Police in schools
Promoted as ‘safeguarding’ there is a concerning lack of evidence that it helps – as opposed to criminalises – children, especially Black or other racialised children. The strip-searching of Child Q refocused debate on the safeguarding risks of police in schools.
“The government should require all police forces in England to discontinue any further participation in Safer Schools Partnerships and withdraw Safer Schools Officers from schools as their presence disproportionately impacts Black and minority ethnic communities and fails to support a safer school environment.”
Runnymeade Trust
Over-policed and under-protected: The road to Safer Schools (2023)
“We saw increased securitisation of schools after the 2011 riots following the killing of Mark Duggan, when the government ramped up all of those provisions and powers it gave schools. And now black children in schools are under siege.”
Criminalising children
Having police in schools – of course – encourages incidents to be dealt with in a policing way rather than from a within a supportive approach of counselling or mental health support. Criminalising children is not the same as keeping them safe. Children need more support and care, and police out of schools.
“Safer School Partnerships “play a key role in identifying potential ‘at risk’ young people, and referring them for further intervention to address their behaviour.”
UK Government
Ending Gang and Youth Violence (2011)
“My heart was beating really fast. I felt scared, and I’ve never felt like that before.”
12 year old dual heritage child wrongly accused of stealing cookies
The Guardian: ‘Petrified’: Boy, 12, spoken to by police over false claim of cookie theft in Bristol (2021)
“We have seen the impact of police in multi-agency settings. SBPOs threatening students by saying that they will ‘get the housing in’ on their families if they continue to misbehave; community-based officers introducing racist narratives about ‘gang’ affiliations in social work meetings without evidence; and officers using domestic violence to construct racialised families as ‘unfit’, as opposed to ‘in need’.”
Dr Laura Connelly, Roxy Legane, and Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury
Kids of Colour and Northern Police Monitoring Project: No Police in Schools: Decriminalise the Classroom (2020)
“It’s time to demand an education system that meets the needs of working-class children and communities: one that is based on uplifting people, not imposing austerity; on dignity, not racism; and on solidarity, not policing.”
Vik Chechi-Ribeiro (secondary school teacher and NEU Manchester vice-president)
The Guardian: Why the police have no place in schools (2020)
“Overall, primary evaluations of the effects of police in schools on youth offending outcomes suggest that these interventions are not effective”
Dr Hannah Gaffney, Professor David P. Farrington and Dr Howard White
Youth Endowment Fund: Police in Schools, Toolkit technical report (2021)
“Having police officers in schools with higher levels of pupils from disadvantaged areas may not actually serve as crime prevention. Given what we know from labelling theory, placing police officers in these schools may exacerbate racial and/or class-based disparities in the criminal justice system and unfairly label youth as criminals, thus putting them at risk of offending throughout their lifetime.”
Dr Hannah Gaffney, Professor David P. Farrington and Dr Howard White
Youth Endowment Fund: Police in Schools, Toolkit technical report (2021)