Students do not benefit from increased police presence in schools

The Worcester Telegram spoke to our Central Massachusetts organizer Chris Robarge about the role of police officers in schools.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been outspoken in its stance against police presence in schools. The ACLU of Massachusetts found, in a 2012 review, that schools with officers had more arrests, many of which disproportionately affected students of color. ...

Chris Robarge, Central Massachusetts field coordinator for the ACLU, said his organization also has found that districts that do not have memorandums of understanding between schools and police on the role of campus officers can end up having miscommunication and friction. ...

Mr. Robarge also questioned the higher number of arrests at the schools reported already this year.

“We are now on track to have a record number of arrests in the schools and we’re talking about potentially putting more officers in the schools,” he said. “If we’re training police officers to be social workers, why don’t we just hire social workers? I bet it would be less expensive.”

View the full article and read our report, Arrested Futures.