Dear Members of the Jamesville-Dewitt School Board,
Thank you for seeking the input of the Jamesville-Dewitt Equity Council as you explore the issue of school safety. As a diverse group of parents, students, educators and community members, we share your commitment and concerns for keeping children in our school buildings safer. We also share a commitment to equity and have carefully explored the important, nuanced and delicate places where safety and equity intersect. The recommendations we share below include our brief insights on the most pressing questions regarding an increase in student resource officers (SROs)/ police presence in our buildings, but also include suggestions to enhance safety and school culture.
1. The Jamesville-Dewitt Equity Council supports a police-free approach to school safety.
Schools create safety by nurturing a culture that prioritizes relationships, respect, dignity and learning. The presence of law enforcement in schools contradicts the compassionate and nurturing conditions necessary to maintain a safe and positive climate. Safety does not exist when students who have been historically marginalized are forced to interact with a system of policing that disproportionately creates harm for them. Schools across the country (1) as well as comparable schools in New York State have remained police-free despite the growing trend. Police are a last resort. Police-free schools should be seriously considered because:
1a. There is no reliable research demonstrating that SROs keep schools safe.
- According to the Congressional Research Service, despite the popularity of SRO programs, there are few available studies that have reliably evaluated their effectiveness. Typically, studies that report positive results from SRO programs rely on participants’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the program rather than on objective evidence. One study of the School Survey on Crime and Safety data found that for no type of crime was an increase in the presence of police in schools significantly related to decreased crime rates. (2)
- In 2020-2021 the District convened an SRO Task Force composed of district and community stakeholders. After months of research and deliberation, that group was unable to identify reliable research demonstrating that SROs keep schools safe.
- While a police presence may provide the “appearance” to some that the school building is safer, there is no data suggesting that an SRO presence reduces the threat or impact of a school shooting incident.
1b. The existing J-D Student Resource Officer (SRO) program should be
thoroughly evaluated and remedied prior to any consideration for expansion.
- The current J-D SRO program was initially established without legally required stakeholder input or disclosure of the SRO Memorandum of Understanding between the District and the Town of Dewitt Police Department. Under pressure from district stakeholders, the District convened the J-D SRO Task Force in Fall 2020 through early 2021, to research and come to consensus recommendations on the future of the role. Consensus could not be reached. At least 10 members of the Task Force opposed the presence of an SRO in our high school due to the lack of evidence that SRO’s are effective in preventing violence, the implementation of alternative effective measures, like classroom door locks, and negative impact on students of color and the record of violations of the law that forbids SRO’s to participate in school discipline. Students of color shared significant discomfort with the SRO role. Their concerns were not prioritized in the decision-making process. The MOU was revised in spring 2021 and disclosed in the District Safety Plan, which was subject to a public forum and a 30-day public comment period.
- Students and adults who were not included among the seven interviewed students referenced during the 12/19/22 Board of Education meeting have expressed concerns about interactions with the SRO that may fall outside the MOU requirements.
1c. Students of color and students with special needs are impacted at a higher rate by law enforcement in schools.
- Aggressive security measures can produce alienation and mistrust among students, which disrupts the learning environment and creates an adversarial relationship between school officials and students.
- We know that the mere presence of police in schools serves to reinforce and accelerate the school-to-prison pipeline, and this is borne out by the national data. The data confirms the disproportionate impact of school policing on students of color and students with disabilities that we have seen revealed in data set after data set. Nationally, Black students represented only 15 percent of the total student enrollment but accounted for 29 percent of all students referred to law enforcement. Students served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) represented 13 percent of all students but were 27 percent of students referred to law enforcement in 2017-18. (3)
- The data provided in several recent district reports demonstrates consistent
disproportionality in discipline and achievement for students of color and students with special needs. J-D data and national data show that increasing policing in our schools will only magnify the inequities already present in our district.
1d. The Town of Dewitt Police Department is responsible to effectively respond to the safety needs of our community. This includes keeping our schools safe.
- Perceptions of ineffective response time should be pursued with the Department. Problem solving to shorten response time and effectiveness should start there. Jamesville-Dewitt taxpayers fund public safety through our police department. Taxpayers fund the education of our students through our school district. Funding should not be diverted from education toward services already provided for by residents.
2. The Jamesville-Dewitt Equity Council supports investing in positive safety and climate measures.
Supportive and trusting school environments are the strongest way to prevent school violence. Researchers across the country, including the Consortium on Chicago School Research, have found that relationships between students, parents, and staff are more important in making a school safe than increased security measures. Improving the school climate and increasing positive safety measures can be done when we:
2a. Invest in a supportive school environment.
- Building a cohesive and supportive school environment is key to preventing school shootings and traumatic events like other types of mass shootings. In this environment:
- Students feel safe to talk to each other and to staff
- There is mutual trust and respect among students and school staff
- There is on-going dialogue and relationships with family and community
members that interact with the school. - There are adequate support, training and resources for school staff
- Employ staff trained to ensure safe and positive school climates such as:
community intervention workers, peace-builders, transformative or restorative justice coordinators, behavior interventionists, school aides, counselors and other support staff.
2b. Control access to school buildings.
- Most experts, including members of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission and the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, agree that the ability to control access should be a component of any school security plan.(4)
- Ensure that all our school building doors lock from the interior. Experts have indicated that people do not die in mass shootings if they are behind locked doors.
- Maintain single point of entry protocols and invest in security that can monitor perimeter cameras during school and peak after school hours.
2c. Hire mental health staff with expertise in trauma and threat assessment.
- Experts have indicated that threat assessment is vital and can be done by skilled mental health professionals.
- When it comes to school shootings, there are nearly always advance indications. These warning signs, if appropriately identified, can offer an opportunity for intervention. The Secret Service study of incidents from 2008 to 2017 found that 100 percent of the perpetrators showed concerning behaviors, and that 77 percent of the time at least one person, most often a peer, knew about their plan.(5)
These data suggest that fostering a trusting and emotionally safe school
climate—where students are willing to both ask adults for help and to report any destructive thoughts and behaviors, such as gun threats on social media or weapons carrying—can be effective tools for prevention. Taking immediate action on those warning signs is essential.
2d. Ensure that police officers are only called into schools as an instrument of last resort.
- This can be achieved through policies and interagency agreements that eliminate the regular presence of police officers on campus and place limits on requests for police assistance.
The Jamesville-Dewitt Equity Council supports a police-free approach to school safety and investing in positive safety and climate measures. The preliminary support for these recommendations has been provided in this letter, but we encourage further research, data-collection and discussions before such important decisions are made. We appreciate your consideration and the commitment you have made to the children, families and staff of this district.
Sincerely,
The Jamesville-Dewitt Equity Council
1 Maya Riser-Kositsky & Stephen Sawchuk, Which Districts Have Cut School Policing Programs?, EDUCATION WEEK (June 4, 2021), https://www.edweek.org/leadership/which-districts-have-cut-school-policingprograms/2021/06.
2 Congressional Research Service (2013) School Resource Officers: Law Enforcement Officers in Schools. Available at: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43126.pdf
3 An Overview of Exclusionary Discipline Practices in Public Schools for the 2017-18 School Year, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection,
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-exclusionary-school-discipline.pdf.
4 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, “Initial Report,” 42; Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, “Final Report of the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission: Presented to Governor Dannel P. Malloy, State of Connecticut,” March 6, 2015, https://bit.ly/1C5aeU3.
5 National Threat Assessment Center, “Protecting America’s Schools.”