Students as Risk Objects: Willful White Ignorance in the School Policing Debate

• In Event: The Epistemic Subject of Educational Authority

Abstract

Activists have challenged the reach of the criminal legal system into school contexts through the pervasive use of School Resource Officers (SROs). However, within this debate administrators and policy makers often invoke a safety narrative which must override concerns about the harms produced by use of police in educational contexts. In this paper we introduce the conceptual framework of the universal safety narrative to illuminate the ways in which discourse around school safety neglects the historical legacy of school policing and research on their efficacy. Further, we apply the lens of epistemic injustice to the school safety debate, examining the ways in which willful White ignorance plays a role in the continuation of structural racism in educational contexts.

Authors

• Martha Perez-Mugg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Rebecca M. Taylor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign