Yes to Care, No to Police in Schools

The conversation about bringing Student Resource Officers from the Portland Police Bureau back into schools in our city has resurfaced yet again in light of a recent surge of gun violence near several local high schools. The Portland Police, with Mayor Ted Wheeler as police commissioner, and Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero have vowed to collaborate to “combat the increased gun violence.” SROs, we are told, would be just one component of the collaborative effort. The police bureau has already promised to step up patrols near high schools where the recent shootings have taken place, and the Superintendent has said additional cameras have been placed near the impacted schools.

Grassroots organizations, including Don’t Shoot PDX and Portland Parent Union, who represent some of the most impacted communities, have organized to oppose police presence in schools for years because armed officers have an adverse effect on students of color, students from poverty, and students with disabilities, and have not been found effective in stopping or preventing school shootings. 

SROs in schools have been found to:
  • significantly increase the rate of arrests for low-income students and students of color
  • criminalize common adolescent behaviors
  • disproportionately target BIPOC students and thus entangling them irreparably in the criminal justice system in a process often referred to as the school-to-prison pipeline
  • subject students to excessive criminal punishment for minor offenses such as disruption, truancy, bullying, vandalism "that produce serious racial discrepancies in mere academic punishment"
  • with their presence--when funded through a federal grant--decrease high school graduation and college enrollment rates for African American boys
  • pose an excessive force danger to students 
Just last October, an SRO in the neighboring Reynolds district reacted violently when a school fight broke out, slamming a student to the ground, pressing his knees against her chest, and nearly suffocating her. The students organized to demand the removal of the officer.

Nearby Gresham High School students have also advocated against SROs, saying that they "felt targeted, harassed, intimidated, discriminated against and profiled by the school resource officer."

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of California has shared the following concerning findings about the presence of police in schools: 
  • ​Students are often taken into custody without warrants and without an adult present;
  • Police often fail to inform students of their rights, and students are questioned by police and arrested without prior notification of parents, guardians, or even school officials;
  • Students of color are more likely than their white counterparts to be arrested for minor violations of rules or policies;
  • Arrests and incarceration increase students' odds of dropping out of school;
  • Students with disabilities are three times as likely as students without disabilities to be arrested;
  • The arrest rate in schools where more than 80% of students are low-income is seven times the arrest rate of schools where fewer than 20% of students are low-income.
The ACLU of California concludes: "We firmly (believe) that school districts and law enforcement agencies should never permanently assign police officers to school campuses. These officers are not sufficiently trained to deal with the needs of young people overall and disabled students in particular."

In their listening sessions with the PPS School Board in 2018, the majority of the city’s students of color opposed SROs, stating that their presence caused them stress. At the time, SROs staffing the nine PPS high schools were on the city's payroll. Many young people shared that funding mental health resources would be a wiser choice. 

In an article entitled, "Students Cheer Schools' Decision to Cut Ties with Police Agencies," Metro News reported:

"In 2018, as a component of a broader revision of the district and policy and conduct [sic] related to rule enforcement and student discipline, school board members visited each high school and heard testimony from approximately 600 students regarding the officers’ efficacy.

'Student response to the SROs was not unanimous, (but) there were huge differences based on race and ethnicity,' said board member Rita Moore. 'The overwhelming majority of students of color indicated that having the SROs in the building made them very uncomfortable. There was a really clear message from students that the existing system with the SROs was not working for them.'"

In December of 2018, PPS School Board signed a resolution agreeing to PPS taking over the funding of the SROs, but after push back from students and the community, the School Board rescinded its decision, suspending the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between PPS and the Portland Police Bureau.

Finally, in June 2020, under pressure, Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero announced at the height of the Portland Black Lives Matter protests following the murder of George Floyd by police that the district is “discontinuing the regular presence of school resource officers,” and the program was disbanded.
 
As The Oregonian reported, the district did not pay for the police officers, "but promised to increase spending on social workers, counselors and culturally specific supports for students."

In 2023, the teachers’ union, Portland Association of Teachers, is still asking and waiting for adequate staffing to support students’ mental health and social-emotional needs.

Unfortunately, across the nation, many districts that removed armed officers from their campuses in 2020 and 2021 have since bought them back. It is not too late to demand PPS invests in an alternative to this trend.

At the 9th annual “Reclaim the Dream March” in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day last Monday, January 16th, which was organized by Don't Shoot PDX with support from Portland Association of Teachers (PAT), the educators' union voiced its opposition to SROs in schools. In an interview with KATU News, PAT's Vice President Jacque Dixon made the case that research shows that armed officers' presence on campus "doesn't necessarily make the schools safer." It can actually "create anxiety and stress for some students." In her speech at the march, PAT President Angela Bonilla asserted that "we don't need more weapons or more violence to end violence." Bonilla said what is needed is more funding, collaboration with community groups, and justice as "love in a public space."

Calling in White Women

Many of those urging PPS to reinstate SROs are white women. Those of us who are white women have been conditioned to channel our ingrained and often subconscious fear of men of color (with whom urban gun violence is commonly thought to be associated) into advocacy for swift authoritarian measures. The trope of a “superpredator,” a term popularized in the 1990s to denote a destructive stereotype of a violent inner city youth of color, is still with us. Its evocation, even when indirect, leads to–in fact is often conjured up as a justification for–increased profiling, surveillance and criminalization of BIPOC youth.

As white women, we need to recognize and disrupt our racist conditioning. We must listen to and support the most impacted communities, not be driven by fears arising from historically shaped racist conditioning. Our desire to squelch those fears by activating law enforcement as a quick fix can have deadly consequences. It is time to disengage from the predictability of fear-driven patterns. Instead, the emphasis should be on implementing proven collective solutions aimed at reducing harm and violence such as: 
  • Focusing on building strong, positive relationships between students and school staff
  • Investing in restorative justice specialists and training for students and staff
  • Funding counselors, psychologists and social workers
  • Hiring community intervention workers to work in schools
  • Partnering students with culturally responsive mentors
  • Training peer mentors to de-escalate conflict
  • Establishing paid apprenticeship and internship programs that give youth opportunities to earn a living wage and lead to rewarding careers
  • Offering youth creative and educational programs that build community, tap into students interests, and develop students’ skills
SROs and increased surveillance by police ultimately harm students of color and students with disabilities. We must say no to armed police in schools, and instead implement other creative ways to prevent violence and ensure schools are safe places for all students.

Further reading: 

- American Civil Liberties Union's Counselors Not Cops Report
- Article about a parallel movement opposing police in schools happening in Seattle







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