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New data show arrests in schools mostly of black, Latino males

New York City police officers arrested or ticketed an average of four students per day in schools over a four-month period this summer and fall.

The statistic comes from New York Police Department data released today under the terms of a new city law that requires the Department of Education and NYPD to disclose information about arrests and suspensions that take place in schools.

A total of 63 arrests – one fifth of them for felonies – were made and 182 summonses issued in city schools over a span of 50 school days between July and September, according to the data, which the New York Civil Liberties Union published on its website. Most of the quarterly reporting period took place during the summer session, when enrollment is just 10 percent of the school-year total. Arrest totals are likely to be much higher when school is in session full time.

More than a third of the students arrested — 22 — were charged with assault, and more than half of summonses issued were for disorderly conduct. Riding a bike on the sidewalk was the second most common reason cited when issuing a summons, which typically requires a student to take time off of school to appear in court.

More than 80 percent of students arrested were male and 44 percent were younger than 16. All but four of the students arrested were black or Latino.

“The data raise concerns about black students being disproportionally arrested in the city’s schools,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

DOE data released earlier this month showed that 83 percent of suspensions last year were issued to black and Hispanic students, who make up about 70 percent of students in the city schools.

Both the suspension and arrest data were released under the terms of the Student Safety Act, a law the City Council passed last year to require transparency about discipline in city schools. Since 1998, NYPD has been authorized to provide law enforcement inside city schools, but the department’s repeatedly refusals to release arrest information to the public led civil rights groups, including the NYCLU, to push for the Student Safety Act.

Earlier this month, the DOE held up its end of the act’s compliance requirements by releasing the suspension data, but the NYCLU accused the NYPD of stonewalling. Today, the group questioned whether the new data represented a complete accounting of arrests since the statistics account only for arrests made by school safety officers and omit arrests made by other police officers who are called in to schools. In addition, the NYPD did not release a required race breakdown for the summonses issued.

Udi Ofer, the NYCLU’s advocacy director, said the new data renewed questions about the city’s approach to student discipline.

“Instead of arresting students who need the most help, the Bloomberg administration should redirect resources from police to services that support student achievement,” Ofer said in a statement. “Why are we employing 5,400 police personnel [in schools] and only 3,000 guidance counselors?”

  • HS Parent

    ..” “Why are we employing 5,400 police personnel [in schools] and only 3,000 guidance counselors?””…

    Are the guidance counselor trained to stop a fight between kids ?  Udi Ofer should spend a day teaching in some HS to get the real picture.

  • http://www.hiphopforenglishteachers.com K. A. Keener

    After watching several of these interactions between school safety police officers and other school safety personnel, I wonder how many of these arrests could be prevented not by different staff, but by training the staff differently.  
    So often I feel that my the conflicts in my school occur because adults expect students to respect authority the way that I respected authority (unquestioningly) as I grew up. This kind of respect for people in charge is not a given from my students.  After all, what have the people in charge done for them…except disappoint them?  
    We need to find new ways of interacting with students that start from a place of trying to earn their respect rather than take it for granted that they will respect us (and then punishing them when they don’t).

  • http://www.ramapoforchildren.org Lisa Tazartes

    Discipline in schools is a complex process that requires strategic planning and constant reflection on the part of educators and all school staff. Most of teachers’ training focuses on the process of learning and neglects critical thinking in the area of classroom management practices, relationship building with students, and collaborating with other members of the school staff to address issues. Moreover, there are processes in place for remediating academic students skills. However, schools rarely respond to behavioral issues as what they are:  indicators of unmet needs and lack of social and emotional skills. Without a focus on professional development in these areas, the culture of discipline in schools will not change.

  • Bearoflittlebrain

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