NYPD Bullying School Children?
I have always thought that police presence in schools is something that should be taken in a positive light. After all, incidents – both instigated by students and outsiders – will probably be avoided if police are present in schools, right? After reading this feature article at the Village Voice, though, I think that I could be wrong in some respects. I am not changing my position that police presence brings some benefits with regard to school safety but I think that it would be worthwhile to re-examine the whole situation.
The feature article tells this story:
On March 6, after being dropped off at Middle School 88 in Park Slope by his father, a Manhattan court officer, Joshua Ramos was approached by another boy. Joshua, who was 13, says the other kid was upset because, the day before, Joshua had tackled him during a tag-football game. The boy challenged Joshua to a fight.
Joshua tells the Voice that he didn’t want trouble, but when the kid hit him, he hit back. The other boy later claimed that Joshua started the tussle by calling him names, though he couldn’t remember what the names were. Whatever. The incident was nothing more than a typical schoolyard dust-up.
It took place, however, in the view of a School Safety Agent, one of those NYPD employees who monitor New York City’s schools and—often against the wishes of the principal—deal harshly with what is otherwise pretty normal school behavior.SSA Bethzaida Santiago saw the boys fighting and moved in. “I grabbed the Respondent [Joshua] on the upper part of his arms and asked that he stop,” she wrote in her report of the incident. “I observed that the Respondent continued to punch. I informed the Respondent that he was now hitting me in my face. I observed the Respondent look at me and he continued punching. The Respondent punched me in my face multiple times. I observed that the Respondent continued swinging and punching me until my supervisor was able to restrain him.”
The officers then told Joshua that he would be arrested. This happened despite the school principal and guidance counselor trying to intervene.
Point number one – shouldn’t the principal and guidance counselor have a say in what happens in their school yard? Shouldn’t they have some measure of authority in making decisions? Don’t get me wrong. I am a strong advocate of anti-bullying and disciplining kids. I do believe, however, that police arrests may not always be necessary.
Point number two – are these school safety officers specially trained to handle children? They may be experts in security but handling children is another matter altogether.
We’d do well to ponder on these things.
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Posted on July 16th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, Bullying, People Involved, School Safety Issues, Students
If someone would refer to my child as “respondent” I would be very scared. Prncipals and teachers should be the authority (es) in schools. Security Guards, or even LEOs should not have the authority to arrest underage kids and take them from school. That is really scary. I hope this never happens in my country.
Indeed, what were they thinking calling a kid a respondent?