Police presence criminalizes Tacoma schools, contributes to campus-to-prison pipeline

I attended a recent Tacoma School Board meeting to hear concerns raised by many Tacoma students about the criminalization of their schools.

Prior to and during that Aug. 19 meeting, a coalition of youth-led community organizations, youth organizers and community members held a protest and made public comment in support of removing law enforcement personnel from all Tacoma schools.

After sitting through a detailed presentation about updates to COVID-19 mitigation strategies, some board members offered statements about the importance of keeping our kids safe.

While I am in absolute agreement with the need for comprehensive, science-based mitigation strategies for COVID-19, I couldn’t help but juxtapose this thoughtful discussion with the board’s complete lack of response to a petition they received with more than 500 signatures.

This petition outlined demands aimed at addressing the equally real and longstanding harms caused by the ongoing criminalization of Tacoma schools.

As talented young people spoke about the harms caused by the presence of law enforcement personnel at their schools, they detailed their personal experiences. They also presented clear, data-driven evidence that connected their lived experiences to the well-established disproportionate impact of school criminalization nationally.

As they noted, Tacoma schools are not immune to these trends.

According to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, Black students make up 14.6% of students enrolled in Tacoma public schools, but 32.4% of in-school suspensions, 27.9% of out-of-school suspensions, 43.8% of expulsions, and 32% of referrals to law enforcement.

As one of the student speakers noted, the presence of law enforcement in schools increases the likelihood of referrals, which disproportionately impacts Black students and contributes directly and significantly to the school-to-prison pipeline.

According to the same data set, students with disabilities represent 15.7% of those enrolled in Tacoma public schools, while representing 29.8% of in-school-suspensions, 36.7% of out-of-school suspensions, 25% of expulsions, and 41.3% of referrals to law enforcement.

When broken down by race among students with disabilities, those who are Black are disproportionately impacted across all forms of school criminalization and exclusionary discipline.

Black and Hispanic students with disabilities each represent 50% of expulsions, while constituting 20.1% and 20.9% of the overall population of students with disabilities, respectively.

While the Office of Civil Rights does not provide data based on gender expression or sexual orientation, research suggests a disproportionate impact of school discipline and criminalization on LGBTQ+ students, as well.

If the board takes seriously its job of protecting all students, which I am inclined to believe they do, I implore them to also take seriously the petition and the messages they heard at this meeting.

The continued presence of law enforcement personnel in Tacoma schools remains a threat to students, particularly those most vulnerable to and targeted by state-sanctioned violence and the criminal industrial complex.

When the very students you have pledged to protect speak up, remaining silent is not an option.

Jeff Cohen is an associate professor in the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington Tacoma.

This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 1:20 PM.