Law and Order in School and Society: How Discipline and Policing Policies Harm Students of Color

• In Event: The "No Excuses" Model of Urban School Reform: Wrenching Truths, Critical Perspectives, and Dissent

Abstract

In this paper, Scott, Moses, Finnigan, Trujillo, and Jackson share findings from a comprehensive literature review on how discipline and policing policies harm students of color and make concrete policy recommendations regarding what can be done to change resulting injustices. All evidence indicates that systemic violence and disparate school discipline policies hinder equitable, just, and safe schooling as well as restrict access to social opportunities and civil liberties. Moreover, research demonstrates that Black and Latinx students experience police violence and school discipline unequally. In sum, punitive educational and criminal justice policies disproportionately affect students, families, and communities of color, as well as the teachers and schools that serve them.

As such, the paper focuses on questions of race and disparate racial impacts using a critical race theory lens. Authors begin by connecting current education policies with a longer history of racial control and violence. Next, they situate current day zero-tolerance policies in relation to wider trends in policing and racial profiling as well as broader education, welfare, and housing policies that systematically disadvantage communities of color. Moreover, they explore specific, more effective interventions at the local and state levels.

Among others, recommendations include: the redirection of funds currently spent on school resource officers to expenditures shown to improve student engagement and social connectivity, such as guidance counselors, advanced-level and enrichment courses, socio-emotional learning curricula, and high quality-extracurricular activities; community-based policing programs with school restorative and transformative justice initiatives to shift the emphasis from discipline and punishment toward relationship building and positive supports; intensive preparation and ongoing training for teachers, school leaders, and security staff on the causes and remedies of racial inequality within and outside schools; and reporting of in-school and out-of-school suspensions and expulsions for charter schools and traditional public schools, disaggregated by race and gender, and the development of interventions for schools with disproportionate rates.

Ultimately, by drawing on critical race theory (CRT) in their analysis of research findings, they redirect how educators and policymakers might talk more productively about students' social contexts, violence, and school discipline.

Authors

• Janelle T. Scott, University of California - Berkeley

• Michele S. Moses, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester

• Tina M. Trujillo, University of California - Berkeley

• Darrell D. Jackson, University of Wyoming