LISTEN: What Does the Future of School Safety Look Like? New EWA Podcast Interviews 74鈥檚 Mark Keierleber About Efforts to Dismantle Campus Policing After George Floyd鈥檚 Death
Student activists have long decried the presence of police in schools, but their demands for campuses without cops had long fallen on deaf ears. That changed rapidly this summer after George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis officer, prompting districts nationwide to sever their ties to local police departments.
As school districts nationwide reconsider the role officers play in classrooms, 蜜桃影视鈥檚 Mark Keierleber joined EWA Radio, a podcast produced by the Education Writers Association, to discuss his reporting on school policing. Following Floyd鈥檚 death, the Minneapolis school board voted unanimously to terminate its contract with the city police department, and many other districts 鈥 from Denver to Oakland 鈥 quickly followed suit.
As school leaders in Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere face steep pressure to take similar action, Keierleber discusses racial disparities in student arrests and the lack of research supporting their ability to thwart mass school shootings and other campus crime. He also discusses what post-police schools could look like 鈥 pointing to a school district in suburban Minneapolis that ended its contracts with local police departments years ago. Instead of stationing cops on campus, the district employed a team of 鈥渟tudent safety coaches,鈥 who employ an approach centered on addressing students鈥 mental health needs and de-escalating conflict 鈥 rather than one centered on handcuffs and arrests.
Listen to the full conversation:
Archive 鈥 Read more of Mark Keierleber鈥檚 recent reporting on school policing:
Police-Free Schools?: This suburban Minneapolis district expelled its cops years ago
School Police Departments: Florida鈥檚 post-Parkland experiment 鈥 To deter mass shootings, some school districts are creating their own police departments
Did you use this article in your work?
We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.