Stopping the school to prison pipe

Stopping the school to prison pipeline

DMPS plans to modify the involvement of police officers within schools in response to the summer’s BLM movement

Summer 2020 saw an outbreak, not just of the coronavirus, but of activism in the light of several police murders including those of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and 779 others in 2020 alone. Protestors set out to dismantle the system that they feel criminalizes black and brown bodies and allows for their murderers to go unpunished, and many believe that it starts with education. For many students of color, trouble at school can turn into trouble with the criminal justice system. These protests brought to light to fact that, many schools, including all five DMPS high schools, have police officers in the building called School Resource Officers (SROs).

“Having resourced officers in under resourced schools, schools that are understaffed in key areas to prevent violations of the law or behaviors that cause concern, leads to an overcriminalization of student behavior and lifetime involvement in the criminal justice system,” DMPS Director of School Climate Transformation Jake Troja said.

The school-to-prison-pipeline is what many refer to as the frequency for students in underfunded and under resourced schools to end up involved in the criminal justice system at some point in their lives. One of the main goals of the Black Lives Matter movement on a national level is to divert excessive police funding towards mental health, substance abuse, affordable housing, and education. Des Moines schools have similar needs in positions such as school counselors, psychologists, social workers, and non-academic resources for students. These are the key positions that combat the school-to-prison-pipeline

“We’re about 200 staff members short for those key positions. Having five SROs in our high schools is not going to get us to the 200 staff members we actually need,” Troja said.

SROs are not employees of the school district. Like other districts, Des Moines Public Schools has a contract with the Des Moines Police Department, who employ the officers seen in DMPS schools.

“Adults employed by the district, have more rights and responsibilities when responding to students than DMPD does. It is ultimately, no matter what, the responsibility of staff members on campus whether or not we have SROs on campus respond,” Troja said.

The difference between an SRO and any other officer is the opportunity they have to build relationships with students; however, these interactions do not consistently reflect the interactions students will have with cops outside of school. In Des Moines alone, with a population of nearly 220,000 and a police force of 362 sworn officers, each officer would have to know over 600 citizens. Even then, the likelihood of interacting with a police officer you know personally is slim.

“For many students, the sight of an armed officer in the school building is a microaggression,” said DMPS school board member Rob Barron.

In June, DMPS held five virtual Antiracism Town Halls to hear from the community regarding next steps for increasing racial equity and justice within the district. DMPS is looking to scale back on contracts with the DMPD in response to the activism of young people throughout the summer.

“I know for a fact that BIPOC students are treated different. on a national level Black students are 3 times more likely to be arrested than their white peers. In primarily white institutions, SROs believe their purpose is to serve and protect the students, in a BIPOC majority school, SROs believe their purpose is to criminalize and police the students” senior Andy Montalvo-Martinez said.

Involvement with the criminal justice system from a young age has many effects on students of color. Once involved in the criminal justice system, it is statistically more likely for them to return to the system. A criminal record also makes it less likely that a student will finish high school and even less likelt that they will pursue a post-secondary education,

“A direct effect of colonization is the idea that we need a police system to control our communities when in reality, if we unconditionally love and support our communities by investing in resources, the need for policing becomes obsolete” MontalvoMartinez said.

Montalvo would like to see an increase in support staff of color to better reflect our diverse student population. Students and distict leaders alike agree that with more resources in the areas of student support, the need for policing will decrease.

“The most important thing we can do is provide a quality education. For many students it is the ticket out of generational poverty and away from the criminal justice system,” Barron said.

“If we unconditionally love and support our communities by investing in resources, the need for policing becomes obsolete”