In Theory: Should police be involved in student discipline?
Footage of a South Carolina sheriff’s deputy pulling a student out of her desk and throwing her across a classroom floor went viral in late October, prompting discussions about the role of law enforcement in schools.
Deputy Ben Fields, who is white, is seen on video confronting a black female student at Spring Valley High School, who had reportedly not listened to orders from her teacher and the school’s assistant principal to leave the classroom after texting in class.
The deputy has been fired and federal and state officials have opened civil rights investigations into the case.
The student seen in the video faces a misdemeanor charge under South Carolina’s “disturbing school” law.
One of the biggest points of discussion about the incident has become whether or not schools should turn to police to discipline students.
Janel George, senior education policy counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, “What we find is school safety becomes conflated with school discipline — officers dealing with classroom disruptions, dress code infractions, minor discipline infractions that in the past would have been handled by teachers.”
Q: When it comes to disciplining youth at school, when and to what degree should law enforcement get involved?
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I agree with recent L.A. Times editorials, along with many other voices, that the police have no place in school discipline. Teachers should not be allowed to call them in to handle classroom behavior. (Responding to actual or threatened assault anywhere is the job of police, of course.)
The South Carolina horror took place in a county whose sheriff’s office is already under federal investigation for discrimination in their school security program, meaning the incidence of suspension, expulsion and other disciplinary actions. That the sheriff’s office is making these education decisions is mind-boggling.
Nationally, minority and disabled students are more likely to be suspended or even arrested for school misbehavior. It is distressing that police are called in when a student’s mental, emotional or physical disability has contributed to their not following school rules.
The New York Times in condemning police-driven school discipline points out that it is bad educational policy, has not made schools safer, and makes kids both more likely to drop out and to get into the criminal justice system.
For decades social justice advocates have spoken out against this “school to prison pipeline” in poor and working class neighborhoods. Good that the wider society has begun now to pay attention.
Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose
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Today there is less respect for authority figures. As evident in the story, this student was disrespectful and refused the commands of her teacher. Likewise, she feared no repercussion from the summoned principal.
Years ago, the mere threat of being sent to the principal was enough to quell misbehavior. But now, how do teachers teach when students won’t conform to civilized decorum? Here, the teacher called for help, and that help proved help-less.
The two ineffectual adults then called the professional, and when he arrived and took action, everyone was shocked. Why? This girl was asked repeatedly in a civilized manner, and she responded with disdain.
The officer forcibly removed her in the same manner he might if a driver refused to step out of the car, or a suspect refused to be handcuffed. We’ve seen cops grapple with noncompliant perps whenever they refuse to respect the law, and generally we applaud police success at securing such sociopaths.
What could have been done otherwise? If the juvenile delinquent refused to leave, what else was there to do but forcibly extricate her? One might suggest having the adults pick her entire chair up and removing her from the room, but what if she starts hitting them, as was reported she did to the cop?
Ultimately, an undisciplined teen caused this incident. There wouldn’t be an issue if she was a good girl who obeyed the teacher and behaved as socially expected. Instead, all the bleeding hearts are painting her as a victim because someone actually did something requiring force.
Law enforcement is just that, the means of keeping law by “force.” That’s why cops carry guns, batons and pepper spray. They maintain peace by superior force.
Scripture says, “The policeman is sent by God to help you. But if you are doing something wrong, of course you should be afraid, for he will have you punished” (Rom 13:4 TLB).
If the school staff cannot maintain order because students are becoming juvenile delinquents, then police will be required. If police are required, then expect that they will act like police. Of course, we could just empower the faculty, expel the students, and fine the parents. Anyone?
Rev. Bryan A. Griem
Tujunga
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The video of the policeman dragging the student out of the classroom is disturbing, at least. Horrifying at most. More troubling, though, is the fact that the policeman is there at all. My policy — as well as that of most, if not all, of the teachers I’ve taught with — is that the only time a policeman should be called to the classroom is when someone was in physical danger. Texting on a phone is not dangerous except to the texter. As the texter was being openly defiant, the teacher may have called for an administrator to come and remove the student, which is standard procedure, not the police.
So, I have a few questions, did the teacher call for the police? Or did an administrator, who did not want to get involved, call? Further, being this was a secondary class, with a set time limit, why didn’t the teacher just wait for the class and hence, the texting, to end? And in the meantime, give the students a “pop quiz.” That way the texter would either continue texting and fail, or stop texting and become part of the class again. Let us remember, the grand disruption of the police involvement was greater than the texting was to begin with.
Rabbi Mark Sobel
Temple Beth Emet
Burbank