Framing School Securitization: A Qualitative Policy Analysis of the School Violence Prevention Program

• In Event: Unforgetting Punishment: How Safety Policies Reproduce—or Resist—Inequity in Schools

Abstract

This qualitative policy analysis of the School Violence Prevention Program explores the assumptions driving school securitization, a phenomenon where schools across the country have increasingly invested in security measures and police partnerships despite extensive research evidence demonstrating their use may undermine school cultures most conducive to learning and safety. Using data collected from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and guidance from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) which administers the SVPP grant, I find the program misframes school securitization as an “evidence-based” practice, a claim that grantees implicitly and explicitly adopt. Findings also suggest that school district grantees frame their school security policies in ways that correspond with guidance from law enforcement and other intermediary organizations.
 

Author

• Sidra Sheikh, The Center for Program Design and Evaluation