Under the guise of “safety” following the recent nonstop media coverage of the tragic school shootings, Roanoke’s proposed budget for 2019 seeks to expand it’s program of police in elementary schools. While the fear and terror inflicted on communities after such events is very real and should not be downplayed the reality is that schools remain overwhelmingly safe. The odds remain well less than one in a million of a student being shot in a mass shooting at school. As Radley Balko of the Washington Post has pointed out, statistically “the average elementary, middle, or high school can expect to see a mass shooting about once every 150,000 years.”
The odds of police stopping a shooting would logically be less than that; however, increased police presence in schools have shown some effects. As police intrude into school systems, studies show school employees often lean on them, leading to increased police involvement in what were formerly ordinary disciplinary incidents. In Roanoke’s not distant past 1 in 4 “offenders” were referred to police. That number was only cut after public outcries from Virginia Legal Aid Justice Center’s JustChildren program, and the Center for Public Integrity.
The young lives ruined over these policies remain uncounted. Specifically the proposed budget seeks to double the current funding levels for the elementary schools D.A.R.E program. Unfortunately we’ve all seen multiple videos of children in handcuffs when police are involved in schools across the land known as the United States. Black males, who are 9x more likely to be murdered by police than whites, are almost certain to face the most harm from the growing police state. During the 2015-2016 school year Black students made up 44% of the student body in Roanoke schools yet accounted for 2/3rds of suspensions and 57% of police referrals. This proposal increases the likelihood of more of the same.
Few people would suggest looking at legal code as a moral guideline, especially for those being advised to be mentors for children. Nonetheless, on the D.A.R.E. website under policies, cops participating in the D.A.R.E. program are advised: “If a student makes a confidential disclosure applicable state and local laws, and the policies of their school district and police agency shall guide a D.A.R.E. Instructor’s actions. As a designated member of the school faculty, D.A.R.E. Instructors should not, if possible, become involved in any enforcement activities, which may result from a student’s disclosure of information.”
In other words, if an absentminded 5 year old tells an adult, that they have been conditioned to trust, that his parents are undocumented immigrants or a 10 year old mentions finding his parents weed stash, this child would then face the very possible outcome of his young life being ripped apart while the adult he thought he could trust hides in the shadows. Teaching kids to trust untrustworthy adults should be shocking. Unfortunately with the prevailing culture being submission to authority as opposed to thinking critically it’s not shocking at all.
– The Blocked Writer
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