April, 06 2021, 12:00am EDT
New Survey: 41% of Young People Reported Feeling Unsafe When They See Police in Schools
Survey of over 600 students across the country show students feel targeted by police, have regular, negative interactions with police and security, and overwhelmingly favor additional resources and support over more funding for police and security.
WASHINGTON
More than two thirds of students think police should be removed from schools; one in five students reported police verbally harass or make fun of young people in school; and, two out of every five young people surveyed felt unsafe seeing police in schools, according to a new survey released by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD). The new report Arrested Learning: A survey of youth experiences of police and security at school, outlines the results of a survey of over 600 students on their experiences, interactions, and feelings about police and security at school. The report shows that students often feel targeted by police; that they have seen sexual harassment by police; that they have regular, negative interactions with police and security; and that they overwhelmingly favor additional resources and supports (like mental health resources, more teachers, and dedicated youth programs to increase college access) over more funding for police and security.
The report is a result of a national survey from four community-based organizations in New York, New Jersey, Nevada and Oregon: Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC), Make the Road New Jersey (MRNJ), Make the Road Nevada (MRNV) and Latinos Unidos Siempre (LUS).
For more than three decades, Black and brown young people, parents, educators, and communities have organized to dismantle the school-to-prison-and-deportation pipeline. As a core feature of that fight, young people have relentlessly called to remove police from schools. The results of this survey clearly reinforce what young people have already known to be true: police and security at school do not make them safe.
"The school-to-prison-and-deportation pipeline is one of the most egregious examples of systemic racism and state-sanctioned violence in our country," said Kate Terenzi, Senior Policy and Campaign Strategist, Center for Popular Democracy. "For too long abusive policing has dominated school hallways and stifled students' education, funneling them into the criminal legal system. Students deserve more than an education system that is hell-bent on criminalizing them instead of providing them with the resources they need to succeed."
Additional findings include:
- Respondents have experienced a pattern of disturbing behavior in which school police.
- For example, one in five respondents reported police verbally harass or make fun of students (20.3% of respondents).
- In three out of four surveyed jurisdictions, young people experienced or knew someone who experienced sexual harassment at the hands of police at school.
- Police and security at schools do not make students feel safe, especially compared to other people they interact with at school, like teachers and friends.
- More than two thirds of students think police should be removed from schools.
- When asked what makes respondents feel safe (when physically attending school), 83.7% selected friends and 62.7% selected teachers, versus only 15.6% who selected police.
- 41% of young people surveyed feel "very unsafe" or "unsafe" when they see police at school.
- Black and Latinx respondents were more likely to be targeted at metal detectors than white respondents.
- 52.6% of respondents who described their schools as majority Black and 55.7% of those who described their schools as majority Black and Brown reported going through metal detectors daily or multiple times a day, compared to 10.8% of respondents who described their schools as majority white.
- In addition: 34.1% of Black respondents have had their belongings taken, compared to 14.5% of white respondents; 19.4% of Black respondents have been yelled at, compared to 7.9% of white respondents; 34.1% of Black respondents and 22.1% of Latinx respondents have been made to take off their shoes, versus 6.6% of white respondents.
- When asked what they would like to see more or better quality of at school, students overwhelmingly selected resources, programs, and supports--not police or security.
- For example, 78.4% of respondents answered dedicated youth-led programs to increase access to college and financial aid.
Whether in New York, New Jersey, Nevada, or Oregon, the data in Arrested Learning: A survey of youth experiences of police and security at school makes clear that the presence of police does not support students' learning and that young people across the country believe in police-free schools.
"To have police officers at school is a reminder that we must be on guard. Whenever I walk by an officer I hold my breath, take my hands out of my pocket, and try to stand up straight. I'm scared. Now I know half of the young people in our district probably feel the same way. We need police free schools," said Desiree Reyes, Youth Member, Make the Road Nevada. "Not only that, the police are regularly pepper spraying young people --an act that would be considered a war crime in other circumstances." In Clark County, NV more than a quarter of students surveyed have, or personally know someone who has, been pepper sprayed by school police.
"Seeing the statistics from our survey makes me feel disgusted and angry. These are the experiences of young children and teenagers across the country, yet it feels personal because they reflect how I feel. At school, police don't make me feel safe, Instead, they make me feel like I did something wrong. I feel scared that I could be hurt by the school police," said Corrine Blake, Youth Leader, Urban Youth Collaborativein New York "What did we do to deserve police in our schools? We deserve supports and resources, not police."
"Police free schools are just the beginning of dismantling a whole system of policing, which includes policies, attitudes and institutions that place students in the criminal justice system. When we divest funds that go into placing police officers in our schools, we have to reinvest those funds into the education of our young people most impacted by the school to prison and deportation pipeline," said a youth leader from Latinos Unidos Siempre in Salem, Oregon. "When we asked young people what they wanted to see more of in their schools, students ranked teachers and mental health support as their highest priorities. More than 90% of students want culturally responsive education."
