Bridging Perspectives on School Policing, Safety, Student Learning & Racial Justice

How can schools and communities work together to make schools safer and healthier without the use of campus police and punitive practices?

School safety is one of the most challenging and emotionally fraught topics in education. Fear of potential school violence has given rise to both zero-tolerance policies and a level of direct police presence on school campuses unseen in previous generations. The Black Lives Matter movement has brought recognition of disproportionality in how these policies and policing impact Black and additionally, Latinx students, and have made issues surrounding policing a central concern in the fight for racial justice.

CTS is working with Dr. David C. Turner III, Assistant Professor of Black Life and Racial Justice in the Department of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs to explore these issues alongside community partners in Contra Costa, Stockton and Los Angeles school districts. Our goal is to understand how student activism and community organizing have changed perspectives and practice on school safety, and how these schools and communities are working to improve school climates and academic outcomes by changing policing and safety policies.