Bookings/Citations by
Student Race, 2017-2020
From Student Arrests and Referrals to Police, cleaned PRA data.
Includes individuals who were booked/cited more than once.
Percentages are rounded to nearest whole number.
Data analysis by the Social Movement Support Lab.
Latine
55%
Filipino
1%
Multiracial
4%
Native
American
5%
White
4%
Asian
1%
Black
29%
From Enforcement to Education | 27
Figure 7.
Yearly Trends: Bookings/Citations per 1000 Students Enrolled in
Stockton USD by Race/Ethnicity, 2017-2020
2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020
Academic Year
From Student Arrests and Referrals to Police, PRA Data. Calculated as number of incidents/bookings per 1000 students enrolled in academic years 2017, 2018, and
2019. Total enrollment pulled from Dataquest. Numbers rounded to nearest whole number. Not all racial groups included for purposes of visualization.
Data analysis and visualization by the Social Movement Support Lab.
Race or Ethnicity
Black
Filipino
Latine
Multiracial
Native American
20
15
10
5
0
24
12
6
15
9
12
9
3
55
3 33
1
Figure 8.
Resolutions of School Requests for Police in Stockton USD, by
Outcome and Alleged Offense, 2020
Outcomes of Police Action in Response to
School Requests for Service
Top 10 Alleged Offenses for which Stockton USD
School Staff Requested Police.
78.87% of school requests in 2020 were resolved
with “NPA” (no subsequent police action).
Among 265 school requests resolved with “NPA” (no subsequent police action), the most common reason
was Welfare Check (34.34%).
Among all 92 school requests for police assistance for “Welfare Check,” 31 (98.91%) were resolved with
“NPA” (no subsequent police action), and 1 resolved through police counseling the student (”Counsel”).
265
(78.87%)
NPA Counsel Cite Book
5150
Commitment Welfare
Check
Battery Criminal
Threats
5150 Weapons/
Firearm
Petty
Theft
Sexual
Battery
Robbery Found
Child
Assault
91
(34.34%)
31
(11.76%)27
(10.19%)
14
(5.28%)
12
(4.53%)10
(3.77%)
10
(3.77%)
10
(3.77%)
10
(3.77%)
9
(3.40%)
31
(9.23%)
29
(8.63%)7
(2.08%)
4
(1.19%)
Resolutions Type of Offenses
From Enforcement to Education | 28
Student Educational Outcomes
In 2019, 80% of Stockton USD students were
unprepared for college or career under the
“college/career readiness” indicator of the
California Department of Education’s (CDE)
Accountability System.83 This indicator is expansive
and includes several different ways to demonstrate
“preparedness” for college or a career, which makes
these figures for Stockton students even more
alarming.84 At Stockton High School and Jane
Frederick High School, from 2017—2019, between
0—3.3% of students graduated prepared, according
to this metric.85 Native American students,
foster youth, English Learners, and students
with disabilities are particularly underserved on
this measure, with Stockton USD being given a
“lowest performance” (red) indicator by CDE for
those groups.86 Stockton USD students are, on
average, significantly less likely to attend college
than the statewide average, and those numbers
are drastically worse for students at both Stockton
High School and Jane Frederick High School.87
From Enforcement to Education | 29
SEEC Recommendations for SUSD
With the election of a more conservative school
board in the November 2020 election cycle, SEEC
is in a movement—building phase, solidifying its
base and allies to come together in the shared
goals of dismantling the infrastructure, culture,
and practice of school policing and building a
liberatory education system for Stockton students.
The following are recommendations that SEEC has
developed over the course of years of advocacy in
Stockton USD to meet those goals:
• Invest funds currently used for school police
to hire more staff who are trained to promote
a positive school climate, including restorative
justice coordinators, community school resource
coordinators, counselors, additional teachers,
and tutors who are trained in research—
based methods to address student behavior
and promote a positive, safe school climate;
to initiate and expand programs such as the
Healing Schools model; and to bolster and
expand a districtwide ethnic studies program.
• Do not suspend or expel students who are not
meeting grade—level standards for literacy.
Commit to providing targeted academic and
social interventions to improve students’
educational outcomes.
• Require ongoing district—wide training
of educational staff to enhance cultural
competence and combat implicit bias.
• Ensure that in the limited circumstances when
police must question or arrest a student at
school, they possess a legal warrant supported
by probable cause that the student poses an
imminent danger of serious physical injury or
death to a person on school property.
• Ensure that Stockton USD police adhere
to California Welfare & Institutions Code
§ 625.6, which states that prior to a custodial
interrogation and before the waiver of any
Miranda rights, a youth 17 years of age or
younger shall consult with legal counsel in
person, by telephone, or by video conference.
• Mandate that police never use physical force
on a student in school, including the use of
mechanical restraints, unless the student’s
behavior poses an imminent danger of serious
physical injury or death to a person on school
property.
• Immediately notify a student’s parent or
guardian if police have arrested, searched,
restrained, placed in seclusion, or questioned
the student in school.
• Collect comprehensive data regarding school
police officers’ interactions with students,
broken out by race, sex, English Learner status,
and disability status. Also collect data on
complaints filed against school police officers.
Publicly report this data, how it was collected,
and post it on Stockton USD’s public website.
• Create an oversight committee that has the
power to review applications for officers who
want to work in the school district; conduct
officer evaluations; investigate complaints;
and review data to identify and work with the
Stockton USD to address disproportionalities
in school discipline, police interactions with
students, and student educational outcomes.
This committee should be made up of students,
parents, educators, and community—based
advocates.
From Enforcement to Education | 30
“Police at school do not make students safe. Police
at schools make students feel like they’re doing
something wrong, that the smallest mistakes will bring
them trouble, that they are not children or students
or young adults or members of the community, but
prisoners. They don’t do anything but bring added
stress to the already stressful life of a student.
Funding should be directed to progressive and
meaningful education and counseling. Take it from a
2020 graduate: school should be a place of learning
and growth, where students look forward to each day.
Police do not contribute to this.
DEFUND THE POLICE.”
FORMER LOS ANGELES USD STUDENT
From Enforcement to Education | 31
Los Angeles Unified School District
The Los Angeles School Police Department
(LASPD) is the largest independent school police
department in the U.S.88 In 2020, LASPD had
approximately 470 sworn police officers,89 101 non—
sworn school safety officers, and 34 other staff
members.90 It is the 14th largest police department
in California.91 Although its finances are opaque,
LASPD has maintained a budget of approximately
$60—70 million.92
In May 2020, building on decades of power
building and campaigns in Los Angeles from
local grassroots organizations,93 a broad coalition
of youth, parent, and Black—led organizations,
including Students Deserve, Black Lives Matter,
Brothers Sons Selves Coalitions, CADRE, Youth
Justice Coalition, and the Labor Community
Strategy Center, with support from Public Counsel
and the ACLU of Southern California, ran a
campaign that reduced the LASPD budget by $25
million, or roughly 30%. The coalition vowed to
continue its campaign until LASPD is completely
defunded and eliminated.
In connection with the campaign, Students Deserve
conducted a survey of 5,730 students about their
experiences with, and feelings towards, LASPD.
Their write—in responses have been included
throughout this report. Roughly 87% of all survey
respondents were in favor of defunding the school
police. These responses echoed a report by Million
Dollar Hoods that found stark racial disparities in
arrests.94 Over 80% of students said that police in
schools do not make them feel safer. Black students
responding to the survey were 3 times as likely
as white students to report being followed by the
police. Black students were also 4 times as likely to
report being racially profiled by police.
The survey also asked students “If all of this
money [spent on police] could be invested in
Black students & predominantly Black schools,
which services would you invest in?” Students
overwhelmingly responded that they wanted mental
health supports, ethnic studies courses, and other
supportive resources.
The survey also allowed students to write in their
recommendations about how to reinvest funding
currently spent on law enforcement. Words that
occurred most frequently in the responses included
“students” (111), “programs” (88), “teachers” (69),
“arts” (69) and “nurses” (51). Other popular words
included supplies, food, college, counselors, and
field trips. These responses are visualized by the
word cloud and the size of the word represents
the frequency it was used. Less than than 1% of
the comments in this section indicated that the
respondent supported maintaining school police
funding, and an even smaller fraction of comments
advocated for the funding to be spent on all
students rather than on Black students specifically.
Where Should Funds for
School Police be Reallocated?
Psychiatric
Social Workers
College
Counselors
Smaller
Class Sizes
Ethnic Studies
Courses
Parent/Family/
Community Centers
Grief
Counselors
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
Figure 9.
ADVOCATING FOR CHANGE
IN OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS
From Enforcement to Education | 32
LAUSD students’ recommendations for how to reinvest funds currently spent on law enforcement.
