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For years students have experienced police harassment in schools. This issue has raised
controversy on whether police officers should be assigned to schools. Many argued that by
integrating police into schools it can help prevent criminal acts; however, the reality is that many
students of color have been arrested and maltreated for the slightest cause, which can be one of
the contributors of the schools to prison pipeline. The event found discusses how the community
and youth in Oakland fought to remove Oakland schools police department in order for children
not to be discriminated against by police and feel safe while trying to have an education.
Taking a class about the juvenile justice system and the history of the many attempts to
reform it, I was drawn more into looking for information on what changes can be made in order
to help youth not to fall into the juvenile justice system. While doing this I came across an
article, School board votes to defund, disband Oakland school police, by Ashley McBride. The
site where the article was found is a nonprofit site, made up of a team of local journalists
working for their community in Oakland, California. This site is to inform the community and
have the opportunity to give true information on what goes around Oakland, it also reports about
the undeserved local communities, shares information resources and investigates the systems.
(The Oaklandside, 2021).
The Black Organizing Project (BOP), the Oakland Unified School District families along
with families and youth came together in order to have the Oaklands police department removed
from schools. The BOP is an organization group who works for social, racial and economic
justice for their community. After a long and peaceful fight, they accomplished to have “Oakland
Unified School District leaders vote unanimously June 24th to eliminate their school police
department by Jan. 1, 2021, and initiate a community input process to create a new school safety
plan.” (McBride, 2020), and this was due to the “George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the
Oakland School Police department” (Black Organizing Project, 2020). Having defunded the
Oakland police department due to the constant use of police force on students, and asking to
“redirect funds to educational services and other programs that “support Black students and all
students of color,”.” (McBride, 2020), will help meet the needs of all students.
This event relates to the San Francisco State students who came together to demand more
admission for more black students which empowered the third world liberation students to ask
for the same rights. The article “The Student Strike That Changed Higher Ed Forever”, by Bates
and Meraji (2019), explain how fifty years ago the longest student strike in U.S. history was held
at San Francisco State College” which helped make a change for all students of color to have the
privilege to acquire a higher education and have their ethnic group addressed and learned more
about their culture and their own history. This begins with two students who came together to
form the “Black Student Union”. When various students came together to start demanding their
rights, they were brutally attacked by the police, which caused “outraged faculty and members of
some of the city's black communities” to join. After many months of protest students were able
to have “The administration, in response to student demands, established a College of Ethnic
Studies. The administration also agreed to accept virtually all students of color for the fall
semester of 1969.” (Bates & Meraji, 2019).
Both articles connect to one another because in both events it talks about how the
community comes together to fight for students’ rights and for the system to start making
changes, as well as having police involvement who have attacked students unjustly. Having to
unite to march in a peaceful way and not giving up until being heard is the example of being able
to make positive changes in the school system.
With everything that has happened in recent years and how many have come together to
raise awareness in order to become aware that people of color are still underrepresented and how
parents are tired of having their children suffer in the hands of police. Instead of spending most
of the funding in school police departments for the “safety of students”, the school system can
make good use of these funding’s by implementing positive levels of support for students and
their families. Having schools collaborate with community members, agencies, or organizations
will help them have positive outcomes in their learning because it can improve school resources
and will help expand their academic, social, and emotional development. If schools want police
to be part their system, then police should only provide students with workshops where they can
teach the children about their rights and guide them to a positive path by encouraging them and
being there when they need assistance.
References
Bates, G., K. & Meraji, M., S. 2019. The Student Strike That Changed Higher Ed
Forever. NPR.
Black Organizing Project. http://blackorganizingproject.org/the-george-floyd-resolution/
McBride, A. 2020. School board votes to defund, disband Oakland school police. The
Oaklandside. https://oaklandside.org/2020/06/25/school-board-vote-defund-disband-oakland-
school-police/