Since the state sponsored murder of George Floyd, hundreds of thousands of people across the country have taken to the streets to protest police and state violence against the black community. Those protesting are calling for change, real change that will finally bring an end to the American apartheid that has brought unfathomable pain and suffering. Black lives matter, and until that statement is a lived reality and the color of one’s skin is no longer treated like a crime, we cannot stop fighting. We stand in solidarity with the black community and other communities of color in mourning, and in the work for real change that will put an end to state sponsored violence and systemic oppression of people of color.
Children are among those who have lost their lives at the hands of the police. Cornelius Frederick, Andre Green, Kwame Jones, Tyre King, Jayson Negron and Tamir Rice are just a few, and we must say and remember their names. For every child that has been taken from their family at the hands of the police, there are countless more who experience violence and oppression at the hands of those that are supposed to protect and care for them, whose stories never makes the headlines. Police violence does not happen in a vacuum, racial inequity and injustice is deeply embedded in American society, and change is required not just in our criminal justice system but across all levels of our community, including in schools.
Since the school police were first introduced to school buildings in Flint, Michigan in 1953, the practice of putting law enforcement in schools has spread. Today, 42 percent of schools have school police, and approximately 90 percent of them regularly carry a firearm. The presence of law enforcement officers in schools creates an environment of anxiety and distrust rather than one of nurturing and support. Predominately black schools are much more likely to have an armed police presence and black students everywhere are much more likely to be subjected to arrests and restraints. In the 2015-2016 school year, black students constituted only 15 percent of the student body nationwide, but were the subject of 31 percent of law enforcement referrals.
In Massachusetts unequal treatment at the hands of school police is even worse, with black students making up only 9 percent of the student body, but 40 percent of the students who were mechanically restrained, e.g. handcuffed, in school were black. In Boston a recent report found that black students made up one third of the student body but two thirds of arrests. Black students are far too often treated as threats and not children, their voices ignored and pain dismissed as they are kicked out of their school building, physically restrained and arrested.
Racial inequity is also pervasive in our special education system. Black students are under-identified for special education, never receiving much needed educational services and abandoned to fall further and further behind their peers. When identified for special education services, black students are disproportionately segregated from their peers. In many cases they are moved to classrooms for students with emotional disabilities where they are housed rather than educated. In Massachusetts, schools meant to serve students with learning and emotional disabilities consistently have some of the highest rates of arrest.
Injustice in our schools means injustice everywhere, and we must put an end to the system that says that black children don’t matter. Here are some steps you can take to fight for equity in schools:
- Educate yourself about racial inequities in our public school systems. Some resources to get you started:
- We Came to Learn: A Call to Action for Police Free Schools
- Arrested Futures: The Criminalization of School Discipline in Massachusetts’ Three Largest School Districts.
- Colorlines: Race, Disability and the School to Prison Pipeline
- Beyond Suspension: Examining School Discipline Policies and Connections to the School-to Prison Pipeline for Students of Color with Disabilities.
- Call your state and local legislators and advocate for systemic and policy changes in our schools such as:
- Removal of all school resource officers (i.e. school police) from our schools.
- Moratorium on all out of school suspensions, which are disproportionally imposed on black students and student of color.
- Hiring of more teachers and administrators of color.
- Implementation of whole school restorative justice so that school can be a space for learning and growth not punishment and control.
- Greater funding for school counselors.
- Universal early evaluations for dyslexia of all students so that all students receive the services they need to learn and thrive when they are young and learning basic reading skills.
- Implicit bias training in schools.
Our mission at the Youth Advocacy Foundation (YAF) is to end the school-to-prison pipeline in Massachusetts by ensuring that our state's most vulnerable children receive a quality education. Today, we reaffirm our commitment to anti-racism work in every element of what we do, from examining our own biases in our organizational structure and makeup, to our work for systemic reform that will end racial injustice and advance educational equity, we will work at every level to end racial injustice and inequality.
No lives matter until black lives matter.