From Enforcement to Education | 33
Moreno Valley Unified School District
Moreno Valley USD gives more than $1.5 million
of its educational funding to the Riverside County
Sheriff’s Department to place nine permanent
police officers in the District’s schools, one in each
high, middle, and continuation school.95 This police
presence has not improved school climate—instead,
it has correlated with an increase in exclusionary
discipline in Moreno Valley schools.96 Indeed, in the
summer of 2020, the Disability Rights Education
and Defense Fund (DREDF) and Disability Rights
California (DRC) filed a complaint against the
District for school police actions in discriminating
against an 11—year—old Black student and using
excessive force to handcuff him four separate times
for displaying non—threatening behavior related to
his disability.97
In 2017—2018, Moreno Valley USD had the
highest rate of referrals to law enforcement of
any California school district with 15,000 or more
students, according to the federal CRDC data.
Roughly 64 students per 1,000 received referrals
to law enforcement, a rate that is 17 times higher
than the statewide average for all students.
Black students had a rate twice as high as the
districtwide average for all students (134 per 1,000)
and over 30 times higher than the state average.
On June 15, 2020, many grassroots and policy
organizations—including the Alliance for Boys
and Men of Color—Riverside, National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People—
Riverside, Inland Equity Partnership, Public
Advocates, Riverside County Black Chamber of
Commerce, Congregations Organized for Prophetic
Engagement, and others—submitted a letter asking
the District and its Board of Education to remove
all law enforcement officers from school campuses.
On July 23, 2020, the District held a study session
about law enforcement. Dozens of students,
parents, and community members called on the
Moreno Valley USD Board of Education to remove
police from its schools.98 Ultimately, despite the
community’s demands, the Board did not vote
to eliminate the contract. Instead, it suspended
the contract because schools were not in session
and instructed district staff to develop a plan to
“reduce” and “redefine” the role of law enforcement
on campus.99
From Enforcement to Education | 34
Fremont Unified School District
In the summer of 2020, the Fremont USD School
Board convened a “School Resource Officer
Task Force” and requested an evaluation of the
District’s school policing program. The Task Force
compiled a 69—page report with three priority
recommendations: (1) eliminate the school police
program; (2) increase and enhance school—based
mental health supports and restorative justice
programs for students; and (3) restructure all law
enforcement interactions with students.100
The Task Force report found that, during the
2017—18 school year, Latine students were referred
to law enforcement at over double their rate of
enrollment in the District, and Black students
were referred at nearly eight times their rate
of enrollment. From 2015—2018, although Black
students represented only 2% of the District’s
student population, they made up more than 21% of
arrests by police, “leading to a disproportionality
factor of 10x their population in the District.”
During the 2016—17 school year, while students
with disabilities made up less than 10% of the
student population, they made up 42% of referrals
to law enforcement.
In November 2020, the Fremont USD School
Board voted 3—2 to adopt the Task Force
recommendations in full and to eliminate the
school police program. The student Board member
also voted in favor of these recommendations.
The vote represented a significant victory for
student and community leaders, including GenUP,
Engage Fremont, and the Fremont USD Alumni
Association (FAA), who advocated for systemic
school police reform for the District’s 35,000
students. Unfortunately, in January 2021, a newly
elected Board refused to hold to its commitment
and voted to reinstate the school police program.
Student and community leaders continue to work
to hold the school board accountable and to work
towards permanently eliminating the damaging
school police presence in Fremont schools.
Student and community leaders working for systemic school
police reform in Fremont Unified School District.
“I was the only Black student
in my high school. If something
bad happened, I was often seen
as the instigator. I felt racially
profiled and targeted.
When I was a senior, a teacher
received a death threat. I was
the first person to be interviewed
despite having a good grade in her
class and getting along with that
teacher. The SRO that handled
the matter was aggressive and
accusatory. When my mother tried
to file a complaint, she was told
there wasn’t really a way to do
that.”
ABENA O., FORMER FREMONT USD STUDENT
From Enforcement to Education | 35
County Sheriffs in Schools
School districts have increasingly relied on county
sheriff’s departments to respond to student
behaviors, which creates all the same harms
described throughout this report. Further, these
sheriff’s departments have created new programs
that further criminalize adolescence. For example,
the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department
created Operation CleanSWEEP, a juvenile citation
program for “first offenders.” CleanSWEEP
empowers and deputizes educators to issue
students citations up to $1,000 for minor student
misbehaviors. Specific harms of the program
include:
• Taking resources from evidence—based, less
punitive alternatives that keep students in
school and on track. Recognizing this, the
following districts have removed CleanSWEEP
from their schools:
ºChino Valley Unified School District
ºCoachella Valley Unified School District
ºApple Valley Unified School District
ºRialto Unified School District
• Students are mostly cited for behaviors that
should be handled through school interventions
instead of law enforcement. Examples of low—
level incidents giving rise to student citations
and fines include littering, daytime loitering,
possession of spray paint container, graffiti, and
keeping lost property.
• Students are required to appear in traffic or
juvenile court. Students can have their license
suspended before eligibility. Studies have
shown that a single appearance in court makes
students more likely to drop out of school and
enter the criminal justice system.101
• Poor training and communication about the
legal parameters of the program to school
staff have resulted in students being cited for
offenses that are no longer illegal.
• Schools are abusing their authority by citing or
threatening to cite students for offenses outside
the scope of the program.
Further, the program disproportionately targets
and impacts students of color. For example, four
out of the five schools that implemented the
program most frequently were in Chaffey Joint
Union School District (CJUSD). Despite CJUSD
having roughly 7% Black students, over 23% of
CleanSWEEP referrals were issued to Black
students. Students with disabilities are also only
12% of CJUSD but comprised 30% of CleanSWEEP
referrals.
Students have been cited through the CleanSWEEP
program in several districts that continue to
participate in the program. According to PRA
documents received by the ACLU, the following
districts are participating or have recently
participated in CleanSWEEP:
• Bear Valley Unified School District
• Adelanto Elementary School District
• Central School District
• Colton Joint Unified School District
• Yucaipa—Calimesa Joint Unified School
District
• Helendale Elementary School District
• Morongo Unified School District
• Alta Loma School District
• Victor Valley Union High School District*
• Redlands Unified School District*
• Cucamonga School District
*stated they no longer participate
Unequal
CleanSWEEP
Citations in
Chaffey Schools
Figure 10.
From Enforcement to Education | 36
Probation in Schools
A disturbing trend has emerged in California:
juvenile probation officers targeting and monitoring
students because of normal, adolescent behavior
such as talking back to school staff, truancy,
or academic problems. School districts across
California are hosting “informal probation” or
“voluntary probation” programs where youth who
have never been accused of any criminal behavior
are referred to probation officers in school. Despite
these programs being labeled “voluntary,” law
enforcement officers often coerce parents and youth
into participating.
• Until 2018, thousands of L.A. County youth
were placed on “voluntary probation,” similar
to court—ordered probation but the youth were
not arrested and had no court order to be
under probation supervision. A report by the
Children’s Defense Fund—California, Youth
Justice Coalition, Urban Peace Institute, and
the Anti—Recidivism Coalition found that these
interventions:
. . . fall outside the mission, expertise and
role of a probation officer. The practice runs
counter to research, and risks widening the net
of youth involved in the justice system. It also
erodes opportunities to invest in education and
community—based infrastructure to advance youth
and community development in the long run, and
deepens an historical disparity between resources for
law enforcement and other county and community—
based agencies whose lenses are human services,
health and education.102
• In Riverside County, over 3,000 students—
overwhelmingly Black and Brown youth—were
placed on harsh, intrusive probation contracts
for non—criminal offenses. Youth and their
families were often coerced into the program
with threats of prosecution, sometimes in the
presence of armed officers, putting the lie
to the label “voluntary probation.”103 Rather
than “informal,” youth were required to sign
formal probation contracts agreeing to random
searches, curfews, surprise home visits, drug
tests, and interrogations.104
The ACLU and the National Center for Youth
Law filed a lawsuit to stop the program and
reached a settlement in 2019.105 Now probation
officers will no longer be stationed in schools in
Riverside County, and the County will no longer
enroll youth in the program for normal, non—
criminal youth behavior.
• In Contra Costa County, school districts
have partnered with the county probation
department to allow surveillance of students.106
Minor suspensions for behavior that should
more appropriately be handled by school staff
can now quickly turn into probation violations—
which can result in students being detained
in juvenile hall over technical violations of
probation rather than new criminal offenses.
Numerous studies have shown that surveillance—
oriented juvenile probation, particularly where
interventions are focused on discipline such as
“boot camps” and where youth are alleged to
have committed minor offenses, is ineffective
and may actually increase the likelihood of re—
arrest.107 To address this problem, California
passed a law in 2020 that promotes a new vision
of community— and school—based services to
support youth, recognize their strengths, and
keep students in school and on track to succeed.
AB 901 limits “informal probation supervision”
of youth, prohibits student referrals to probation
officers for “disobedience,” and reduces probation
practices that increase youth contact with the
juvenile legal system.
