BOP Statement regarding CA BILL 3038
Desiree McSwain-Mims
Black students were 7.4 times more likely to be arrested in schools with assigned law enforcement than they were in schools without.
The Black Organizing Project is deeply concerned about the proposed California Bill 3038, which would call for every school in California to have at least one armed police officer on campus. This bill comes partly in response to the 2020 social reckoning in which the nation joined together to push for the defunding and dismantling of criminalizing systems that target Black people, most specifically policing in schools.
As a leader in the police-free schools movement, we have spent the last thirteen years in Oakland fighting against the harmful and irresponsible narrative that police make schools safe. Countless reports have been published in the last decade that highlight how harmful police in schools can be, particularly for Black students.
The report published by the ACLU tilted “No Police in Schools: A vision for safe and supportive schools in California”, cited that in the state of California, Black students were 7.4 times more likely to be arrested in schools with assigned law enforcement than they were in schools without.
In Oakland specifically, during the time that Oakland schools had police officers on campus, Black students who were just 26% of the school population accounted for 73% of arrests on campus. Of that percentage, 87% were Black boys and 27% were students with a disability.
The presence of police in schools has long posed an increased threat to Black students not just in California, but across the nation. Even in cities with majority Black students, Black students are consistently overrepresented in the number of school arrests and law enforcement interactions. There is a clear correlation between school arrests and mass incarceration. This bill is the school-to-prison pipeline in action. By allowing police to exist on school campuses, we allow a clear path to push students out of school and funnel them into the carceral system.
"In the first 180 days of school (post-pandemic) we saw a 90% decrease in calls for police service..."
The fight to remove police in schools is a fight that the Black Organizing Project and the community of Oakland has already won.
In 2020, the George Floyd Resolution for police-free schools was passed, making Oakland schools the first in the nation to become police-free. According to the data from OUSD’s superintendent’s report: in the first 180 days of school (post-pandemic) we saw a 90% decrease in calls for Police service.
We believe and affirm that this is because what schools need to be safe and healthy places for students to thrive is not police but instead investments into resources for the students and surrounding communities.
Now, we are fighting to protect the work that so many of you have helped realize over the last decade. We are fighting against the ideology that schools need police to be safe. Research and real life experiences have proven this to be untrue.
Safety is not found in the chaos of policing and punitive discipline measures. Safety is achieved when families and communities have access to quality education, quality food, safe housing, fair employment, mental health resources and so much more. These are the things we are calling on the state of California to invest in.
We are asking you, our community, to join us in our call to the state of California to implement a statewide investment into community-driven solutions and alternatives to policing on school campuses rather than investing in harmful oppressive systems.
The Black Organizing Project
I am a parent of a California public school 9th grader and a second grader. I absolutely unequivocally do not want to see armed officers in schools. Security begins with people having their needs met. Do not invest in violence. Invest in care.