School Police Abolition: Reconceptualizing School Safety in the wake of George Floyd

• In Event: Critical Perspectives on Policing: Abolition and Alternatives

Abstract

As school districts nation-wide battle new policies around the eradication of school police, little to no research exists on how school policies that center police abolition reduces racial inequalities in the academic, social, and disciplinary outcomes of school children. Existing studies on discipline and policing focus on the racially harmful disproportionate effects of criminalization practices on students’ academic achievement and school experiences. Few studies examine the impact of school police abolition policies on school-based racial inequalities and no studies offer empirical data on school practices and policies that articulate new visions of safety and security in the absence of police. In the context of the BLM movement, racialized punishment is foregrounded as a central feature of life in America and in schools. Within the US, eradicating race-based curricula reveals a curricular side of racial punishment that fuels racial cultures and ideologies of domination. Furthermore, schools contend with austerity measures and neoliberal racial discourses that legitimize such moves. This presentation considers the tensions and contradictions of police-free schools in this landscape. It explores how school district and community members make sense of their work in operationalizing a school police abolition policy, and how they conceptualize safety in the absence of police.

Author

• Rekia Jibrin, University of California, Santa Cruz