From Enforcement to Education | 37
Unlike other states, California currently does not
require schools or other government agencies
to report information about law enforcement
interactions with students in schools. As such,
researchers must rely on a patchwork of local,
state, and federal datasets that are, to varying
degrees, incomplete, inconsistent, and inaccurate.
For example, it is apparent that the CRDC data
files are rife with underreporting and discrepancies
with respect to the numbers of law enforcement
on campus, particularly when compared to
other available data sources, including across
different CRDC data collections.108 School and
LEA personnel responsible for answering the
many detailed questions in the survey can make
typographical errors, errors based on confusion,
or deliberate underreporting. Problems also arise
from the wording of CRDC questions—for example,
the CRDC asks how much police time is assigned
to each school in full—time equivalent units but
does not ask how many police officers are employed
by or assigned to the LEA as a whole.
For many LEAs, the 2017—18 CRDC raw data
file shows lower numbers of law enforcement
officers than both prior and current data collection
years appearing on the CRDC online data
reporting tool.109 Los Angeles USD exemplifies
this underreporting: the District reports only 143
law enforcement officers assigned to its schools
in 2017—18 CRDC, yet the District website itself
states its school district police force includes “over
410 sworn police officers, 101 non—sworn school
safety officers (SSO), and 34 civilian support staff
. . . [LASPD is] the fifth largest police department
in Los Angeles County, and the 14th largest in
California.”110 Public records documents produced
by the District in 2020 also listed over 500 officers
and employees in the LASPD, and data collected
by the state lists at least 296 sworn officers.111
Only 16% of California schools in our CRDC
analysis dataset reported having an assigned law
enforcement officer, however other federal data
collected by the National Center for Education
Statistics in 2017—18 found at least 58% of schools
nationwide had police that school year.112
Further, because there is no state mandate to
collect and report such data, each LEA collects
data in a different way, and some do not seem
to collect it at all. As such, it is impossible to
aggregate the local data and compare it across
LEAs to identify problematic local practices or
broader trends. And because LEAs do not report
the data uniformly, researchers and advocates
generally may only access it through PRA requests.
Such requests require significant resources and are
time consuming, with some LEAs taking months
or years to provide the data. Indeed, some LEAs
refuse to provide the data until they are sued and
ordered to turn over the documents by a court
order.
Finally, the RIPA dataset affords new and valuable
insights into the impacts of law enforcement in
schools, but only 15 law enforcement agencies
are currently required to report data, covering
relatively few schools across the state. Moreover,
relying on police to perceive and report the
intersectional identity (e.g., LGBTQ+, disability)
of the people they search is likely leading to
the underreporting or misreporting of stops of
marginalized groups.
LIMITATIONS IN THE AVAILABLE DATA
From Enforcement to Education | 38
“Communities of color have
disproportionately been harassed, targeted,
racially profiled at the hands of police.
I can go on and on of personal stories of illegal
misconduct by police officers who never
made us feel safer at school or were held
accountable for infringing upon our rights.
Instead, the officers preyed upon young
students who too often were not aware of
their rights to advocate for their themselves.
How many of our friends, family members, and
loved ones have been killed at the hands of
LAPD, the most murderous police department
in this nation?
How does it help our youth focus on school
when they are forced in confined spaces
with police officers consistently surrounding
them?”
CURRENT LOS ANGELES USD STUDENT
From Enforcement to Education | 39
Mass uprisings against police violence are making
it increasingly difficult for California policymakers
to ignore the harms of law enforcement in schools.
Across California, youth are at the forefront of
the movement to convince their school boards
to end contracts with law enforcement agencies
and to reduce or eliminate school district police
departments. While they have achieved astounding
progress over the past year, much more work
remains. Removing police from schools is a
necessary but insufficient condition to extricating
white supremacy from the education system. Even
without police, deep inequities and anti—Black
racism endure. Black youth will still be more likely
to attend schools that are grossly underfunded,
to be subject to discipline because of implicit and
explicit biases, and to be referred to outside law
enforcement. To achieve justice for our youth and
to provide them with the education they deserve,
we must reevaluate the entire system: reimagining
safety without police and school hardening
measures, reinvesting in the positive supports
that actually help our students, and fundamentally
changing the culture of our schools.
CONCLUSION
“You can tell so much about a school district by the way they allocate funds. What does it
say when a school district underfunds school counselors to the tune of undercutting the
fiscal resource required by 60% to 75%? Districts are misplacing resources that could be
better used to enhance student wellness and prevent problems - which is far more cost
effective and life enhancing.”
DR. LORETTA WHITSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL COUNSELORS
From Enforcement to Education | 39
From Enforcement to Education | 40
No schools in California should have a permanent
police officer. Specifically, LEAs should not be able
to create their own police departments or reserve
forces, nor should they coordinate with any outside
law enforcement agency to station law enforcement
on a school campus. Further, school staff should
never call a police officer to campus unless there is
an imminent danger of serious physical injury or
death to a person on school property.113 Similarly,
they should not rely on surveillance measures—such
as online monitoring software or cameras equipped
with facial recognition software—on students and
their families because these measures replicate
the same harms as law enforcement presence on
campus. As such, school staff shall never request
the involvement of a law enforcement officer in
a situation that can be safely and appropriately
handled by the school district’s internal student
resources and procedures. Similarly, they should
not use surveillance measures—such as online
monitoring software, surveillance cameras, or face
recognition—on students and their families because
these measures replicate the same harms as law
enforcement presence on campus.
Schools should instead implement
policies and invest in resources that
actually support students and keep
them safe.
The following resources provide
strategies on how to create a better
vision of schools:
• Dignity in Schools California Framework for
Abolishing Police in Schools:
https://dignityinschools—ca.org/state—policy—
framework—dsc—ca/
• Central Valley Movement Building’
Resource Guides:
https://www.cvmb.org/resource—guides/
• CADRE and Public Counsel’s Report on
Schoolwide Positive Behavior
Interventions and Support Implementation:
http://dignityinschools.org/wp—content/
uploads/2017/10/Final—SR—Report.CADRE_.
Oct—2017.ENG_.pdf
• Positive Behavior Interventions and Support:
5—Point Intervention Approach for
Enhancing Equity in School Discipline:
https://www.pbis.org/resource/a—5—point—
intervention—approach—for—enhancing—equity—
in—school—discipline
• Girls for Gender Equity’s Toolkit for Educators
to Sustain Police—Free Schools:
https://www.ggenyc.org/the—schools—girls—
deserve/police—free—schools—toolkit/
• Fresno Barrios Unidos and Human Impact
Partner’s Report on Student Perspectives on
Police Free Schools:
https://humanimpact.org/wp—content/
uploads/2021/03/HIP—Health—and—Cultural—
Wealth—Student—Perspectives—on—Police—Free—
Schools—in—Fresno—California—March—2021.pdf
RECOMMENDATIONS
From Enforcement to Education | 41
ACLU SoCal’s Youth Liberty Squad’s Fight for #CounselorsNotCops:
California is one of just four states where there is only one school counselor for every 600+ students.
California schools faced a mental health cirsis and a lack of mental health supports even before 2020,
and the pandemic worsened these problems. Students in our Youth Liberty Squad have been steadfast
in demanding support. Youth Liberty Squad was created in 2019 to build the foundation for the next
generation of social justice leaders with a focus on youth criminalization and school—based mental health.
Important findings from their Student Wellness Survey are reported below, followed by a timeline of
Youth Liberty Squad’s advocacy.
Results from Student Wellness Survey
(May 2020):
• Students shared hundreds of responses
to open—ended questions that indicate
significant stress. They are overwhelmed with
schoolwork, the well—being of their families,
general uncertainty, and missing out on their
high school experiences. Some of the most
frequent words used by students: bored,
lonely, overwhelming, and anxious.
• 22% of students reported receiving mental
health services before the pandemic, and
an additional 32% feel they may now need
services, indicating over half of California’s
students could now need mental health
support.
• Less than 40% of students rated their current
COVID—19 mental wellness at the same level.
• The number of students who rated their
mental health a three or lower more than
tripled after the pandemic began, from 7% to
23%.114
• More than half of student respondents
had experienced serious stress, anxiety, or
depression at least some time during the
past year. An increasing number had suicidal
thoughts.115
Results from Student Wellness Survey
(April 2021)
• Over 40% of students reported that no one
had personally asked them about their mental
wellness over the past three months.
• The four most common people to check in on
students’ mental health were friends (35%),
family (32%), teachers (12%), and counselors
(11%), demonstrating the importance of school
supports.
• Only 12% of students reported receiving
mental health support in school and another
15% reported receiving support out of school.
• Many students reported continuing to feel
tired, overwhelmed, and stressed. Students are
worried about the health and well—being of
their families and friends, job loss, and their
academics.
From Enforcement to Education | 42
The trauma students experienced during the pandemic will be compounded by the trauma of being
criminalized, discriminated against, and policed if they return to school and encounter school police.
