#We Came to Learn: Envisioning Abolitionist Educational Futures in Washington, D.C.

• In Event: On Abolition: Education Policy, Activism, and Police-Free Learning Environments

Abstract

Objectives
In 2019, youth with Washington, DC, based Black Swan Academy (BSA), building on previous organizing work related to mental health supports and policing in schools, launched their police-free schools (PFS) campaign. During summer 2020, BSA youth achieved several small policy victories toward their ultimate goal of PFS and a liberatory education system for Black youth. Using abolitionist frameworks, this study excavates the visions for schooling undergirding this campaign and how BSA has worked toward that vision.
Framework
This study extends emergent literature on efforts to challenge the school to prison pipeline and remove police from schools (Warren, 2021). Research has begun to document the role youth play in these movements, strategies they use, how they analyze and deconstruct their experiences with policing, and the alternatives they propose (Fernández et al., 2016; Welton & Harris, 2022).
Abolitionist frameworks that call for the dismantling of carcerality offer a set of tools for envisioning a world without policing. These frameworks question and reject “reform” to police, emphasize collectivity and relationship-building, and focus on safety and eradicating harm (Kaba, 2021; McDowell & Fernandez, 2018). Applying these frameworks PFS efforts (Meiners, 2011) help to identify the challenges and opportunities for abolition in education.
Methodology
This qualitative case study (Yin, 2014) draws on publicly available data from May 2020 - present (social media, press, documents, and video testimonies at public hearings) and interviews with youth (N = 10), BSA staff (N = 6), and local adults allies (N = 4) conducted June-October 2021. Research team members analyzed data using checks for inter-rater reliability and multiple rounds of coding (Saldana, 2016).
Findings
BSA grounded their campaign in a new vision of safety focused on “protect[ing] these youths” (Debra), culturally responsive mental health supports in schools, and linking community and school safety. Essentially, as Skyler noted, youth advanced a vision of schooling centered on what “will make us feel safe.” Demands related to PFS and safety connected to a broader vision for what public education should and could be for Black youth. As Samantha (BSA director) said, “in the long, long-term, the goal of PFS is to create liberatory education spaces that are racially equitable.”
BSA youth have achieved several “small wins necessary to build momentum” for the PFS movement. These wins include divestment in the school and safety division budget, a board of education resolution in support of PFS, and legislation by the DC council to reduce the presence of police officers in schools over five-years by funding fewer officers each year. However, these victories are never secure; as Skyler said, “We’ve got to keep fighting for it until we get it, and keep rallying support.” In 2022, for example, BSA youth defeated the mayor’s efforts to halt the reduction of officers.
Significance
This study adds case knowledge about how and for what purposes youth are leading efforts for PFS. It extends the framing of policing to highlight both what youth are fighting against and a youth-defined vision of what “abolition futures” (Meiners, 2011, p. 561) might look like in schools.

Authors

• Kristin Sinclair, Georgetown University
  Presenting Author

• Courtney A Douglass, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Sophia Rodriguez, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author