Issue Focus: Police-Free Schools

Replacing School Policing with Services that Work
“Schools should be safe places where all students can thrive. Instead of funding school-based police, we urge public officials to invest in positive and proven approaches to improving school safety. Placing police in schools does not improve school safety or student behavior, and it leads to increased arrests and removals from school. Students with disabilities, especially those of color, are disproportionately harmed.”

Community Control Over School Safety and Accountability
“Creating safe, nurturing, and liberatory learning environments for young people attending Madison schools requires much more than the physical removal of law enforcement from school campuses. It requires community control over school safety and discipline.”

Young People’s Vision for Police Free Schools: A Mandate for the Present and Future
“After decades of criminalizing and policing young people in every space we occupy, we are demanding police free schools now and forever. We organize to bring to life our vision of schools that recognize and protect the humanity and dignity of all young people. Schools that focus on creating nurturing, inclusive, and supportive learning environments for students who are Black, Latinx, Muslim, Indigenous, LGBTQ, gender non-conforming, or who have disabilities.”

Replacing School Policing with Services that Work
“Schools should be safe places where all students can thrive. Instead of funding school-based police, we urge public officials to invest in positive and proven approaches to improving school safety. Placing police in schools does not improve school safety or student behavior, and it leads to increased arrests and removals from school. Students with disabilities, especially those of color, are disproportionately harmed.”

Decriminalize the Classroom: A Community Response to Police in Greater Manchester Schools
“The number of school-based police officers (SBPOs) across Greater Manchester is significantly increasing with at least 20 more officers being introduced for the 2020/2021 academic year. This is happening without due consultation with parents, teachers, young people, or wider communities. In response, this report explores the views and experiences of people who live and work in Greater Manchester in relation to police in schools. Drawing upon the survey responses of 554 people – including young people, teachers, parents, and community members – this report is by far the most comprehensive of its kind in the UK.” 

Arrested Learning: A Survey of Youth Experiences of Police and Security at School
“The survey was designed to uncover critical information about students’ experiences, interactions, and feelings about police and security at school. The survey also explored young people’s vision for supportive and well-resourced schools.”

Liberate to Educate: Policy Platform
“The following recommendations were developed by Youth Justice Project members and represent a comprehensive view of educational justice that, if fully implemented, will effectively end the school-to-prison pipeline in Durham Public Schools.”

Sanctuary Schools
“What we are asking for is not new, schools have been used for too long as colonial tools to assimilate and criminalize youth and their families, we say no more! From December 2020 to January 2021 we surveyed almost 350 Philadelphia educators, staff and administrators to gauge knowledge about Immigration and Customs enforcement within the Philadelphia School Districts.”

Sustaining Police Free Schools Through Practice
“GGE’s policy team is committed to fighting for the liberation of Black girls (cis and trans) and gender expansive youth. Our policy team works to shape policy at the local, state, and national level. An integral part of that work is developing tools for liberation, such as the Police-free Schools toolkit, alongside community members.”