“Interactions with police—and specifically, school police—is correlated with higher levels of trauma and
post—traumatic stress symptoms. Students are healthier when their trauma is met with understanding
and care, not with policing and criminalization.”116 Experts estimate that it will take years for students to
recover and heal from the trauma and emotional impact of the pandemic.117
My grandma and uncle passed
away in the same week and I
was super close to my uncle.
I saw my mom almost
dying and haven’t had the
time to heal because of
school, grades, homework,
testing, studying.
I’m feeling suicidal and
self harming often.
Feeling useless knowing that my friends and family are going through hard times and I can’t do anything... while also struggling through things myself and my grades going downhill real bad I still don’t care at this point.
I find it pointless.
I have gone through incredibly intense depressive episodes
starting around the eighth month of online learning and it
had impacted my grades a lot. I have never had anything
lower than a 3.4 GPA and starting this semester I struggled,
so I am currently failing two classes.
We’ve had three new
people living in our house
and most of them on
distance learning, the
internet was a huge
struggle and I kept falling
behind. I’d catch up and
then lose motivation, I
used to get straight A’s
and now have straight C’s
and D’s as of now.
California students’ responses to the 2021 Student Wellness Survey.
From Enforcement to Education | 43
Timeline of Youth Liberty Squad Advocacy for #CounselorsNotCops
MAY 2019 Students create their banners to display at their school: “Counselors Not Cops,” “Students
not Suspects” and “Resources not Police Forces.”
AUG 2020 Students present to the California Department of Education’s Student Mental Health
Policy Workgroup.
SEP 2020 Students submit advocacy letter to LAUSD.
OCT 2020 Students launch their petition for #CounselorsNotCops and #ArtsNotArrests.
JAN 2021 Students deliver their petition to state officials with thousands of signatures. Students host
separate meeting with representatives from the California Senate, Assembly, and State
Board of Education.
FEB 2021 Students host the Power to the Youth summit with over 350 student attendees. Students
Deserve and Youth Justice Coalition join to present on police—free schools. Student
Angelina Duran creates #BreaktheStigma sticker sent to over 100 students across the state.
APR 2021 Students administer their 2021 student wellness survey and receive hundreds of responses.
MAY 2021 Students present survey findings for Student Mental Health Week 2021.
OCT 2019 ACLU gathers over 200 students statewide for a multiday youth advocacy institute. Students
learn about the ACLU’s #CounselorsNotCops and student de—criminalization campaigns.
FEB 2020 Students present at the California Association of School Counselors (CASC) conference
about student mental health as a civil right.
APR 2020 Students create and administer a survey about the impact of COVID—19 on student
mental health. Over 600 students across the state complete the survey.
MAY 2020 Students partner with CASC for California’s first—ever Student Mental Health Week.
Students submit a letter and survey results to the Governor, State Superintendent, and
other state officials with the support of more than 35 organizations and over 60 schools.
JUNE 2020 Student Anthony Alvarez testifies in the California Senate Education Committee about
student mental health and #CounselorsNotCops:
“In my district, LAUSD, there are more cops in schools than there are school nurses. Although
administrators believe that the presence of police at our schools will improve school safety,
it is from personal experience that I can confidently say I do not feel safe when I see police.
Every morning, I wake up at 5:00 am, prepare my things for school, and make my daily journey
from my small studio apartment in West Hollywood to Manual Arts High School in South
Los Angeles. And every morning, if I’m not welcomed by the four police cars that are always
parked conveniently in the front of the school, then I see the four police officers staring me
down as I rush through the front doors of what was once a haven for me: my high school.”
From Enforcement to Education | 44
I don’t even know where to begin, This is a problem that’s been thereStarting at the root, Like the tree that grew from fertile ground.The Earth feeds the tree water, sunlight, and everything good,naturalizing and growing it just like the world wants it to.This is a problem that’s been there, starting at the root,trauma filled past and bedrock racism that has Black kids growing up thinking they are worthless.
We show up to our schools and walk around our communities feeling we are the threats,That we are the reason why the school police are standing in the hallways breathing down our necks.
This is a problem that’s been there, starting at the root,The purpose of the police was to be slave catchers and imprison any Black person they saw not with their white masters. And now we have police in our schools who are meant to protect, counsel, and mentor me and you.
I’ve never talked or spoke to a school policeman a day in my life,But I have friends who’ve been questioned, searched, arrested, tested, even pepper sprayed, one, two, three, four times.
See, this is the problem that’s toxic from the root,LAUSD chooses to invest seventy million dollars in a dangerous, outdated system that criminalizesBlack and Brown youth.
And I’m talking about all levels, from elementary, middle, to high school,Coming into Black and Brown schools and classrooms picking out those who seem suspiciousand are not surrounded by large white groups. This is a problem that Black and Brown youth have to face,they take us away as “threats“,
Where we come from, police don’t speak to us, mentor us, or do anything with us respectfully,they throw us down and treat us like dirt.And this is a problem that has started at the root,We are not here to remove, reform, or reimagine police,We are here to defund and put those dollars towards students like me and you.imagine caring for Black and Brown youth like the tree with the long roots,Like us, dare I say, Love us,nourish us with psychiatric social workers, school psychologists, nurses, college counselors, andcampus aides who want to see us improve.
Divest that money from the school police, and see how soon we’ll flourish and bloom,Because once we peep mental health resources in our schools,Black and Brown students will blossom like the tree you planted too.This movement, Black Lives Matter, has nourished the soil this society kept starving,And now look how we are igniting.
If we stick together, our ability to love and create will kill this evil rootthat systematic racism has planted within me and you.
Goodbye school—to—prison pipeline, defund school police,together let’s welcome the water, sunlight, and everything good our protesting, uprising, and strength will bring,We will seed new roots of institutionalized justice for all the names we recite, for all the kids outof sight, and all the Black folxs that will never have to think twice.
APPENDIX A:
Student Voices on School Police
Don’t Even Know Where To Begin
By Mya Edwards—Peña
(LAUSD Class of 2020, Students Deserve LA)
From Enforcement to Education | 45
Why we need school police? Yeah. I don’t get it. They causing the friction. I’m really not wit it.
We need more counseling. Nurses, the lunches Not meeting criteria.
Why we need school police? I’ll say it again man these Cops killing kids And we scared of the cops. The gov is basically Letting em in, I don’t understand.
Why we need school police? If the kids fighting, the police igniting, you get sent to juvie, now you a parolee. But all you needed was some counseling.
This the closest thing To blasphemy. Ima start fighting back Casualties. They not harassing me. They is not saving me.
Why we need school police? They need vacationing. Matter fact Abolishment. We know what time it is. Tired of following orders .Some youth got disorders.
The cops do not know us, Especially povershed communities soldier. They don’t need training, we don’t need they forces.
They is not helping, so we gon ignore em, you heard em.
We told em Just listen to youth. Abolish they forces.
Why We Need School Police?119
By Dashaxn
(LAUSD Class of 2020, Brotherhood Crusade, BSS Coalition)
From Enforcement to Education | 46
APPENDIX B:
Top 25 Districts for School Arrests by Race and Disability Status per 1,000
Top 25 Districts for School Arrests by Race and Disability Status per 1,000
STATE
Yuba County Office of
Education
Janesville Union
Elementary
Pixley Union Elementary
Central Union High
Huntington Beach Union
High School District
Sequoia Union High
Baldwin Park Unified
Madera County
Superintendent of
Schools
San Diego Unified
Calaveras Unified
Cloverdale Unified
Chowchilla Union High
Mammoth Unified
Torrance Unified
Tulare City
San Diego County Office
of Education
Petaluma Joint Union High
Sonoma Valley Unified
Valley Center-
Pauma Unified
Dinuba Unified
Lindsay Unified
Lompoc Unified
Hacienda La
Puente Unified
William S. Hart
Union High
Dos Palos Oro Loma
Joint Unified
Clovis Unified
DISTRICT/LEA Student
Enrollment
Student
Arrests
Student
Arrests
per 1,000
Students
with
Disabilities
Black Latinx Native
American
Pacific
Islander
White Asian
6,207,885
675
352
1,075
4,072
16,174
9,160
12,918
864
105,159
2,905
1,429
1,129
1,196
23,414
10,067
1,418
5,256
3,959
4,023
6,663
4,447
9,709
18,470
23,689
2,512
44,118
2,124
6
3
6
22
76
40
52
3
365
9
4
3
3
54
23
3
11
8
8
12
8
17
31
39
4
70
0.3
8.9
8.5
5.6
5.4
4.7
4.4
4.0
3.5
3.5
3.1
2.8
2.7
2.5
2.3
2.3
2.1
2.1
2.0
2.0
1.8
1.8
1.8
1.7
1.6
1.6
1.6
0.8
3.3
40.0
14.1
0.0
11.5
8.7
0.0
2.5
8.1
5.2
5.1
0.0
35.7
5.3
6.7
6.9
4.1
5.2
8.2
13.1
0.0
4.4
3.7
3.0
7.8
3.1
0.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
41.7
100.0
6.2
0.0
0.0
55.6
0.0
4.4
7.9
0.0
0.0
52.6
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
4.0
0.0
4.7
0.4
18.8
0.0
4.9
5.5
5.8
8.8
4.2
1.5
3.9
5.3
5.0
1.5
2.9
3.3
2.5
1.0
1.2
1.6
2.8
1.8
1.9
2.0
1.9
3.4
1.5
2.1
0.6
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
15.9
40.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
78.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
2.8
0.0
0.0
0.0
58.8
0.0
0.0
2.5
0.3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
4.6
0.0
0.0
10.8
66.7
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.9
0.3
6.0
10.4
30.3
6.5
4.7
0.9
0.0
0.0
2.5
1.5
0.0
2.6
2.2
2.5
0.6
11.8
2.3
2.2
0.0
3.0
0.0
0.0
1.8
0.3
2.8
1.2
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
4.5
0.0
0.0
0.0
1.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.4
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.3
0.0
0.0
0.5
From Enforcement to Education | 47
The CRDC dataset shows that schools with law
enforcement do not experience a greater proportion
of serious incidents than schools without law
enforcement. The CRDC dataset tabulates school
incident reports and the types of “offenses”
involved in all reportable incidents. It is likely
that some of these incidents involved referrals
and arrest while others did not, but the dataset
does not show the relationship between reported
incidents and referrals or arrests. Instead, these
data are interesting to report because they show
that the vast majority of reported incidents or
“offenses” that occur in schools are low—level
incidents that do not involve a weapon. Further, the
proportion of incident types is virtually identical
across schools with and without an assigned law
enforcement officer, which suggests that students in
schools with assigned law enforcement officers are
no more “violent” or “dangerous” than students in
schools without law enforcement officers.
