Police should not be the ones tackling youth violence in schools

What’s needed are racially-literate youth workers and counsellors, not law enforcement

This September’s return to school has been long anticipated. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has shaken the world. It is hard to imagine that in our schools, and in wider society, things will ever be the same again. What comes next, however, is yet to be decided.

The events of this year have laid bare the inequalities that underpin our society. From the racial disproportionality in deaths caused by Covid-19, to the intensification of examples of racist policing, the danger of teacher-predicted grades underpredicting working-class students and students of colour, and the disaster of Ofqual’s exam results algorithm, it is clear that some in our society are more vulnerable to state harm than others.

Against this backdrop, we’ve seen Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that have drawn attention to racism, and specifically to racist policing. The protests have urged us to question the encroachment of policing into all areas of our lives and the punitive logic around which our society has been structured. 

As we chart a way forward, it’s vital that we learn lessons from the pandemic and the protests, and place the most marginalised at the centre of our vision.

One issue that we’ve been particularly concerned about is the presence of police in schools. Amidst calls from high-profile people and oganisations, including the Children’s Commissioner, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the head of the Met Police, the number of school-based police officers is increasing significantly.

These changes are ignorant to the evidence and fly in the face of the many vacuous statements made in support of BLM.

Following mounting community concerns, Kids of Colour and the Northern Police Monitoring Project, with support from members of the National Education Union and others, have been part of the formation of a Greater Manchester-based community campaign group: No Police in Schools.

To mark the return to school, and with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority introducing more police in schools in 2020-21, we published a report titled Decriminalise the Classroom. Surveying 554 people from across Greater Manchester – including students, parents, teachers, and community members. The report confirms what has been known in over-policed communities for a long time: police in schools pose a threat to those who are already most at risk of state oppression.

Ninety-five percent of survey respondents reported not having been consulted on the plans to place more police in schools. This raises real concerns for democracy.

Perhaps most damningly, almost 9 out of 10 respondents reported feeling negatively about the plans for more police in schools, and three quarters of parents said they would have concerns about sending their children to schools with a regular police presence.

Respondents raised concerns that the presence of police in schools sees minor behavioural issues escalating into criminal justice issues, lumbering young people with criminal records that affect their future prospects. They also spoke about the stigma attached to schools with school based-police officers, and how that creates a culture of low expectations for students.

When we have raised our concerns about the implementation of school-based police with Greater Manchester Combined Authority, their justification returns to tackling youth violence. However, from our community work, it is abundantly clear that it is not youth violence that is being policed in schools but rather, afro combs, chewing gum, being “loud", and other such non-criminal behaviours or scenarios. School-based police officers turn their attention to such matters because youth violence, a product of state violence, cannot be effectively tackled through increased policing.

The existing landscape, both here and in the US, tells us that police officers are more likely to be based in schools in working-class areas, particularly those with high proportions of black and brown students. It is these same communities that have been neglected by the state, and left to suffer the consequences of deprivation and inequality. These schools and communities need more resources, and what is wanted as a priority, as the report shows, are racially literate youth workers and counsellors, not police.

Many young people have now returned to school, and in just one week, we have already been contacted by families who have reported a range of issues, including officers patrolling the canteen in an intimidating manner, and becoming part of matters that simply should not concern them. A child reported to their parent that they were scared of the officer that patrols the school “with a gun”. Of course, it was not a gun, but we wonder how many children silently and fearfully hold such perceptions.

In some cases, parents are unaware, until No Police In Schools informs them, that their child’s school has a regular police presence. The normalisation of over-policing in some communities means that children do not come home perplexed as to why their education is policed, but (albeit reluctantly) accept of it.

Remi Joseph-Salisbury is a steering group member of the Nothern Police Monitoring Project, and a presidential fellow in ethnicity and inequalities at the University of Manchester

Laura Connelly is a lecturer in criminology at the University of Salford and a steering group member of the Northern Police Monitoring Project

Roxy Legane is the director and founder of Kids of Colour and a steering group member of the Northern Police Monitoring Project