VivirLatino

Don't Say I didn't Warn You : NYPD Arresting Children in School

11:00 H | Topics: Children - Crime - Education - Justice - New York City - Race

Years ago, when the then NYC Board of Education School Safety Division was swallowed by the New York City Police Department, I, working in coalition with other activists, warned that this would step up the criminalization of young people, especially students of color. Since then, it's been one I told you so moment after another, with children being illegally searched and arrested for "acting out" in class.

New York State law prohibits children younger than 16 from being arrested for minor, non-criminal violations like loitering. If a child commits a minor infraction at school, he may be disciplined, but the Family Court Act prohibits police from arresting the child. But according to NYPD data obtained in a Freedom of Information Law request, between 2005 and 2007, approximately 300 New York City public school students were illegally arrested in or on school grounds for non-criminal violations. And when the children were arrested, they were handcuffed, forcibly removed from school and taken to police precincts.

My older daughter is a NYC public school student. According to the ACLU, who released the information, my 11 year old's school system has more than 5,000 school safety agents and at least 200 armed police. This is a force larger than all but four of the nation’s police departments.

“There are more police personnel patrolling our school hallways than are patrolling the streets of Detroit, Boston or Washington, DC,” [Donna head of ACLU] Lieberman said. “Our children are being pushed from school directly into the criminal justice system.”

Make no mistake. This is the new tracking. This is how children of color get pushed onto the prison industrial track. This is why some of the jails in the South Bronx are better equipped than the schools.

Related

• Shakira (and The New Yorker) Endorse Obama (Monday, Oct 06 2008)
• VL Follow Up : NYPD Officer Involved in Taser Death Commits Suicide (Thursday, Oct 02 2008)