The “offenses” reported in the CRDC are incidents
alleged to have occurred on—campus, at an off—
campus event, or traveling to and from school or
an event, regardless of whether the incident was
during school hours and regardless of whether the
incident involved a student. In schools with and
without an assigned law enforcement officer, over
92% of reported incidents involved “Physical attack
or fight without a weapon” and “Threats of physical
attack without a weapon.” Such incidents typically
range from a student merely arguing or tussling
with each other to a schoolyard scuffle.
APPENDIX C:
Reported Incident by Type (LEO and Non—LEO Schools)
Physical attack or fight without a weapon
Threats of physical attack without a weapon
Robbery without a weapon
Possession of a firearm or explosive device
Physical attack or fight with a weapon
Sexual Assault (other than rape)
Threats of a physical attack with a firearm
or explosive device
Threats of physical attack with a weapon
Robbery with a weapon
Rape or attempted rape
Physical attack or fight with a firearm or explosive device
Robbery with a firearm or explosive device
Schools WITH an
assigned LEO
Schools without
an assigned LEO
63.31%
30.56%
1.37%
1.24%
1.07%
0.84%
0.80%
0.50%
0.12%
0.10%
0.07%
0.02%
62.22%
30.71%
0.93%
1.41%
1.50%
0.98%
0.44%
1.34%
0.06%
0.06%
0.29%
0.06%
From Enforcement to Education | 48
APPENDIX D:
School Police Salaries
The Transparent California website reports
information on public salaries in various state
agencies and can be used to gather data on
police expenditures.118 The chart below displays
2018 data on police salaries paid by 14 school
districts throughout the state, including exorbitant
spending on overtime pay. As seen below, these
school districts take hundreds of thousands—or
millions, in the case of Los Angeles USD—from
classroom budgets to pay for police overtime.
Recent school board resolutions to defund school
police in Oakland USD and Los Angeles USD
have significantly reduced district expenditures in
overtime pay to police officers.
Inglewood USD
Los Angeles USD
Oakland USD
Hacienda La Puente USD
Kern Union High
Stockton USD
Fontana USD
Santa Ana USD
San Bernardino City
Twin Rivers
Compton USD
San Diego Unified
Montebello USD
21%
19%
16%
16%
16%
15%
14%
14%
12%
12%
11%
10%
7%
$343,120
$36,529,567
$1,286,141
$111,109
$2,918,163
$1,935,338
$1,805,878
$3,402,548
$2,592,898
$2,028,826
$2,146,782
$4,525,688
$166,237
$71,459
$7,039,058
$1,286,141
$694,070
$478,236
$287,213
$246,737
$489,266
$301,085
$244,930
$243,802
$430,635
$11,712
$422,086
$50,439,659
$1,523,867
$857,119
$3,877,294
$2,572,226
$2,386,753
$3,883,355
$3,499,401
$2,293,776
$2,147,663
$6,164,445
$247,682
% of Pay from
Overtime
Total Pay Overtime Pay Total Pay &
Benefit*
Source: Transparent California 2017-2018
From Enforcement to Education | 49
ENDNOTES
1 “Latine” is a gender—inclusive term used in this report to replace the terms “Latina(s),” “Latino(s),” “Latinx(s),” and “Hispanic.”
2 Serious physical injury involves (1) a substantial risk of death; (2) extreme physical pain; (3) protracted and obvious disfigurement; or (4)
protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty.
3 The San Joaquin County District Attorney subsequently filed criminal charges against the officer. Jennie Rodriguez—Moore & Elizabeth
Roberts, D.A. Files Complaint in Strip Search of Teen, RecoRdnet.com (Feb. 3, 2015), http://www.recordnet.com/article/20150203/
NEWS/150209938; Roger Phillips, Former SUSD Officer Pleads No Contest, RecoRdnet.com (Oct. 14, 2015), http://www.recordnet.com/
article/20151014/NEWS/151019849.
4 Scott Schwebke, Parents of 11—year—old Black Student Repeatedly Handcuffed by Deputies File Complaint Against Moreno Valley Unified,
the PRess—enteR. (July 16, 2020), https://www.pe.com/2020/07/16/parents—of—11—year—old—black—student—repeatedly—handcuffed—
by—school—police—files—complaint—against—moreno—valley—unified/.
5 Throughout this report, the term Indigenous is used to refer to populations that the data sources label American Indian, Alaska Native and
Native American. These persons belong to the Indigenous tribes and villages of the continental United States and Alaska. Other students,
such as Latine, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations students, among others, may also identify as Indigenous but are placed in a separate
category in the data sets analyzed here.
6 Bettering Our School System — BOSS, Black oRg. PRoject, http://blackorganizingproject.org/our—work/ (last visited May 7, 2021).
7 The People’s Plan for Police—Free Schools, Black oRg. PRoject (2019),
http://blackorganizingproject.org/wp—content/uploads/2019/11/The—Peoples—Plan—2019—Online—Reduced—Size.pdf.
8 Memorandum from Kyla Johnson—Trammell, Superintendent, to the Oakland Unified School District Board of Education, George Floyd
District Safety Plan Phase 1 (Adoption) 1 (Dec. 9, 2020), https://oaklandside.org/wp—content/uploads/2020/12/20—2147—Board—
Memorandum—Resolution—Plan—George—Floyd—District—Safety—Plan—Phase—1—Second—Reading—1292020.pdf.
9 Linnea Nelson et al., The Right to Remain a Student, aclU of cal. (Oct. 2016),
https://www.aclunc.org/docs/20161019—the_right_to_remain_a_student—aclu_california_0.pdf.
10 Megan French—Marcelin et al., Bullies in Blue, ACLU (2017),
https://www.aclu.org/report/bullies—blue—origins—and—consequences—school—policing.
11 Amir Whitaker et al., Cops and No Counselors, ACLU (2019), https://www.aclu.org/report/cops—and—no—counselors.
12 Victor Leung et al., Our Right to Resources, aclU of cal. (2020),
https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/aclu_socal_right—to—resources.pdf.
13 Aaron Kupchik, Research on the Impact of School Policing, end ZeRo toleRance (Aug. 2020),
https://www.endzerotolerance.org/impact—of—school—policing; Alexis Stern & Anthony Petrosino, What Do We Know about the Effect
of School—Based Law Enforcement on School Safety?, Wested 2 (2018), https://www.wested.org/wp—content/uploads/2018/04/JPRC—
Police—Schools—Brief.pdf.
14 School police were referred to as “school resource officers” in this study. Kenneth Alonzo Anderson, Policing and Middle School: An
Evaluation of a Statewide School Resource Officer Policy, 4(2) middle gRades Rev., Art. 7 (Sept. 2018), https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/cgi/
viewcontent.cgi?article=1119&context=mgreview.
15 Jason P. Nance, Students, Police, and the School—to—Prison Pipeline, 93 Wash. Univ. l. Rev. 919 (2016),
http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol93/iss4/6; Kupchik, supra n.10; Matthew T. Theriot, School Resource Officers and the
Criminalization of Student Behavior, 37 J. cRim. jUst. 280—87 (Jan. 2009), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222199181_School_
Resource_Officers_and_the_Criminalization_of_Student_Behavior (finding that having a regularly assigned police officer at school more
than doubled the rates of arrest for “disorderly conduct,” even when controlling for important factors such as school poverty).
