CeaseFirePA, Education Law Center Statement on Bill Authorizing Arming More School Personnel

Senate Bill 621, which broadens the categories of school personnel who can carry weapons in schools, approved by the Pennsylvania legislature, was signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf on July 2, 2019. The Education Law Center and CeaseFirePA had opposed the bill and urged the governor to veto it. In a joint statement on the bill, the two organizations point out that Gov. Wolf’s interpretation of the bill is that it excludes non-security personnel from being armed in schools. The bill, however, does allow school security guards, including personnel from private security firms, to carry weapons in schools.

Read the joint statement.

Statement to the State Board of Education on the Model Memorandum of Understanding Between Schools and Police

The PA Safe Schools Act, amended in 2010, requires all Pennsylvania school districts to draw up a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local law enforcement agencies to govern their working relationship. The state then created a model MOU addressing school-police cooperation, which must be reviewed every two years and guides the drafting of local MOUs.  In September 2018, ELC submitted comments on the model MOU to the Pennsylvania State Board of Education School and University Safety Committee, including recommended changes to avoid the overcriminalization of student behavior and the racial disproportionality in school discipline and police-involved incidents.

Pennsylvania’s New Budget: For Education, Barely a Start

Pennsylvania has an on-time budget for 2018-19, approved by the legislature and signed by Gov. Wolf on June 22. It provides modest but needed new funding for Pennsylvania’s schoolchildren. While the additional dollars for schools help, this budget increase provides only a small fraction of what is needed for an adequately and equitably funded statewide public education system. The heavy lifting is still needed as urgently as ever to address shortfalls in school funding across the state. Read more here.

Education Law Center Submits Testimony on School Safety to PA House Education Committee

The Education Law Center submitted testimony to a March 15, 2018, Pennsylvania House Education Committee hearing on school safety. We urge officials to reject militarized responses to school violence and to focus instead on strategies to foster a school climate that is supportive of all students and attentive to students experiencing trouble or trauma. The hearing comes one day after thousands of students joined the National Student Walkout, calling for action against gun violence. Read our testimony here.

 

 

 

 

Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance

Zero Tolerance For Zero Tolerance

The role of police officers in schools

November 3, 2015 – WHYY Radio Times

Guests: Kevin Bethel, Harold Jordan and Deborah Gordon Klehr

The nation was shocked by a recent video of a South Carolina sheriff’s deputy throwing a black high school girl to the floor and arresting her after she refused to leave the classroom. Since the late 1990’s, police officers have had a greater and routine presence in American schools. The result is a dramatic increase in student arrests and the rise of the disturbing trend called the school-to-prison pipeline. The effect has been profound among blacks and Latinos. This morning on Radio Times we explore the role of police officers in schools. Does their presence serve to remedy difficult situations or cause the escalation of conflict? We’ll talk with Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner KEVIN BETHEL, who works with the School District of Philadelphia and the juvenile justice system to keep students in school and out of court. He’ll be joined by education activist HAROLD JORDAN of the Pennsylvania ACLU, author of a recent report Beyond Zero Tolerance: Discipline and Policing in Pennsylvania Public Schools. We’ll also hear from DEBORAH GORDON KLEHR of the Education Law Center about the need for mandating training of school police officers.

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Philly district orders school police to stay out of level 1 offenses

March 25, 2014 – by Kevin McCorry, Newsworks – Philadelphia School District has directed school police officers to stop responding to calls related to Level 1 student conduct offenses. The proscribed violations range from “failure to follow classroom rules” to “truancy” to “verbal altercations” to “inappropriate touching/public displays of affection.”

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