This year the NYCLU, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and Make the Road New York released “Safety with Dignity: Alternatives to Over-Policing Schools,” a year-long study tracking the progress of six schools across the city using alternative disciplinary methods: Progress High School for Professional Careers (Brooklyn), Urban Assembly for Careers in Sports (Bronx), Humanities Preparatory Academy, Urban Academy, Vanguard School (Manhattan), and Lehman High School (Bronx).
“Safety with Dignity” aims to show the Department of Education that students can perform better when they aren’t treated like criminals: in contrast to the harsh, zero tolerance policy of many “at-risk” public schools, students in participating schools don’t need to walk through metal detectors to get into school. When a rule is broken students participate in “conflict-resolution programs,” or “fairness committees” to address problems. School Safety Agents don’t discipline students for non-criminal incidents, like being tardy or not taking off your hat.
These six schools that don’t use metal detectors or zero tolerance policy have higher graduation rates, higher attendance, and lower rates of criminal and non-criminal incidents than “Impact Schools” (which actually have armed guards) and schools with metal detectors.
As of a decade ago, the NYPD took control of security in New York City public schools—since 1998, the number of police personnel in public schools has risen from 3,200 to 5,200. This means the officer-to-student ratio here is higher than the officer-to-citizen ratio in most major US cities. There are more police personnel in New York City schools than there are on the streets of Baltimore, Las Vegas, Boston and Washington DC, according to the NYCLU. “It makes me feel like my only purpose is to go to jail,” said High School student Luis Mendoza in the NYCLU/Make the Road New York video, Schoolhouse to Jailhouse.
The NYCLU is working to encourage the Department of Education to reduce the number of SSAs in public schools, give back disciplinary authority to school administrators and faculty members, and to use metal detectors only as a last resort. In short: make schools positive and welcoming environments for learning rather than juvenile detention centers. NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman maintains the study shows that, above all, “treating students with dignity and respect is the best approach to producing good, safe schools.”
Let’s hope the DOE will get the message and start rethinking zero tolerance policy, the role of SSAs and the necessity of metal detectors. Principal William Justino of Progress High School said in the report, “You’d think the Department of Education would want to know all about us, but they don’t… we’re one of the best kept secrets in New York.”
