This report analyzes 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 them being pushed out of school and into the school-to-prison pipeline. Critically, the data suggest that schools underreport the number of assigned law enforcement officers, so these problems are likely even more severe.
No school in California should have a permanent police officer. 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.
Calls to defund or abolish ICE must go hand-in-hand, because they are both two sides of the same dangerous coin:...
At this moment, a dangerous convergence of two trends threatens democracy. The first is the Trump administration’s aggressive acceleration of...
The purpose of this short guide is to share know-your-rights information for individuals who engage in the First Amendment right...
We showcase existing solutions and new research from the community. Support us by sharing your own resources to our hub.
