http://gritpost.com/schools-cops-social-workers/

American Schools Have More Cops Than Social Workers
By: Katelyn Kivel | September 10, 2018

(EDITOR’S NOTE, 9/13/18, 12:29 PM ET: The headline of this article has been changed from “American Schools Now Officially Have More Cops Than Counselors” to “American Schools Have More Cops Than Social Workers.” However, the study does specify that millions of students go to schools that have police but no counselors. Also, a hyperlink at the end of the article was updated to direct to the ACLU/UCLA study.)

Schools are back in session, and youngsters are getting ready to learn. On the curriculum this fall is a first-hand lesson in the criminal justice system, as increasingly detention is being replaced with jail.

In 2012, police arrested a student in Milledgeville, Georgia. The student was crying and flailing in the principal’s office and was inconsolable. The student was charged with battery. The school was Creekside Elementary School. The student was a six-year-old girl in kindergarten.

Local law enforcement chose not to pursue criminal charges in that case.

As school behavior is increasingly the purview of criminal prosecution, fewer counselors and mental health professionals are around to help students, according to findings from a series of studies conducted by UCLA and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The American School Counselor Association recommends one counselor per 250 students, but 60 percent of schools did not meet this standard. Instead, the average is one counselor serving 444 students. But for 1.7 million students, there are no counselors, only cops.

According to the ACLU, schools nationally reported 27,000 sworn law enforcement officers, but only 23,000 social workers. And this has caused the issue of school discipline to change the scope of punishment from detention to prosecution.

The 2018 STOP School Violence Act provided $75 million in funding for school resource officers, the sworn law enforcement officers, but no funding was given to provide social services to schools. That same priority exists on the state level: New Hampshire spent $30 million on beefing up school security but allocated no additional funding for mental health.

Los Angeles spends $67 million a year on a police force for schools alone.

In the ACLU’s At Liberty podcast entitled “Criminalizing Schools” the case of a 14-year old girl charged with assault with a weapon for throwing a baby carrot at another student served as the introduction to the topic. Paper airplanes, hoodies or bandanas, juvenile disagreements and simple infractions against school norms have become criminal, jail-able acts in American schools.

“A lot of the students are ending up in juvenile detention centers, jails if they’re over 18,” said Amir Whitaker, Staff Attorney for ACLU of Southern California. “And we know in the 2015-16 school year, the data shows there are almost 300,000 arrest and referrals reported across the country and that’s a lot.”

The most common charge students face is disorderly conduct, according to Whitaker, but more serious charges aren’t unusual. But of the million cases considered serious offenses, only three percent involved weapons. And “weapons” are broadly defined; far from limited to guns, a “weapon” ranges from baby carrots to staplers.

“if a student has a temper tantrum or bad day, and the school has a police officer instead of a counselor, then, you know, it’s like having a hammer instead of a screwdriver to respond to a screw,” said Whitaker. “I’ve represented students that have had bad days or temper tantrums where they’ve maybe thrown a stapler and have been charged with assault and battery.”

And this extreme discipline has a racial and ablest bias. Black students make up 15 percent of nationwide enrollment but 31 percent of referrals to law enforcement and arrests. There are also increased dangers of arrest for Hispanic, Asian and disabled students. And this has specific and measurable effects on these communities.

A major area of school discipline is “defiance suspensions,” which is the school version of disorderly conduct. It can range from talking faster and seeming defiant to chewing gum to dress code violations. Defiance suspensions can easily be disorderly conduct arrests if school resource officers choose to get involved.

290,000 students were reported arrested in 2015-2016, despite large school districts often failing to report arrests altogether.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, however, is encouraging refocusing teachers away from seeing children as young people with a need for care and toward seeing children as criminals, continuing the trend of replacing counselors with cops by arming teachers with deadly force.

“When you put an army in a place, you’re going to get a war,” said Whitaker.

The ACLU/UCLA data can be viewed here. http://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/race-discipline-and-safety-us-public-schools?redirect=issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/doing-math-devos

kids are living in a much scarier world than we had to ... I feel for them.

arresting children starts them down a terrible path of judgement and dismissal by otherwise 'good' people.

and many parents dont know how to combat it. I thank God for mine. They corrected and disciplined us when we were wrong, but just as passionately stood beside us when we were right. My eldest brother had an older and larger child bully him in school once, come up to his locker and push him, and he came back up with a paddle he had been making in woodshop. The school did nothing to this bully but was going to suspend my brother and had put on his record it was due to 'attack with a weapon'. Most people seeing that word think gun or knife and certainly not a paddle or self defense.

After my folks went to the school and made some very serious promises regarding the consequence of this choice of action, it was cleared up and the 'attack' reference was removed from the record with no suspension.

but many just give in because it is not an easy job and the question of whether to believe the child or the adult can get tricky depending on the specific child and specific adult.

There used to be a stay at home parent to 'counsel' kids, theyre used to be a working parent that enabled that to happen, but things have gotten broken down and turned around, often times to the detriment of the kids.

I think some schools need more cops than counselors. My daughter's school doesn't seem to have any problems but schools closer to ATL need the cops. My ex has to check fire systems in schools. He said classes changed at one of the Douglas county schools while he was there. He said kids were ripping doors off the lockers like animals. Some of these kids are over 6' and weigh more than 200 lbs. Cops, guns, tazers are definitely needed to control the school. They need enough cops that they can fight off gangs.