CPD and youth organizers across the country are calling for the Biden administration, Congress, state and local officials to adopt the Youth Mandate for Education and Liberation. Endorsed by more than 150 organizations, the Youth Mandate demands that officials fund education, not incarceration, restore and strengthen young people's civil rights in education, uplift public education and end the private takeover of schools. The demands emanate from years of local fights to dismantle the school-to-prison-and-deportation pipeline.
The Center for Popular Democracy works to create equity, opportunity and a dynamic democracy in partnership with high-impact base-building organizations, organizing alliances, and progressive unions. CPD strengthens our collective capacity to envision and win an innovative pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda.
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Critics Blast 'Reckless and Impossible' Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline
"The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over," said one environmental campaigner.
Apr 23, 2024
Environmental defenders on Tuesday ripped the company behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline for asking the federal government—on Earth Day—for permission to start sending methane gas through the 303-mile conduit despite a worsening climate emergency caused largely by burning fossil fuels.
Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements.
"In a manner typical of its ongoing disrespect for the environment, Mountain Valley Pipeline marked Earth Day by asking FERC for authorization to place its dangerous, unnecessary pipeline into service in late May," said Jessica Sims, the Virginia field coordinator for Appalachian Voices.
"MVP brazenly asks for this authorization while simultaneously notifying FERC that the company has completed less than two-thirds of the project to final restoration and with the mere promise that it will notify the commission when it fully complies with the requirements of a consent decree it entered into with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration last fall," she continued.
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Russell Chisholm, co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition—which called MVP's request "reckless and impossible"—said in a statement that "we are watching our worst nightmare unfold in real-time: The reckless MVP is barreling towards completion."
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POWHR and activists representing frontline communities affected by the pipeline are set to take part in a May 8 demonstration outside project financier Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Appalachian Voices noted that MVP's request comes days before pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream is set to release its 2024 first-quarter earnings information on April 30.
MVP is set to traverse much of Virginia and West Virginia, with the Southgate extension running into North Carolina. Outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and other pipeline proponents fought to include expedited construction of the project in the debt ceiling deal negotiated between President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans last year.
On Monday, climate and environmental defenders also petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, challenging FERC's approval of the MVP's planned Southgate extension, contending that the project is so different from original plans that the government's previous assent is now irrelevant.
"Federal, state, and local elected officials have spoken out against this unneeded proposal to ship more methane gas into North Carolina," said Sierra Club senior field organizer Caroline Hansley. "The time to build more dirty and dangerous pipelines is over. After MVP Southgate requested a time extension for a project that it no longer plans to construct, it should be sent back to the drawing board for this newly proposed project."
David Sligh, conservation director at Wild Virginia, said: "Approving the Southgate project is irresponsible. This project will pose the same kinds of threats of damage to the environment and the people along its path as we have seen caused by the Mountain Valley Pipeline during the last six years."
"FERC has again failed to protect the public interest, instead favoring a profit-making corporation," Sligh added.
Others renewed warnings about the dangers MVP poses to wildlife.
"The endangered bats, fish, mussels, and plants in this boondoggle's path of destruction deserve to be protected from killing and habitat destruction by a project that never received proper approvals in the first place," Center for Biological Diversity attorney Perrin de Jong said. "Our organization will continue fighting this terrible idea to the bitter end."
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U.S. workers' rights advocates and groups celebrated on Tuesday after the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve a ban on most noncompete clauses, which Democratic FTC Chair Lina Khansaid "keep wages low, suppress new ideas, and rob the American economy of dynamism."
"The FTC's final rule to ban noncompetes will ensure Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market," Khan added, pointing to the commission's estimates that the policy could mean another $524 for the average worker, over 8,500 new startups, and 17,000 to 29,000 more patents each year.
As Economic Policy Institute (EPI) president Heidi Shierholz explained, "Noncompete agreements are employment provisions that ban workers at one company from working for, or starting, a competing business within a certain period of time after leaving a job."
"These agreements are ubiquitous," she noted, applauding the ban. "EPI research finds that more than 1 out of every 4 private-sector workers—including low-wage workers—are required to enter noncompete agreements as a condition of employment."
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has suggested it plans to file a lawsuit that, as The American Prospectdetailed, "could more broadly threaten the rulemaking authority the FTC cited when proposing to ban noncompetes."
Already, the tax services and software provider Ryan has filed a legal challenge in federal court in Texas, arguing that the FTC is unconstitutionally structured.
Still, the Democratic commissioners' vote was still heralded as a "seismic win for workers." Echoing Khan's critiques of such noncompetes, Public Citizen executive vice president Lisa Gilbert declared that such clauses "inflict devastating harms on tens of millions of workers across the economy."
"The pervasive use of noncompete clauses limits worker mobility, drives down wages, keeps Americans from pursuing entrepreneurial dreams and creating new businesses, causes more concentrated markets, and keeps workers stuck in unsafe or hostile workplaces," she said. "Noncompete clauses are both an unfair method of competition and aggressively harmful to regular people. The FTC was right to tackle this issue and to finalize this strong rule."