16 Deanna N. Devlin et al., An Evaluation of Police Officers in Schools as a Bullying Intervention, 71 evalUation and PRogRam Plan. 12—21 (Dec.
2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2018.07.004.
17 See Matthew J. Mayer & Peter E. Leone, A Structural Analysis of School Violence and Disruption: Implications for Creating Safer Schools,
22(3) edUc. & tReatment of child. 333, 349 (1999), https://www.jstor.org/stable/42899578; Irwin A. Hyman & Donna C. Perone, The Other
Side of School Violence: Educator Policies and Practices That May Contribute to Student Misbehavior, 36(1) J. sch. Psych. 7, 16 (1998),
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223655904_The_Other_Side_of_School_Violence_Educator_Policies_and_Practices_That_May_
Contribute_to_Student_Misbehavior; Randall R. Beger, The Worst of Both Worlds, 28(2) cRim. jUst. Rev. 336, 340 (Sept. 1, 2003), https://doi.
org/10.1177%2F073401680302800208.
From Enforcement to Education | 50
18 Kathleen Nolan, Police in the Hallways: Discipline in an Urban High School 13, 74—79, 162—166 (Univ. of minn. PRess, 2011).
19 Theriot, supra n.12.
20 Emily Weisburst, Patrolling Public Schools: The Impact of Funding for School Police on Student Discipline and Long—Term Education
Outcomes, Univ. of tex. aUstin edUc. Res. ctR. 3 (Nov. 2018), https://texaserc.utexas.edu/wp—content/uploads/2018/11/21—UTA034—Brief—
BPCAB—11.1.18.pdf.
21 Id.
22 Cong. Rsch. Serv., R45251, school ResoURce officeRs: issUes foR congRess sUmmaRy (2018),
https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20180705_R45251_db5492370a04c7e3b39f27ce52416d229a0ac17d.pdf.
23 Jason P. Nance, Student Surveillance, Racial Inequalities, and Implicit Racial Bias, 66 emoRy L. J. 765 (Aug. 27, 2017),
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2830885 (surveying research showing that schools where a majority of students
are students of color are more likely to rely on strict security measures, including using police officers to monitor students, even after
controlling for neighborhood crime, school crime, and school disorder); off. foR civ. Rts., 2015—16 Civil Rights Data Collection: School
Climate and Safety, U.s. deP’t of edUc. 3 (April 2018 — revised May 2019), https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/school—
climate—and—safety.pdf (reporting significant racial disparities in referrals to law enforcement and arrests of Black, Indigenous,
and biracial students); Tia Stevens & Merry Morash, Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Boys’ Probability of Arrest and Court Actions in
1980 and 2000: The Disproportionate Impact of “Getting Tough” on Crime, 13(1) yoUth violence and jUv. jUst. 77, 89 (2015), https://doi.
org/10.1177%2F1541204013515280 (finding significant increase in charging and convictions of boys aged 15—18 across the U.S., particularly
Black male youth, despite a major drop in reported delinquent behavior); Russell J. Skiba et al., Parsing Disciplinary Disproportionality:
Contributions of Infraction, Student, and School Characteristics to Out—of—School Suspension and Expulsion, 51(4) am. edUc. Rsch. J.
640—670 (Aug. 1, 2014), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3102/0002831214541670.
24 Kristen Harper and Deborah Temkin, Compared to Majority White Schools, Majority Black Schools Are More Likely to Have Security Staff,
childtRends (Apr. 26, 2018), https://www.childtrends.org/compared—to—majority—white—schools—majority—black—schools—are—more—
likely—to—have—security—staff; Jason P. Nance, School Security Considerations After Newtown, 65 stan. l. Rev. online 103 (Feb. 11, 2013),
https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1392&context=facultypub; Nance, supra n. 20.
25 Benjamin W. Fisher et al., Protecting the Flock or Policing the Sheep? Differences in School Resource Officers’ Perceptions of Threats by
School Racial Composition, soc. PRoBlems (Oct. 25, 2020), https://academic.oup.com/socpro/advance—article/doi/10.1093/socpro/spaa06
2/5939812?guestAccessKey=bc515ec0—0aaa—4627—9f38—fd8d16e42074.
26 Weisburst, supra n.17; Benjamin W. Fisher & Emily A. Hennessy, School Resource Officers and Exclusionary Discipline in U.S. High Schools:
A Systematic Review and Meta—Analysis, 1 adolescent Res. Rev. 217, 229 (June 4, 2015), https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894—015—0006—8.
27 Joscha Legewie & Jeffrey Fagan, Aggressive Policing and the Educational Performance of Minority Youth, 84(2) am. soc. Rev. 220—
247 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122419826020.
28 Lindsay Bell Weixler et al., Voices of New Orleans Youth: What Do the City’s Young People Think About Their Schools and Communities?,
Educ. Rsch. all. foR neW oRleans (July 28, 2020), https://educationresearchalliancenola.org/files/publications/20200608—Technical—
Appendix—Weixler—et—al—Voices—of—New—Orleans—Youth—What—Do—the—Citys—Young—People—Think—About—Their—Schools—
and—Communities.pdf.
29 Amanda Geller et al., Aggressive Policing and the Mental Health of Young Urban Men, 104(12) am. j. PUB. health 2321—2327 (Dec. 2014),
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4232139/pdf/AJPH.2014.302046.pdf.
30 Jasmine Marchbanks—Owens (@ie.confessions), Community Survey, instagRam, https://www.instagram.com/ie.confessions/
(last visited April 13, 2021).
31 Nelson, supra n.6.
32 geoRgetoWn l. ctR. on PoveRty and ineq., Data Snapshot: 2017—2018 National Data on School Discipline by Race and Gender (2020),
https://genderjusticeandopportunity.georgetown.edu/wp—content/uploads/2020/12/National—Data—on—School—Discipline—by—Race—
and—Gender.pdf.
From Enforcement to Education | 51
33 Gabriella Barbosa & Mayra E. Alvarez, Policing and Its Harmful Impacts on Child Wellbeing, the child.’s P’shiP 2, 5 (Nov. 2020),
TCP—Policing & Child Health Ver.1.indd (childrenspartnership.org).
34 Scott Crosse et al., Are Effects of School Resource Officers Moderated by Student Race and Ethnicity?, cRime & delinqUency 1—28 (2021),
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0011128721999346.
35 Whitaker, supra n.8 at 25.
36 Id. at 30
37 Id.
38 Daniel J. Losen et al., Disabling Inequity: The Urgent Need for Race—Conscious Resource Remedies, ctR. foR civ. Rts. Remedies at civ. Rts.
PRoject 6—7 (Mar. 22, 2021), https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k—12—education/special—education/disabling—inequity—
the—urgent—need—for—race—conscious—resource—remedies/Executive—Summary—032221—final.pdf.
39 Id.
40 The Merriam—Webster Dictionary defines white supremacy as the belief that white people are inherently superior to those of all other
races, especially the Black race, and should therefore dominate society. White Supremacy, meRRiam—WeBsteR.com, https://www.merriam—
webster.com/dictionary/white%20supremacy?src=search—dict—hed (last visited April 15, 2021). This belief emerged as part of a larger
white supremacist ideology that justified and rationalized settler colonialism in the Americas, including the genocide of the indigenous
people and the importation of human beings from Africa in bondage. This justifying ideology posited the existence of “races” and the
superiority of the “white race.”
41 Olivia Waxman, How the U.S. Got Its Police Force, time (May 18, 2017), https://time.com/4779112/police—history—origins/.
42 Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery By Another Name: The Re—Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
(Doubleday, 1st ed. 2008); “Convict Leasing,” eqUal jUst. initiative (Nov. 1, 2013), https://eji.org/news/history—racial—injustice—convict—
leasing/#:~:text=After%20the%20Civil%20War%2C%20slavery,and%20often%20deadly%20work%20conditions.
43 Benjamin Madley, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846—1873 (yale Univ. PRess, 2016);
Cutcha Risling Baldy & Kayla Begay, Xo’ch Na:nahsde’tl—te Survivance, Resilience and Unbroken Traditions in Northwest California in
ka’m—t’em: a joURney toWaRd healing (Kishan Lara—Cooper & Walter J. Lara, Sr., gReat oak PRess, 2019); Cutcha Risling Baldy, We Are Dancing
for You: Native Feminisms and the Revitalization of Women’s Coming—of—Age Ceremonies (Univ. of Wash. PRess, 2018); Gold Chains: The
Hidden History of Slavery in California: Bloody Island Massacre, aclU of n. cal. (2019), https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/explore/
bloody—island.html.
44 comm. on laB. and PUB. WelfaRe, Indian Education: A National Tragedy, s. ReP. no. 91—501, at xi (1969) (U.S. Senate Special Subcommittee
on Indian Education) (“We have concluded that our national policies for educating American Indians are a failure of major proportions.
