In New York, a statewide, multi-racial coalition of about 15 organizations is working together to address the over-policing of schools. This coalition, which was spearheaded by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) and includes groups such as Make the Road New York, a community-based organization that works to achieve justice for low-income New Yorkers using community organizing and strategic policy advocacy, is pushing legislation that would ensure more accountability for school police.
NYCLU and Make the Road New York previously collaborated with two other youth organizations, Future of Tomorrow and Youth on the Move, to produce three short documentaries about students’ experiences with over-policing in public schools. Make the Road hosted community screenings of the films, which helped serve as organizing and advocacy tools and create fervor for additional groups to become involved in this campaign. Ultimately, after five years of administering surveys, gathering petitions, and engaging in other organizing strategies around school safety, Make the Road and its core group of 30 students joined a broader coalition, the School Safety Coalition, to use legislative measures to try and reform school security in public schools. The Coalition proposed legislation, The Student Safety Act, to the City Council in August 2008.
If passed, the Student Safety Act, which was co-sponsored by 24 City Council members, would impose reporting requirements on the state’s Department of Education and New York Police Department. Specifically, data would be collected on the arrests, expulsions, and suspensions of students, disaggregated by race, sex, disability status, and school. It would also create more accountability by bringing approximately 5,000 school safety agents, who are NYPD personnel, under the jurisdiction of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. Overall, the Act would ensure that school security measures are more transparent and would provide a method for accepting and reviewing complaints.
As of mid-November 2008, a hearing on the Act had not yet been scheduled. Make the Road and NYCLU are currently in negotiations with the City Council. In addition, the NYCLU issued an action alert in November 2008, encouraging NYC residents to send letters to City Council and request a hearing be scheduled to vote on the Act.
Make the Road and NYCLU also recently co-authored a study with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform on successful school security models around New York City. Safety with Dignity: Alternatives to the Over-Policing of Schools highlights six public high schools that are engaging in reform and utilizing alternatives to punitive discipline, at a fraction of the cost. The organizations hope that other school officials will find common themes within the profiled schools, learn from these models, and duplicate the schools’ efforts in their own buildings.
Individually, the organizations have projects on a more local level as well. Make the Road is working with its youth at Bushwick High School to create a civilian complaint board at the school. In addition, Make the Road continues to be a part of the Urban Youth Collaborative, a citywide organizing task force dedicated to school reform comprised of five organizations, including Future of Tomorrow, Sistas and Brothas United of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, and Youth On the Move/Mothers On the Move. Meanwhile, NYCLU has created a “know your rights with police in schools” card for students to use at local schools.
Make the Road and NYCLU will continue their work on ending the schoolhouse to jailhouse track using a variety of strategies, examining the issue namely from a school security lens.
Resources:
Proposed Student Safety Reporting Act
NYCLU Action Alert
List of organizations that are part of the School Safety Coalition
NYCLU Know Your Rights
Make the Road and NYCLU films on ending the schoolhouse to jailhouse track
For more information, contact:
Sarah Landes
Youth Organizer
Make the Road NY
301 Grove Street
Brooklyn, NY 11237
T: 718-418-7690
[email protected]
www.maketheroadny.org
Udi Ofer
Advocacy Director
New York Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street
19th Floor
New York, NY 10004
T: 212-607-3342
[email protected]
www.nyclu.org
Chase Madar
Staff Attorney
Make the Road NY
301 Grove Street
Brooklyn, NY 11237
T: 718-418-7690
[email protected]
www.maketheroadny.org
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