Handcuffs in Hallways: School officers arresting children, young teens at alarming rates
MORENO VALLEY (KPIX) -- Hundreds of young children are arrested every year in elementary schools across the country according to an extensive analysis of data by CBS News.
Arrests don't happen as often in the Bay Area compared to the national average, but that doesn't mean it's not a problem for the ones who do get handcuffed in hallways.
Court documents show from August 2019- December 2019, an 11-year-old with learning disabilities attending Landmark Middle School in Moreno Valley, was handcuffed four times by school resource officers for a series of alleged incidents including throwing a rock at an SRO, getting into a fight with a classmate, pushing a teacher, and refusing to report to the principal's office.
"This is a child that needed the school's protection because he is vulnerable to this type of harm," said one of the attorneys from Disability Rights California Meeth Soni.
The unnamed minor is at the center of an ongoing lawsuit initiated by his parents against the Moreno Valley Unified School District.
"A lot of times the officers can back up, but maybe they're getting pressured by the school staff in the first place, and then it's the officers aren't doing their job," said former Oakland Schools Police Chief Jeffrey Godown after looking at the video.
Advocacy groups like Disability Rights California, which is representing the boy's family, and the Black Organizing Project in Oakland have pushed to eliminate police presence at schools for years.
They say it unfairly and disproportionately harms black and brown children, and those with disabilities.
"Anytime you see a police officer, you will be triggered, you're going to be scared," said Soni.
BOP's decade-long effort led in part to Oakland's dismantling of its school police department in 2020, a decision its former chief initially opposed, but ultimately supported to the dismay of many in blue.
"We've done the give me more cops to fight crime. give me more cops to solve the problem for hundreds of years and it really hasn't solved the problem," said Godown.
CBS News' analysis of the latest U.S. Department of Education data available from 2017-2018 shows black middle school students are three times as likely to be arrested in school than their white peers.
It also shows middle school students with disabilities are two times as likely to be arrested in school than their classmates without disabilities.
"Kids with disabilities, part of their systems are immature, and it's still maturing. Because it's not as mature as some other kids who can regulate themselves a little bit better, they often tend to get pinpointed and targeted," said Sonya Mathies Dinizulu, a trauma psychologist.
The arrest rate at middle schools in California 4.92 per 10,000 students, was well below half the national average of 11.40 per 10,000 students.
The referral rate, or more simply, "calls" to law enforcement, in California 72.93 per 10,000 students, was slightly higher than the national average of 65.74 per 10,000.
"Policy makers have recognized that school punishment can be problematic, but no one wants to touch policing," said Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware Aaron Kupchik.
When a school calls police on a student, it's rare for that student to be arrested.
Only about one out of every six so-called referrals nationwide, ended with a documented arrest.
In California, it's even more rare with about 1 out of 14 referrals (7035 calls 475 arrested) ending with the same result according to our analysis.
Godown believes removing SROs and law enforcement offices from campuses results in fewer unnecessary calls for help, calls he says are mostly for behavioral issues and not criminal.
"The police officer, when called, walks into that classroom, he or she automatically has a problem because they're ill equipped. They're not getting the help they need from the school staff. It's a no win for them," said Godown.
In the Bay Area only ten middle schools had incidents with at least one arrest during the 2017-2018 academic year.
Edna Hill Middle School in Brentwood had three arrests, and 24 calls to police, the highest referral rate in the Bay Area according to CBS News' analysis.
Some of the calls were related to incidents involving alleged drug dealing, terroristic threatening, and sexual assaults.
"Looking at the calls they were all appropriate and when there is potential criminal activity on a site we do involve the police as we're required to do," said Brentwood Union Unified School District Superintendent Dana Eaton.
Eaton says the district uses SROs on its campuses on a regular basis and believes a combination of uniformed officers, counselors, and therapists ultimately make their schools safer for all students and staff, but that it may not be the right choice for other districts.
"I think a one size fits all approach in any situation is probably ill-advised. I think each of those communities is distinctly different, as is ours," said Eaton.
That's a choice for nearly 1000 school districts in California to make.
For the family of the 11-year-old boy handcuffed four times in four months, it's an easy one.
"Any child who is subjected to this you can just imagine there's going to be long term mental health suffering," said Soni.
Our data analysis shows no Bay Area elementary school student was arrested on-campus during the 2017-2018 academic year.
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, 1-in-10 elementary school students attend schools with SROS. It's about 1-in-4 for middle school students..
But much higher with 2-out-of-3 for high school.