They have not offered Indian children—either in years past or today—an educational opportunity anywhere near equal to that offered the
great bulk of American children. Past generations of lawmakers and administrators have failed the American Indian . . . What concerned
[the Senate subcommittee] most deeply . . . was the low quality of virtually every aspect of the schooling available to Indian children. The
school buildings themselves; the course materials and books; the attitude of teachers and administrative personnel; the accessibility of
school buildings—all these are of shocking quality.”); Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California: Cultural Genocide, aclU
of n. cal. (2019), https://www.aclunc.org/sites/goldchains/explore/indian—boarding—schools.html (describing history of Indian boarding
schools in California).
45 Hallie Golden, ‘It Haunts Your Life’: California’s Legacy of Police Violence Against Native American Women, the gUaRdian (Sept. 20, 2020),
https://www.theguardian.com/us—news/2020/sep/25/california—native—american—women—police—violence?CMP=share_btn_
tw&fbclid=IwAR1NMDwykWsWujwaloXnpOrOVUeRywDnIw9iZ9kiF—I5MSePsSDn8qqbpGw.
46 Native Lives Matter, lakota PeoPle’s l. PRoject 2, 4 (Feb. 2015), https://lakota—prod.s3—us—west—2.amazonaws.com/uploads/Native—Lives
Matter—PDF.pdf; Stephanie Woodard, The Police Killings No One Is Talking About, in these times (Oct. 17, 2016). https://inthesetimes.com/
features/native_american_police_killings_native_lives_matter.html.
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47 Ben Brown, Understanding and Assessing School Police Officers: A Conceptual and Methodological Comment, 34(6) j. of cRim. jUst. 591,
592 (2006), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.09.013. Press, 2011).
48 Donna Murch, The Campus and the Street: Race, Migration, and the Origins of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA, 9(4) SOULS 333,
336—37 (2007), https://doi.org/10.1080/10999940701703794.
49 Louis Sahagun, East L.A., 1968: ‘Walkout!’ The Day High School Students Helped Ignite the Chicago Power Movement, l.a. times (Mar. 1,
2018), https://www.latimes.com/nation/la—na—1968—east—la—walkouts—20180301—htmlstory.html.
50 the ed. Bd., “Criminalizing Children at School,” n.y. times (Apr. 13, 2013),
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/opinion/criminalizing—children—at—school.html.
51 Michelle Mbekeani—Wiley, Handcuffs In Hallways: The State of Policing in Chicago Public Schools, saRgent shRiveR nat’l ctR. on PoveRty L. 4
(Feb. 2017), https://www.povertylaw.org/wp—content/uploads/2019/08/handcuffs—in—hallways—final.pdf.
52 Melissa Diliberti et al., Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools, nat’l ctR. foR edUc. stat. (Jul. 2019),
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019061.pdf.
53 Whitaker, supra n.8
54 Sahar Durali et al., 2020 Annual Report, RiPa Bd. (2020), https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/ripa/ripa—board—report—2020.pdf.
55 oPen jUst., RIPA Stop Data, cal. deP’t of jUst., https://openjustice.doj.ca.gov/exploration/stop—data—k12.
56 Id.; Sahar Durali et al., 2021 Annual Report, RiPa Bd. (2021), https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/ripa/ripa—board—report—2021.
pdf.
57 To enable comparison of arrest and referral rates across schools with and without assigned police, the authors excluded from this analysis
any online schools, homeschools, and schools with specific student populations such as students with disabilities, students with juvenile
justice involvement, or students enrolled in continuation and community day school programs. Continuation education programs “provide[]
a high school diploma that meets the needs of students of ages sixteen to eighteen who have not graduated from high school, are not
exempt from compulsory school attendance, and are deemed at risk of not completing their education.” Continuation Education, cal. deP’t
of edUc. (July 21, 2020), https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/eo/ce/cefcontinuationed.asp. Community day schools are “schools for students who
have been expelled form school or who have had problems with attendance or behavior” and administered by school districts. Community
Day Schools, cal. deP’t of edUc. (Mar. 26, 2020), https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/eo/cd/. A referral to law enforcement is defined by the Office
for Civil Rights as “an action by which a student is reported to any law enforcement agency or official, including a school police unit, for an
incident that occurs on school grounds, during school—related events, or while taking school transportation, regardless of whether official
action is taken. Citations, tickets, court referrals, and school—related arrests are considered referrals to law enforcement.” off. foR civ.
Rts., 2017—18 Civil Rights Data Collection — School Form, U.s. deP’t of edUc. 73, https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/2017—
18—crdc—school—form.pdf.
58 The analysis of arrest and referral rates presented here are for all schools. However, the disparities between schools with and without law
enforcement were robust even when the data were disaggregated by charter status and by grade level served.
59 Nicholas A. Jones & Jungmiwha Bullock, The Two or More Races Population: 2010, U.s. censUs BUReaU 20 (2012),
https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br—13.pdf.
60 comm’n on Peace officeR standaRds and tRaining, Current Employed Full—Time Sworn, Reserve & Dispatcher Personnel (Jan. 4, 2021),
https://post.ca.gov/Data/Sites/1/post_docs/hiring/le—employment—stats.pdf. Previous versions of the report are available at: https://
web.archive.org/web/20100812135519/https://post.ca.gov/Data/Sites/1/post_docs/hiring/le—employment—stats.pdf.
61 oPen jUst., supra n.52 (explaining K—12 stop data); Racial & identity PRofiling advisoRy Bd., Annual Report 2021, cal. deP’t of jUst. 16 (2021),
https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/ripa/ripa—board—report—2021.pdf (listing 15 law enforcement agencies required to report
stop data under RIPA).
62 The highlighted numbers in Tables 4 and 5 represent actions during stops or stop results that were higher for racial groups that were more
common for students in the indicated racial group than for all students stopped in response to calls for service.
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63 We counted a stop as having resulted in a citation if the reporter marked yes to “Result of Stop: Citation” or “Result of Stop: In—field Cite
and Release.”
64 Christy Mallory et al., Discrimination and Harassment by Law Enforcement Officers in the LGBT Community, Williams inst. 1—2 (Mar. 2015),
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp—content/uploads/LGBT—Discrimination—by—Law—Enforcement—Mar—2015.pdf.
65 Michael Males, Stockton, San Bernardino District Officers Have Arrested Over 90,000 Youths, ctR. on jUv. and cRim. jUst. 2 (May 2015),
http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/final_childcrime—stockton_supplement.pdf.
66 ACLU: Over—Policing in Stockton Unified Remains Rampant, with 3,000 Police ‘Incident Reports’ Each Year, aclU n. cal. (June 28, 2016),
https://www.aclunc.org/news/aclu—over—policing—stockton—unified—remains—rampant—3000—police—incident—reports—each—year.
67 ACLU Releases New Data on Stockton Unified’s Pattern of Wrongly Arresting Students, aclU n. cal. (June 6, 2017),
https://www.aclunc.org/news/aclu—releases—new—data—stockton—unified—s—pattern—wrongly—arresting—students.
68 stockton edUc. eqUity coal., Over—Policing in Stockton Schools: A Report Card,
https://www.aclunc.org/sites/default/files/Report_Card_SEEC.pdf.
69 off. of the cal. att’y gen., California Department of Justice, Stockton Unified School District Enter into Agreement to Address
Discriminatory Treatment of Minority Students and Students with Disabilities, cal. deP’t of jUst. (Jan. 22, 2019), https://oag.ca.gov/news/
press—releases/california—department—justice—stockton—unified—school—district—enter—agreement.
70 cal. sch. dashBoaRd, District Performance Overview: Stockton Unified, cal. deP’t of edUc. (2019),
https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/39686760000000/2019.
71 Jason A. Okonofua, et al., When Policy and Psychology Meet: Mitigating the Consequences of Bias in Schools, sci. advances Vol. 6, (Oct. 16,
2020), https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/42/eaba9479.
72 dataqUest, 2012—13 Suspension Rate, Stockton Unified Report, cal. deP’t of edUc.,
https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqCensus/DisSuspRate.aspx?year=2012—13&agglevel=District&cds=3968676.
73 dataqUest, 2018—19 Suspension Rate, Stockton Unified Report, cal. deP’t of edUc.,
https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqCensus/DisSuspRate.aspx?year=2018—19&agglevel=District&cds=3968676.
74 dataqUest, 2018—19 Suspension Rate: State Report, cal. deP’t of edUc., https://data1.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqCensus/DisSuspRate.
aspx?year=2018—19&agglevel=State&cds=00 (showing statewide suspension rate of 3.5% during the 2018—19 school year).
75 dataqUest, 2015—16 Suspension Rate: Stockton Unified Report, cal. deP’t of edUc., https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqCensus/
DisSuspRate.aspx?year=2015—16&agglevel=District&cds=3968676.