Milledgeville ga used to be where the nut house is that all the crazy people were sent. Sounds like adults didn't know what to do with a child they couldn't spank or possibly had a mental illness

So your brother walked around school with a " paddle" he was making in wood shop?.
In the schools I went to in NYC.. that is a weapon

In my school what you were making in wood shop . Stayed in wood shop ...like chairs. Tables..
They didn't let us make weapons to walk around with

Well, you werent at my brother's school. (or mine, as we also didnt have to leave our finished projects in class)


No. My brother was COMING from a woodshop class where this boy had, in front of a teacher and students, COME into and threatened him. and he was getting something from his locker when this older boy decided to try to come make good on the threat.

In the schools we went to, table tennis was a popular hobby/sport that many kids participated in. We had a table at home and by brothers played often, so yes, he was making a paddle.



Like I said 'weapon' is a word loosely applied and which reads worse for some than others.

Ha, ha, ha; thanks for clearing up on the 'paddle'. Used to play TT

As in real world, root cause is swept away. It's like the case of the thief who first complains to the police that somebody stole his watch. When the victim comes around - he gets the 3rd degree.

On a more serious note, while in Europe and in the East (India, China, Japan, S. Korea) there is considerable effort to improve the quality in the public schools; (inter-active teaching) things appear to be going downhill in US.

Chilling to read - what Americans have to say on reasons for not wearing school uniforms. In India, we consider uniforms as the great leveler.

https://www.quora.com/Why-dont-American-students-wear-uniforms

Schools interest me because I sometimes visit them as guest speaker, presenting importance of empirical reasoning and so on.

I enjoy the option for uniforms to 'level' things as well. But I think in the current climate, there is a deep struggle between the ideas of 'personal freedoms' and 'order'.

Children want to go to school to not only learn but be able to 'express' their individuality while they find themselves. Some feel it should be social and educational preparation by allowing kids more individuality, others feel it should be competitive preparation by expecting more respect for 'rules' and accomodating boundaries.

I understand both sides, but my personal preference is a balance that does not involve competing for fashion sense.

There should be trained security guards with guns in Every school
They should also have metal detectors in every school. Way overdue in public school especially. Make cuts with Administration and give the money to securing schools and Paying Teachers more money.
Small schools should have at least two guards. Larger schools should have
Four or five guards.

Couselors are needed but secondary to Securing schools.

Washington officials needs to Enforce Rules to this effort ASAP.

Well, thank God he had that " paddle" handy

When a tard shoots someone for a pair of Converse
sneakers, the tard belongs in prison. Not in counseling.

Yes. thank God my brother happened to enjoy table tennis and dislike wood class enough to make such a simple wood design. And thank God he had parents that had the education to know their rights and could shut down the discriminatory consequence.

Yes. thank God my brother happened to enjoy table tennis and dislike wood class enough to make such a simple wood design. And thank God he had parents that had the education to know their rights and could shut down the discriminatory consequence.

i do see it as a sign of the times
when i was in school we had all kinds of trucks and cars parked outside that had shot guns in the back windows and hand guns in the glove
and yes there where times people would fight , but we had enough seance not to pull a gun on someone unless it was needed (ie , ya getting robbed) but that was really unheard of

i don't wish death on no one , cause there ain't no commen back from that (2 pac)

but
back then you had parents trying to teach the kids as well as the mentality rate was a lot different

not really sure cops are not the way to go as they have the habit of fearing for there life from a 3 year old or a 70 year old laying on the ground and shooting them : (

with that being said , not all cops are like that (but a lot get that god complex)i still remember that test they did (think it was Harvard) where they took i think it was like 12 kids , made some jailers and the others prisoner's and watched the kids change because of it (the jailers before the end where beating on the other kids)

but the one's i see in the news when this happens get a paid vacation and a slap on the wrist (no accountability).... its just sad
and i wouldn't want to put any human through that

i just worry there will be more of this
http://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xvzwp/baltimore-cops-carried-toy-guns-to-plant-on-people-they-shot-trial-reveals-vgtrn
Baltimore Cops Carried Toy Guns to Plant on People They Shot, Trial Reveals

I was from a small high school. After I graduated, I'd go and visit a couple of teachers I liked and I could open any door in the school. I went anywhere I wanted.

Rock, I agree. Like in the old Baretta theme: "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time."

Unfortunately, the problem of prison is that now the already-overloaded taxpayer is footing the bill for the perp's three squares a day, clothing, and his accommodations.

Here in the Northeast,nobody wants a new prison built in their town either. "NIMBY" mentality.

A lot of State mental homes got shut down here, because the State was sick of paying for the room and board of those folks.

So the kid who stole a set of Cons from another (leaving the gun out for a second) goes away. Where? Do we stack them up like cordwood in the existing prisons?

OK, he uses a gun. If it is murder, he definitely goes away anyway. If it is an illegal gun, he goes away in MA. If he is a tard, the Social Workers should have already filed had the paperwork on him so a background check would keep him from being able to get a gun.

OK, so no State mental home to put him in, prisons are full (besides, the state budget can't afford to have him in there anyway).

Probably the best bet IS for more cops at the schools, with orders to shoot perps to kill, sort of a "Final Solution"... (an aside, but Christopher Browning's book "Ordinary Men" has to deal with another "Final Solution")

The only problem to THIS is that we have to pay the COPS (hey, new jobs!), and they are going to get pretty messed up after a while, doing what they need to do. Parents are going to be pissed off. Oh, and though I never shot a kid for a pair of kicks, I did some stupid stuff as a kid that would have got ME $.07 of quick-moving lead too.

I really don't know what the solution IS, but the simple stuff has been thought through already.