Parents Speak Out on Security Guards

By Kayla Humphreys

On February 28th, I attended the Black Organizing Project’s listening session at McClymonds high school. 15-20 Black parents gathered in the game room to talk about the state of Oakland schools and how their students are being treated. There were also some students there, including myself.

As I was sitting there, listening to the parents, I heard a story from a parent whose son got in trouble at school because he was accused by one of the security guards named Cole. He said that the student was cutting the lunch line. But the mother went on to say that her was trying to get lunch early because he didn’t want to be late for lunch detention. At McClymonds if you have lunch detention and you’re late for it, you will have to repeat another lunch detention. One of the problems at my school is that this security guard is that he doesn’t treat students fairly and doesn’t take the time to listen to students. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard about a situation with Cole.

As the parents continued their stories about how their students were being treated, I thought about a time when I wore a hat at school. I knew we couldn’t wear hats, but I was having a bad hair day. When I tried to tell Cole why I was wearing the hat, he wouldn’t let me explain so I walked away because I felt he wasn’t listening to me!

When I got to class he told one of the staff at the school to come get my hat, which they did, and gave my hat to Cole, who told me I was not getting my hat until the next week. When the staff took my hat, I was upset and embarrassed, because I was having a bad hair day and people were staring at me. This affected my ability to pay attention in class. I think that security guards should handle these situations differently, by listening to students, hearing students out and actually talking to us. I think people should take this into consideration because parents are sending their kids to school to learn and not to be treated poorly by security guards.