Black Iowa students are arrested at nearly four times the rate of their peers, ACLU report finds
TheGrio...
Researchers found Black students were referred to law enforcement twice as often and arrested 3.7 times as often as their peers.
A new report released by the ACLU of Iowa says school resource officers disproportionately push Black students into law enforcement referrals and arrests without proven safety benefits. The Iowa school police report adds findings to theGrio’s coverage of why Black students feel less safe around officers and how school arrest disparities feed the school-to-prison pipeline.
The new ACLU report identified at least 130 officers across 78 Iowa districts, about one-fourth of the state’s school systems. Researchers sent open-records requests to 87 districts and 67 law enforcement agencies, using the responses to examine programs and civil rights data to measure arrest and referral patterns.
Black students make up 7% of Iowa’s student population but account for 13% of law enforcement referrals and 21% of school-based arrests. The report calculated that Black students were referred at twice the rate of other students and arrested at 3.7 times the rate.
Students with disabilities represent 13% of Iowa students but accounted for 27% of referrals and 26% of arrests, making them 2.3 times as likely to experience either outcome as students without disabilities.
The ACLU’s review said it could not identify a national study clearly showing that schools with resource officers are safer. The organization instead said records showed officers becoming involved in conduct usually handled through school discipline or student support.
Reports included interventions involving vaping, name-calling, rumors and pushing. In Perry, officers were called over incidents involving a 7-year-old running through a hallway and a 6-year-old disrupting a classroom. In Pella, an officer investigated a playground dispute between children ages 9 and 10.
The school policing findings showed that 78% of districts had no special SRO training requirements beyond law enforcement preparation. Fifty-eight percent of responding agencies had no formal specialized training requirement, while 44% of districts could not produce a policy for notifying parents when officers questioned students.
The report estimated the average cost of employing an SRO to be at least $98,000, compared with a $70,015 average base salary for a school counselor. The ACLU recommended eliminating SRO programs and redirecting resources toward counselors and student support services.
Where districts retain officers, the organization called for stricter training, clearer limits on police involvement, improved reporting, parental notification and complaint procedures.