Morgan Harper, director of policy and advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project, praised the FTC for "listening to the comments of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers of all income levels across industries" and finalizing a rule that "is a clear-cut win."
Demand Progress' Emily Peterson-Cassin similarly commended the commission "for taking a strong stance against this egregious use of corporate power, thereby empowering workers to switch jobs and launch new ventures, and unlocking billions of dollars in worker earnings."
While such agreements are common across various industries, Teófilo Reyes, chief of staff at the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, said that "many restaurant workers have been stuck at their job, earning as low as $2.13 per hour, because of the noncompete clause that they agreed to have in their contract."
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Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) executive director Mike Pierce pointed out that the FTC on Tuesday "recognized the harmful role debt plays in the workplace, including the growing use of training repayment agreement provisions, or TRAPs, and took action to outlaw TRAPs and all other employer-driven debt that serve the same functions as noncompete agreements."
Sandeep Vaheesan, legal director at Open Markets Institute, highlighted that the addition came after his group, SBPC, and others submitted comments on the "significant gap" in the commission's initial January 2023 proposal, and also welcomed that "the final rule prohibits both conventional noncompete clauses and newfangled versions like TRAPs."
Jonathan Harris, a Loyola Marymount University law professor and SBPC senior fellow, said that "by also banning functional noncompetes, the rule stays one step ahead of employers who use 'stay-or-pay' contracts as workarounds to existing restrictions on traditional noncompetes. The FTC has decided to try to avoid a game of whack-a-mole with employers and their creative attorneys, which worker advocates will applaud."
Among those applauding was Jean Ross, president of National Nurses United, who said that "the new FTC rule will limit the ability of employers to use debt to lock nurses into unsafe jobs and will protect their role as patient advocates."
Angela Huffman, president of Farm Action, also cheered the effort to stop corporations from holding employees "hostage," saying that "this rule is a critical step for protecting our nation's workers and making labor markets fairer and more competitive."
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One plaintiffs' attorney said the ruling "makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society."
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Democracy defenders on Tuesday hailed a ruling from a U.S. federal judge striking down a 19th-century North Carolina law criminalizing people who vote while on parole, probation, or post-release supervision due to a felony conviction.
In Monday's decision, U.S. District Judge Loretta C. Biggs—an appointee of former Democratic President Barack Obama—sided with the North Carolina A. Philip Randolph Institute and Action NC, who argued that the 1877 law discriminated against Black people.
"The challenged statute was enacted with discriminatory intent, has not been cleansed of its discriminatory taint, and continues to disproportionately impact Black voters," Biggs wrote in her 25-page ruling.
Therefore, according to the judge, the 1877 law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause.
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Voting rights tracker Democracy Docket noted that Monday's ruling "does not have any bearing on North Carolina's strict felony disenfranchisement law, which denies the right to vote for those with felony convictions who remain on probation, parole, or a suspended sentence—often leaving individuals without voting rights for many years after release from incarceration."
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"It also makes our democracy better and ensures that North Carolina is not able to unjustly criminalize innocent individuals with felony convictions who are valued members of our society, specifically Black voters who were the target of this law," Brown added.
North Carolina officials have not said whether they will appeal Biggs' ruling. The state Department of Justice said it was reviewing the decision.
According to Forward Justice—a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy center dedicated to advancing racial, social, and economic justice in the U.S. South, "Although Black people constitute 21% of the voting-age population in North Carolina, they represent 42% of the people disenfranchised while on probation, parole, or post-release supervision."
The group notes that in 44 North Carolina counties, "the disenfranchisement rate for Black people is more than three times the rate of the white population."
"Judge Biggs' decision will help ensure that voters who mistakenly think they are eligible to cast a ballot will not be criminalized for simply trying to re-engage in the political process and perform their civic duty."
In what one civil rights leader called "the largest expansion of voting rights in this state since the 1965 Voting Rights Act," a three-judge state court panel voted 2-1 in 2021 to restore voting rights to approximately 55,000 formerly incarcerated felons. The decision made North Carolina the only Southern state to automatically restore former felons' voting rights.
Republican state legislators appealed that ruling to the North Carolina Court of Appeals, which in 2022 granted their request for a stay—but only temporarily, as the court allowed a previous injunction against any felony disenfranchisement based on fees or fines to stand.
However, last April the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the three-judge panel decision, stripping voting rights from thousands of North Carolinians previously convicted of felonies. Dissenting Justice Anita Earls opined that "the majority's decision in this case will one day be repudiated on two grounds."
"First, because it seeks to justify the denial of a basic human right to citizens and thereby perpetuates a vestige of slavery, and second, because the majority violates a basic tenant of appellate review by ignoring the facts as found by the trial court and substituting its own," she wrote.
As similar battles play out in other states, Democratic U.S. lawmakers led by Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont in December introduced legislation to end former felon disenfranchisement in federal elections and guarantee incarcerated people the right to vote.
Currently, only Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia allow all incarcerated people to vote behind bars.
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