A fight had been brewing between two girls at Grady High School and was on the verge of erupting in the cafeteria. Willette Barr, one of Grady鈥檚 school resource officers, and her partner Derrick Hammond, stepped in to intervene. In her rage, one of the girls started swinging at Hammond, an action that in other schools鈥攁nd almost certainly on the street鈥攚ould have been met forcefully by the two officers and may have led to the girl鈥檚 arrest.
Instead, Barr and Hammond stayed calm.
Along with a Grady assistant principal, Barr鈥攚ho previously worked as a county sheriff鈥檚 deputy鈥攕at with the two girls to talk through what happened. And why.
It took some digging, but Barr and the school administrator uncovered the root of their squabble. Both girls鈥� families were living in the same homeless shelter, and one of them, who had lived there longer, saw herself in the role of big sister. The other girl, however, was overwhelmed by the attention.
The students explained that if they got into trouble, their families would be asked to leave the shelter, raising the stakes of the fight even higher for school officials, who spent several hours helping them resolve their conflict.
Barr鈥檚 approach鈥攖alking with the girls to ease the friction, rather than disciplining them鈥攊s an integral part of the Atlanta school district鈥檚 comprehensive plan to improve school climate for its 51,000 students. That plan includes forming its own police force, hiring 68 new school resource officers like Barr, and providing ongoing training about how to work in a school environment. The officers have been taught things Barr didn鈥檛 learn in her more traditional law enforcement training, like how the teenage brain develops and how to interact with students to resolve conflicts.
鈥淢y expectation is for them to be who they are, and that鈥檚 kids,鈥� Barr said.
The district鈥檚 new police department is the first step in Atlanta鈥檚 efforts to confront a challenge many urban school systems have not easily tackled: concerns that putting police in schools undermines efforts to create a safe and supportive learning environment, and that their presence too often leads schools to treat routine student misbehavior in a criminal manner.
While Atlanta鈥檚 plans have already brought big changes to how policing looks in the school system, they don鈥檛 adhere to what some national civil rights groups have called for, which is much tighter restrictions on officers鈥� interactions with students or removing them from schools all together. Mediating conflicts and mentoring students are better left to school counselors and other school staff without arresting authority, those groups argue.
The district鈥檚 school-climate strategy focuses on teaching students social-emotional skills such as tactics for controlling their behavior and emotions and forming strong relationships with peers. District leaders have also embraced the use of conflict resolution techniques and restorative practices to drive down the numbers of students who get suspended. There鈥檚 a court-diversion program that uses community outreach and mentoring to address some student behavior issues. And leaders plan to closely track data to monitor whether school climate is actually getting better.
Anchoring that strategy is a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institute of Justice that pairs the district with researchers from WestEd and Georgia State University to design and evaluate a comprehensive school safety plan. Leaders of that work hope Atlanta can become a model for other districts.
Serious Safety Issues
It鈥檚 a mammoth challenge. School climate initiatives revolve around trust between students, staff, parents, and teachers, and the confidence that Atlanta had in its city schools had frayed in recent years after a test-cheating scandal that led to criminal convictions for 11 teachers.
And it鈥檚 not a small thing to ask Atlanta鈥檚 student population鈥攚hich is 76 percent black鈥攖o trust police officers in their schools when there鈥檚 a pervasive distrust of law enforcement in many African-American communities. That concern has been exacerbated in the wake of multiple high-profile police shootings of unarmed African-Americans in recent years, Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said.
The Atlanta district had 29 school-related arrests and 31 referrals to law enforcement in 2013-14, the most recent federal civil rights data show. An Education Week Research Center analysis of that data shows that all of the arrested students were African-American while most of those referred to police were also black. No white students were arrested or referred to police.
When Carstarphen came to the district in July 2014, she identified improving its culture鈥攊ncluding its policing strategy鈥攁s a major priority.
The safety issues the district faced were 鈥渓ike nothing I鈥檝e ever seen,鈥� she said.
