the people’s assembly petition to tacoma public schools for the removal of cops from campus
To Tacoma Public Schools:
We are calling on the immediate and absolute termination of all contracts between Tacoma Public Schools and Tacoma Police Department and for the permanent removal of all officers from every school.
Understanding that the institution of policing in this country has origins in slave-patrolling and that today, this same institution continues to function as an agent of white supremacist violence and oppression, we firmly declare that all forms of policing in schools is inherently dangerous and must be immediately and absolutely abolished. Ongoing and present-day events of police killings disproportionately targeting Black people further underscore the harms presented in implementing or otherwise integrating policing into schools.
On July 21, 2020 Tacoma Public Schools opened a community survey to assess the opinion of the public on the existence of SROs in Tacoma’s high schools. This approach to addressing the issue of police in schools serves as two things for TPS: 1) a deflection, and 2) a delay. By deferring to the opinion of the community, TPS is deflecting its own responsibility to create a truly safe and supportive learning environment for all students. In initiating such a survey process, TPS has demonstrated its lack of understanding, or value, of the imperative of police-free schools. In addition, the administering of such a survey creates a delay to real, swift action for safe and supportive learning environments for all students, a motion which inherently involves removing all officers from schools. By waiting to gather community “input”, TPS prolongs the legitimation of policing in schools and inadvertently suggests that student safety, particularly that of Black students who are consistently and disproportionately targeted by police violence both inside and outside of schools, is a matter of debate or negotiation. All students should be free of institutionalized and anti-Black profiling, hostility, and policing - this is not negotiable.
Extensive research shows that policing in schools disproportionately harms Black and Brown students. The culture of policing is inherently violent, facilitates hostility, and perpetuates the vicious cycles of the school-to-prison pipeline. A school district that props up an initiative supposedly focused on supporting "the whole child" should understand that policing has only ever served to target, profile, and bring harm to Black and Brown students. To frame the issue of whether or not to have SROs/police in schools as a debate or as an open survey question is to truly expose oneself as willfully ignorant of, or deliberately committed to, the centuries-long violence against Black and Brown people by police, of all forms, in this country. Furthermore, by isolating the survey's focus to SROs only, TPS distracts from the reality that even "unarmed" and "plain-clothes" officers can be, and are, dangerous. Any officer or member trained, employed, and or otherwise sponsored by a police department is an inherent extension of an institution that has its origins in slave-patrolling and that is designed to control and terrorize Black bodies. There is no real separation between different tiers of policing, for they are all rooted in and are arms of white supremacist oppression.
OUR DEMANDS:
1. TPS must immediately terminate all contracts and agreements with the Tacoma Police Department and immediately remove any and all law enforcement personnel (including SROs, CSOs, and SPOs) assigned to Tacoma schools or otherwise routinely present in school buildings or on school property, during and outside of regular school hours (including any school-sponsored events and activities). Furthermore, TPS should remove any and all staff/faculty, contractor, or affiliate that:
- Has the power to arrest, detain, interrogate, question, fine or ticket students on municipal code, juvenile, criminal or immigration-related matter and/or has the power to punish youth for violations of probation or parole;
- Carries any type of weapon, including but not limited to a firearm, baton, taser, rubber bullets, bean bags, mace, pepper/OC spray, and/or carry handcuffs or other forms of restraint; and/or
- Reports to, is certified by, or receives training from a police department, including personnel who can report students to a gang database or other police, or police-serving, databases.
2. TPS must immediately declare all TPS schools and properties police-free zones, meaning:
- TPS administrators, staff, faculty, contractors, and/or affiliates shall not invite or otherwise permit members of the police department, Immigration Customs Enforcement, or any other police-serving institutions to enter TPS premises. The CDC reports that only 1-2% of homicides between school-age youth occur on school grounds. Furthermore, school shootings most often occur in schools of more affluent and mostly white neighborhoods. However, schools based in predominantly low-income, Black and Brown neighborhoods are more likely to have officers. School-based officers are most commonly involved in forcibly removing a student from the classroom and forcibly disciplining students who are deemed “insubordinate” or “disruptive”, of whom a disproportionately high number are Black students. This data further supports the urgent need for TPS to divest from the use of policing in schools and to instead, invest in community-based and youth-led practices of emergency management and restorative and transformative justice.
- TPS administrators, staff, faculty, contractors, and/or affiliates shall be trained in and engage only police-free, weapon-free, and nonlethal methods to address issues and conflicts arising on campus or TPS premises.
3. TPS must, with youth and community leadership, initiate the creation of vested youth-led and community-based decision bodies, or councils, that are appointed by and representative of Black and Brown youth and community members. These councils shall address safety, accountability, justice, and healing at schools and have ongoing, direct leadership and guidance over racial and social justice initiatives district and school-wide, including TPS’ execution of the following tasks:
- Engaging local individuals and community-based grassroots organizations to provide culturally-congruent support roles and programming throughout schools focused on areas including not limited to: mentorship, creative expression, restorative/transformative justice, youth leadership, community-building, mental health, peer mediation, etc.;
- Targeted recruitment and retainment of Black staff, and staff representative of marginalized communities, at the district and school levels;
- Mandating Black history and studies as well as studies in Indigenous and other people of color communities across every school; and
- Mandating training and support for all school staff in positive approaches to school climate and discipline, including but not limited to: undoing anti-Black racism and institutionalized oppression, intersectional equity and justice, trauma-informed care, culturally-congruent and youth-centered conflict resolution, weapon-free de-escalation techniques, restorative and transformative justice practices.
These councils should be represented by a 75%+ majority of Black youth and community members. These councils shall be vested with the power and authority to direct, develop, monitor, and assess district-wide and school-specific policies, procedures, and practices pertaining to the aforementioned topics and other matters deemed relevant to the councils.
The work of creating school cultures and environments that are just, equitable, inclusive and safe for all students is extensive and ongoing. Most importantly, this work must be led and informed by youth and communities who are most impacted by policing in schools and beyond. We urge TPS to take immediate and meaningful action, beginning with the implementation of these demands.
Signed,
The People's Assembly, Peer Education and Empowerment League, Youth Against Policing, youth organizers, and community members.
