It’s common for school districts to assign a couple of armed officers to schools in response to threats of violence on school grounds. But recent research suggests that doing so may have adverse effects on—and pose a threat—to students, particularly those who are Black and Latine.
Announcement Project, a multiracial civil rights organization, presents its findings in a new report based on an analysis of 285 police assaults between 2011 and 2021.
“This analysis dramatically illustrates how school policing places students, especially Black students, at a significant risk of criminalization and assault, as evidenced by the heartbreaking, far-too-frequent videos of school police officers using physical force on children,” the report reads.
The data also suggests:
- Just over 3% of all reported assaults within this time frame were against white students. Comparably, 84.4% of assaults made by police were against Black students and 11% against Latine students.
- Boys were much more likely to fall victim (63.1%) than girls (36.9%).
- Narrowing the scope a bit, in cases where gender was taken into consideration, Black males represented over half of all assaults (56.9%) compared to Black females at 30.7%.
- In terms of age, the vast majority of students assaulted within school walls were between the ages of 13 and 17. There were 10 instances where police violence occurred against a student between 4 and 8 years old.
- Over a quarter of assaults were made against students with disabilities (14.8%) or reported mental health concerns (13.7%).
Most intriguingly, the report also indicates that police assault against students has increased over the past decade.
- 2011-2014: Averaged 10 assaults per year.
- 2014-15: There were 23 assaults that academic year.
- 2015-2020: Averaged 33.4 police assaults per year, suggesting one assault against a student every week.
- Fall 2021: In the first half of the school year, there were 20 cases of police assault. Based on a nine-month projection, that would result in an estimated 45 assaults for the entire school year.
“These findings suggest that the rate of police assaults has not diminished, and may even have increased, since students have returned to school following COVID pandemic school closures,” the report reads.
By far, the most common type of police assault on a student included various forms of force.
“For example, in a single incident, a school resource officer threw items at the student, pushed the student against a whiteboard, slammed the student on desks, threw the student to the ground, and shoved his knee into the student’s neck,” reads one report of police assault.
Here are some details of the police force used over the past decade:
- Among the 285 cases, five students died. Three of them were killed by gunshot.
- Sexual assault was the fourth most common use of force by school police on students, occurring in 8.4% of cases.
- Some other forms include:
- Tasing: 23.9%
- Pepper spray: 10.2%
- Student being slammed against the floor or wall: 5.3%
- Choking, or placing knee against the neck: 2.4%
- Punching or beating a student: 2.4%
“School policing, and the associated assaults on children, can cause physical, emotional, and psychological harm that is potentially irreparable,” the report reads. “Even students who are not arrested or assaulted are harmed by the stress and trauma created by attending schools where they observe assaults and misconduct and therefore may fear for their safety.”