In 2013, for example, a Grady High student accidentally shot herself in the thigh after illegally carrying a gun on campus. In 2014, a driver used pepper spray to break up a fight between a group of high school students on a school bus. And in 2015, a student was critically injured and a passerby was wounded in a shooting near Grady High School鈥檚 stadium after a football game. The researchers for WestEd outlined additional concerns.
The district鈥檚 graduation rate was 71.1 percent, compared to 79 percent statewide in 2016, state data show. In the first three months of the 2014-15 school year, there were nearly 2,400 suspensions, both in-school and out-of-school, district data show, 鈥渁nd half were due to non-violent behavioral issues, such as disruptive behavior and student incivility,鈥� the researchers wrote in the grant application for the National Institute of Justice.
A 2012 audit found that 34 percent of students 鈥渋ndicated that classroom behaviors prevented their teachers from teaching so they could learn,鈥� the application said. And, in 2014, more than 30 percent of Atlanta鈥檚 schools ranked as in need of improvement on Georgia鈥檚 School Climate assessment. That assessment, compiled by the state department of education, factors in student survey responses, discipline data, and attendance data into its ratings. 69传媒 that score a 1 or 2 on the five-point scale are considered below satisfactory levels, a designation given to about 15 percent of rated schools statewide that year.
Atlanta鈥檚 district leaders had considered standing up their own police force before, not unusual for larger districts, including many that surround the city. Carstarphen supported that plan and decided it should be integrated into the district鈥檚 bigger push for improving school climate.
Every interaction a student has before they reach the classroom鈥攚ith bus drivers, with staff who greet them at the entrance to the school, with officers monitoring their campuses鈥攃an either 鈥渢urn that kid up and make them frustrated and angry, or take the temperature down,鈥� Carstarphen said.
鈥淚 wanted to start it right,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 wanted it to be built in a model that was about supporting, counseling, mentoring, helping, teaching, but also policing. 鈥 wanted [students] leaving their school experience respecting an officer of the law but not fearing them in an unhealthy way where they鈥檙e the enemy and they鈥檙e here to get me.鈥�
Unique Assignment
Launching an in-house police department didn鈥檛 come without blowback. It faced criticism from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who said that he feared removing city officers from the schools would 鈥渕ake the children of the Atlanta school system far less safe,鈥� the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported. For the city, it meant the end of a $5.6 million annual contract to place its police in district schools.
Atlanta school officials say their officers are equipped to keep schools safe. The district requires three years of law enforcement experience from prospective school resource officers, and many of those it has hired have experience working in school districts and in local police departments around the state. Some even previously worked in Atlanta schools or for other school-based agencies.
Ronald Applin, the district鈥檚 police chief, is a former captain in the Fulton County Sheriff鈥檚 Department. He said principals now have some say in which officers are placed in their schools, and that school resource officers will receive ongoing training on issues like how to interact with students and the district鈥檚 approach to discipline. Atlanta鈥檚 SROs are trained to take a preventative approach that has them talking with students on campus throughout the day to identify and solve problems in their early stages.
Autumn Koins, a senior at Grady, said she鈥檚 noticed a difference in how the officers interact with students.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not just there to be intimidating,鈥� she said.
Barr, one of Grady鈥檚 SROs, once intervened in a dispute between Koins and a classmate.
鈥淪he wasn鈥檛 saying, 鈥榶ou do this or I鈥檓 going to do this,鈥欌�� Koins said. 鈥淪he said: 鈥榊ou鈥檙e better than this.鈥欌��
Officers focus much of their time on getting to know students and becoming friendly with them. When it comes to discipline, though, they are only supposed to be called to intervene in violent or potentially violent situations, a policy more clearly outlined in the new policing model, several city principals said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not only a shift for us; it鈥檚 also a shift for our children,鈥� said Artesza Portee, the principal at Sylvan Hills Middle School. 鈥淪o often they see law enforcement as people who will do harm to them.鈥�
Officers placed in schools should demonstrate that they want to work with students and receive special training to do so, said Mo Canady, the executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, which helped Atlanta with some training.
