Black and Brown Students Are Organizing to Remove Police From Their Schools

PASADENA, CA - CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 20: Reggie Myles, 17, a Black Student Union cabinet member, helps lead John Muir High School students in a walkout protesting the schoolÕs ban on durags on Wednesday, February 20, 2019. Black Student Union students say the school tells them durags perpetuate gang culture but they say it unfairly continues the criminalization of black men. Durags are used to create the wave hairstyle. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)

Law enforcement has had a brief yet abusive relationship with American public schools, spurring the terrorization of Black and Brown students and increased interaction with law enforcement at a young age. The rationale behind police in schools has always been for the “safety” of children. Yet, since police have shown up, the school to prison pipeline has strengthened, putting young children into the legal system and criminalizing their oftentimes normal behavior.

In resistance, youth and student organizers have taken to school board meetings and the streets to fight for the removal of police from schools in line with the national call to defund the police after the death of George Floyd and the subsequent uprisings.

Read more at Colorlines.