76 School Discipline Report Card: Days Lost Per 100 Students, Stockton Unified School District, aclU of cal. edUc. eqUity,
https://public.tableau.com/views/EdJustice/S1?%3Aembed=y&%3Adisplay_count=yes&%3Aorigin=viz_share_
link&%3AshowVizHome=no#2.
77 Data analysis of 2018—2019 California Department of Education data by Tia Martinez (Forward Change) for
Stockton Education Equity Coalition.
78 stockton edUc. eqUity coal., supra n.64.
79 Data analysis of 2018—2019 California Department of Education data by Tia Martinez (Forward Change) for
Stockton Education Equity Coalition.
80 January 2021 Data Analysis by Social Movement Support Lab for the Stockton Education Equity Coalition.
81 stockton edUc. eqUity coal., supra n.64.
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82 Theresa Harrington, How Some California School Districts Deal With Students Absent From Virtual Classrooms, edsoURce (Oct. 16, 2020),
https://edsource.org/2020/how—some—california—school—districts—deal—with—absent—students/641504 (describing Oakland Unified
School District’s efforts to reach out to English Learner students through a translator who visited homes to enroll students and provide
technology, and coordinated with social workers and counselors to find and support missing students).
83 cal. sch. dashBoaRd, supra n.66.
84 College/Career Readiness Calculation, cal. deP’t of edUc., https://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/ac/cm/ccical.asp (listing 8 measures which are
approved as indicating college or career readiness).
85 cal. sch. dashBoaRd, Stockton High: Academic Performance (2019), cal. deP’t of edUc., https://www.caschooldashboard.org/
reports/39686760119784/2019/academic—performance#college—career; cal. sch. dashBoaRd, Jane Frederick High: Academic Performance
(2019), cal. deP’t of edUc., https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/39686763930211/2019/academic—performance#college—career.
86 cal. sch. dashBoaRd, Stockton Unified: Academic Performance (2019), cal. deP’t of edUc.,
https://www.caschooldashboard.org/reports/39686760000000/2019/academic—performance.
87 dataqUest, 2017—18 College—Going Rate for California High School Students, cal. deP’t of edUc.,
https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/DQCensus/CGRLocLevels.aspx?agglevel=District&cds=3968676&year=2017—18 (reflecting that in the
most recent school year for which data is publicly available, the overall Stockton USD college—going rate was 8.1 percentage points less
than the statewide college—going rate; the college—going rate at Stockton High School was 23.4 percentage points less than the statewide
average; and the college—going rate at Jane Frederick High School was 43 percentage points less than the statewide average).
88 The Los Angeles School Police Department is the Largest Independent School Police Department in the United States, l.a. Unified sch.
dist., https://achieve.lausd.net/Page/15609.
89 Sonali Kohli & Howard Blume, For Teen Activists, Defunding School Police Has Been a Decade in the Making, l.a. times (June 15, 2020),
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020—06—15/defund—police—schools—case—security—guards—campus.
90 Id.
91 Id.
92 Kyle Stokes, LAUSD Cuts School Police — A Major Victory for Activists — But Mostly Maintains Status Quo In Its Budget for Now, laist
(July 1, 2020), https://laist.com/2020/07/01/lausd_school_police_defund_budget_cuts_recap.php.
93 Kohli & Blume, supra n.86.
94 Terry Allen et al., Policing our Students: An Analysis of L.A. School Police Department Data (2014—2017), million dollaR hoods (Oct. 2018),
http://milliondollarhoods.org/wp—content/uploads/2018/10/Policing—Our—Students—MDH—Report—Final.pdf.
95 Moreno Valley Unified School District, MVUSD Board Meeting 7/23/20 (Study Session), yoUtUBe, 2:00:00 (Jul. 23, 2020),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34i9CGKtgLs.
96 LCFF Budget Overview for Parents, moReno valley Unified sch. dist. (Jul. 12, 2019),
https://4.files.edl.io/8b63/07/16/19/174715—7f382b37—8ad4—405e—807b—d522c7d83c8f.pdf.
97 Schwebke, supra n.2.
98 MVUSD Board Meeting 7/23/20 (Study Session), supra n.92.
99 Id. at 4:50:00.
100 fRemont sRo Rev. task foRce, SRO Review Task Force Report: Evaluating the Impact of a Permanent Police Presence on Fremont Unified
School District Campuses, fRemont Unified sch. dist. (Oct. 29, 2020), https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cvKgxfUDOl25gKjOfzSJdxw1eCvjvcEY/
view.
101 Gary Sweeten, Who Will Graduate? Disruption of High School Education by Arrest and Court Involvement, 23 Just. Q. 462, 473, 478—79
(Dec.
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2006), https://www.masslegalservices.org/system/files/library/H.S.ed_and_arrest_—_ct_involvement_study_by_Sweeten.pdf.
102 Patricia Soung, et al., WIC 236 ‘Pre—Probation’ Supervision of Youth of Color With No Prior Court or Probation Involvement, Witness la
(2017), https://witnessla.com/wp—content/uploads/2017/05/wic—236.pdf.
103 Sigma Beta Xi v. County of Riverside, Notice of Motion and Motion for Class Certification and Appointment of Class Counsel, aclU of s.
cal. 15 (Sept. 13, 2018), https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/aclu_socal_yat_20180913_motion_class_certification.pdf (“According
to data released by the Probation Department, more than 3,200 of the approximately 9,200 referred to YAT pursuant to Section 601 were
placed on a YAT contract.”).
104 Sigma Beta Xi v. County of Riverside, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, Nominal Damages, aclU of s. cal. (Jul. 1, 2018),
https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/aclu_socal_yat_20180701_complaint.pdf.
105 Sigma Beta Xi v. County of Riverside, Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement About the Rights of Youth Involved in the Riverside
County Youth Accountability Team (‘YAT’) Program, aclU of s. cal., https://www.aclusocal.org/sites/default/files/aclu_socal_
yat_20191009_notice_class_settlement_english.pdf.
106 “School Based Deputy Probation Officer Program,” contRa costa cnty., califoRnia,
https://www.contracosta.ca.gov/731/School—Based—Deputy—Probation—Officer—Pr.
107 The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Transforming Juvenile Probation: A Vision for Getting It Right, 6—8 (2018),
https://www.aecf.org/resources/transforming—juvenile—probation (citing studies demonstrating that surveillance—based juvenile
probation “is not an effective strategy for reversing delinquent behavior” and quoting the Council of State Governments conclusion that
“[r]esearch shows that juvenile justice systems can do more harm than good by actively intervening with youth who are at low risk of
reoffending.”
108 In addition to under—reporting the number of police, the CRDC files appear to contain errors in school type. Correlating the CRDC files
with similar information collected by the California Department of Education for the same school years showed that the CRDC
undercounted the number of schools in juvenile justice facilities, the number of community day schools, and the number of schools
serving special education populations. Despite addressing over 1700 variables, the CRDC files also do not contain crucial information
related to social class, such as the number of students receiving free/reduced price meals.
109 Civil Rights Data Collection Reporting Tool, U.s. deP’t of edUc. (last visited Feb. 13, 2021), https://ocrdata.ed.gov/.
110 l.a. Unified sch. dist., supra n.85.
111 comm’n on Peace officeR standaRds and tRaining, supra n.58.
112 Diliberti, supra n.49.
113 Serious physical injury involves (1) a substantial risk of death; (2) extreme physical pain; (3) protracted and obvious disfigurement; or (4)
protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty.
114 Carolyn Jones, Student Anxiety, Depression Increasing During School Closure, Survey Finds, edsoURce (2020),
https://edsource.org/2020/student—anxiety—depression—increasing—during—school—closures—survey—finds/631224.
115 Carolyn Jones, Why Mental Health Is Key to Dealing With Learning Loss, edsoURce (2021),
https://edsource.org/2021/why—mental—health—is—the—key—to—dealing—with—learning—loss/653087.
116 hUman imPact PaRtneRs, Health and Cultural Wealth: Student Perspectives on Police—Free Schools in Fresno, California (Mar. 2021),
https://humanimpact.org/wp—content/uploads/2021/03/HIP—Health—and—Cultural—Wealth—Student—Perspectives—on—Police—
Free—Schools—in—Fresno—California—March—2021.pdf.
117 Carolyn Jones, ‘No One Is Sure What to Expect: Schools, Colleges Add More Counseling Services to Address Student Mental Health,
edsoURce (2021), https://edsource.org/2021/schools—add—more—counseling—services—but—students—mental—health—impacts—may—
linger—for—years/651272.
118 Transparent California, nevada Pol’y Rsch. inst., https://transparentcalifornia.com/ (last visited Feb. 13, 2021).
119 Project KnuckleHead, Why We Need School Police by Dashaxn [MUSIC VIDEO], yoUtUBe, 2:00:00 (Jul. 25, 2020),
https://youtu.be/HCQNM1eRk3M.
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