Police, school discipline a dangerous combination
Kaia was 6 years old when she was arrested at her school in Orlando and put in the back of a police car. Yes, you read that right — she was 6. And why did Kaia end up in handcuffs? Because she had a tantrum (brought on by her sleep apnea) and kicked a school staffer who was grabbing her wrists in an effort to calm her down.
The charges against Kaia were dropped, but the trauma she experienced will stay with her forever. And as if this story couldn’t get any more infuriating, she was just one of two 6-yearolds arrested at her school that day.
While shocking, this is far from an isolated incident. Every year in this country, tens of thousands of students are subject to harsh, exclusionary disciplinary tactics, including suspension, expulsion, corporal punishment, seclusion, restraint and school-based arrest — often for behaviors as simple as talking back to a teacher.
This is especially true for Black, Latino and LGBTQ+ students, those from low-income backgrounds and students with disabilities. Black students, for example, are nearly four times as likely to be suspended and three times as likely to be arrested at school than their white peers. Unfortunately, students of color (including Kaia) are treated differently when engaging in the exact same behaviors as white students.
And do heavy-handed measures change student behavior for the better? Not at all. These disciplinary practices stigmatize
students, lower academic achievement and increase school pushout and the likelihood of future dropouts and involvement in the criminal justice system.
Take one example from our own state, where a student from Hartford who was diagnosed with an “emotional disturbance” was expelled twice and suspended over 24 times. Rather than invest in her social and emotional development through counseling, the student was pushed out of her school and sent to an alternative program where she received limited instruction and support.
Our number one priority should be making students feel safe and supported — and how schools reduce conflict and build cultures of trust and respect is essential to this work. That’s why I’ve been working on comprehensive reforms that end harmful practices and give schools the resources they need to lift up students who are struggling.
First, I’m reintroducing legislation to limit the use of seclusion and restraint in schools, which isolate students and disproportionately impact children with disabilities. Between 2017 and 2018 alone, roughly 100,000 students endured these outdated, disturbing tactics. I’ve heard too many stories of disabled students being tied to a chair or thrown into a room alone to “scream it out.” I refuse to sit by and let this continue.
And I’m also working to ban corporal punishment in school at the federal level. How on earth is it still legal to paddle or spank a student in 19 states? Connecticut banned these archaic practices decades ago; it’s far past time for the entire country to follow suit.
Second, our current system leads to the arrest and criminalization of far too many students, and we need to take a serious look at the consequences of putting police in our schools. I get that this is an emotional issue. As a parent of two school-age kids, nothing matters more to me than my children’s safety. I also know that there are many professional, kind police officers who serve our schools well.
The problem is that white students’ experience with police in schools is very different from that of Black and Latino students. In our state, Latino students are six times more likely to get arrested if they go to a school with a police officer. Black and Latino students make up more than 65% of all student arrests in Connecticut.
School Resource Officers, or SROs, often end up arresting and charging students with misdemeanors for typical misbehavior — and this “school-to-prison pipeline” starts young. Every year 50,000 preschoolers are suspended from their classrooms. Instead of giving kids the basic skills they need to learn to manage their emotions, we’re putting them on a path that too often ends in the justice system. Children who are suspended in preschool are more likely to drop out of high school and more likely to be involved in the criminal justice system.
To make matters worse, our schools don’t have enough (or sometimes any) counselors and social workers to help struggling students. In Connecticut, there’s an average of just one counselor per 326 students. And nationally, nearly 2 million students go to schools with police but no counselors —— and another 6 million children attend schools with police but no school psychologist. Our priorities are out of whack.
That’s why, instead of continuing to spend federal funds on SROs, I’m proposing we use that money to hire more counselors, psychologists, social workers and other mental health providers in our schools. But let’s be clear: my bill does not stop a school from having police officers (that’s still a local decision). And it doesn’t prevent federal funding from being used to hire non-police security personnel. Many schools do need security officers — I just don’t think they should have the power to arrest or discipline students.
At the same time, I’m introducing legislation to give districts the resources they need to rethink their discipline policies and implement alternatives that better serve our kids. This money will go toward professional development for educators, recruiting a diverse workforce, and helping educators meet students’ social, emotional, behavioral and mental health needs.
All of this is deeply personal. I don’t want my kids to be isolated or restrained at school. I don’t want my kids to grow up in a country that still allows some teachers to spank or paddle students. And I shudder to think about one of my boys getting arrested because an SRO gets involved in a school incident.
But frankly, my children aren’t likely to face any of these horrors because they are white and non-disabled. That injustice pains me most.
We need to stop treating our kids like they are criminals. And we need to stop pushing kids out of the classroom. School discipline that excludes students should only be used when the safety of the school is truly at risk. I hope every single parent will join me in backing common sense reforms to end outdated school discipline measures and send additional resources to help educators better support students. Let’s make 2021 the year we get this done.