Opinion: School-safety debate swinging in favor of campus police |
Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of the civil rights organization Advancement Project National Office, looks at how the conversation on the role of police in schools has changed in the 13 months since the murder of George Floyd. The decades-long argument for police-free schools, of which Ms Browne Dianis is an advocate for, has seen numerous districts across the nation, including in Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Phoenix, and Portland, severe ties with local police. She goes on to note that "the pendulum seems to be shifting back to business as usual," with federal funding allowing schools to monitor students through anonymous reporting systems, social-media surveillance, and threat-assessment teams that coordinate with law enforcement. Not long after cutting ties with the Minneapolis police department, the city’s school board employed tools to digitally surveil their students, and has hired “school safety specialists” to provide security as a “bridge” between in-school interventions and law enforcement. Ms Browne Dianis describes these as "dangerous and unproven practices" that disproportionately criminalize Black and brown students.