Our response to the Madison Park Academy incident.

We are shocked and saddened by the unintentional tragedy that left a 13-year-old boy wounded at Madison Park Academy in East Oakland this week. Our hearts are with both children involved in this incident as well as their families and all the children, families and teachers impacted at the school. Violence of any kind is frightening; when it involves children, it is earth shattering. It is an overwhelming indicator that as a society we are not meeting the needs of our children. 

For the past 13 years, Black Organizing Project has organized to build power and end the mass incarceration of Black families by fighting to remove police from schools and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline. One of the most essential parts of this work is creating safe Black spaces for our community to come together and identify issues that impact us the most. This tragedy is another devastating example of the gun violence that young people in Oakland are experiencing far too often. 

As a community, we want ways to keep our children safe. But the current system has offered us very few options of how to make that vision real – police or no police. We know that communities that are more heavily policed are not safer. 

For Black and Brown communities, policing often means more harm and abuse. It also often means less investment in what people need to meet their basic needs and less respect for the humanity of the people in our communities. 

We know that safe communities are ones where people have their basic human needs met, where members feel welcomed and engaged, and where the social goods work to benefit them.

The very idea of crime and punishment in this country is an incredibly racialized one. This is one example of that. A terrible tragedy has happened among children in a predominantly people of color community, and our collective and immediate response is to look to policing as the solution. We strongly reject the narrative that safety is created by policing, incarceration, and the use of military weapons in schools. Policing at best is a response to actions that have already happened. It is not preventative. At its worst, policing is a response that criminalizes Black, brown, and poor people and communities, and stops us from finding alternative solutions and proactive strategies. 

“Calling for more police presence in our schools is a response borne out of fear. A more holistic, more humane response would be to look at what happened here and identify how we could have supported both of these children better.”

What could have been done differently to ensure the safety of both of them? What was needed for this child to not bring a gun to school? What supports were missing that would have led to a caring adult recognizing that something was amiss? When we automatically jump to a policing solution, we miss an opportunity to look at the many layers that are at play here – to truly investigate what needs to be in place to ensure our children’s safety. 

When OUSD removed police from our schools after a decade of organizing by families and students, we were able to ensure that schools throughout the district have culture and climate ambassadors who are tasked with school safety. School sites are now developing plans to prevent and respond to issues that may arise. 

“Our immediate reflex should not be to revert back to heavily policed schools, but rather to engage the community, students, and educators to ensure that this does not happen again.”

We affirm that safety is created by real investments in our communities and our young people, such as providing more mental and behavioral health professionals and using restorative discipline practices in schools. All schools should be sanctuaries where all students are free from racism, implicit bias, fear, and physical danger. All schools need caring adults to engage in the wellness of all children, build connected relationships, and develop strategies for how to engage when harm has happened; and increased policing does not get us there. 

Safe, healthy communities require abundant opportunities for children to grow and succeed. This is a time for Oakland to come together and call for the resources our children and our communities need to thrive. BOP is committed to continuing to do our part to create a caring culture in our schools and throughout the community that upholds the dignity and possibility of every child