VivirLatino

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.

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