鈥淚t鈥檚 such a unique environment,鈥� Canady said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 not another law enforcement assignment like that.鈥�
That鈥檚 because students are still developing physically, emotionally, and psychologically, he said. Their impulse control isn鈥檛 as strong as adults鈥� and they often respond to confrontation differently. In Canady鈥檚 training, officers learn that frontal lobes in the brains of teens and adolescents鈥攚hich are responsible for behavior and control鈥攄on鈥檛 finish developing until adulthood. He sometimes has to extend that session because of officers鈥� interest in the subject, he said.
School-based officers must also be sensitive to the unique needs of students with disabilities, who may respond in ways that look defiant when they are really just overwhelmed with trying to process a situation, Canady said.
Which students are arrested most in school? Use our data tool to explore student arrest rates and referrals to law enforcement at national, state, and local levels.
SOURCE: Education Week Research Center original analysis of Civil Rights Data Collection, 2017
An Education Week Research Center analysis of federal civil rights data show that the nationwide arrest and referral rates for students with disabilities are more than double that of the entire student population. Those disparities are magnified when they are students of color.
Solving Conflicts In-House
69传媒鈥� sense of safety and belonging can have profound effects on how they do academically, said David Osher, who is vice president and institute fellow at the American Institutes for Research and the principal investigator of the National Center on Safe and Supportive Learning Environments.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e not being treated fairly, if your perception is that people like you are punished disproportionately, it affects your short-term motivation, and it also affects your engagement in school,鈥� he said.
Researchers have found a host of negative outcomes associated with early interactions with the criminal justice system, from higher dropout rates to an increased chance of later incarceration.
Atlanta hopes to reduce students鈥� contact with the justice system even more through a voluntary court diversion program modeled on Clayton County, Ga., juvenile court Judge Steven Teske鈥檚 efforts, which have won praise from national civil rights groups. To reduce court referrals for students, Teske struck an agreement with Clayton County schools that students won鈥檛 be the subject of criminal complaints for the first offense of 鈥渕isdemeanor delinquent acts,鈥� like fighting or disrupting a school. Instead, they are referred to school-based conflict-resolution programs.
The Atlanta district signed onto a voluntary agreement with the Fulton County Juvenile Court last March, but it does not restrict the district from making criminal referrals for students. By signing on, however, school officials agreed to strive to channel misdemeanor offenses and delinquent acts through a tiered system of interventions rather than immediately filing court complaints.
That response plan includes verbal warnings and interventions like anger management classes. At the top tier of interventions, Atlanta officials are working with community organizations to find unique mentoring and learning experiences for students that correlate with their behavior, said Marquenta Sands Hall, the district鈥檚 director of security.
Already this year, a school counselor took a student who was 鈥渁cting tough鈥� and getting into fights to visit a man at a hospital who鈥檇 been wounded by gunfire to show him what might happen if his behavior escalated, Sands Hall said.
鈥淭he majority of what we鈥檙e dealing with are kids getting into what we call low-hanging fruit types of acts,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut they are gateway types of acts, and we need to respond to them.鈥�
To comply with juvenile justice reforms the state passed in 2016, Atlanta鈥檚 agreement also more clearly outlines the role of school resource officers.
What Role Should Police Play?
To be sure, changes in school safety and discipline plans like Atlanta is embarking on aren鈥檛 always smooth.
In some districts that have sought to introduce discipline alternatives, such as Los Angeles Unified, teachers and teachers鈥� unions have complained that school leaders eliminated their ability to suspend students without committing enough resources to training them in new methods, such as restorative practices. The results, they say, have been chaotic learning environments in some schools. Some teachers in other areas have also expressed safety concerns after districts changed discipline approaches.
Verdaillia Turner, the president of the Atlanta Federation of Teachers, said the district鈥檚 teachers are wary of programs and initiatives that have come and gone quickly in recent years.
鈥淐hildren learn in spite of it,鈥� said Turner, who said she favors focusing money on community schools and student supports to address issues related to student poverty. That鈥檚 a departure from the positions of some local teachers鈥� unions in other areas, which have favored police presence in schools.
Like Turner, many national civil rights groups agree that school police should be restricted even more than they are in Atlanta. They argue for limitations even on casual interactions with students and keeping police out of common areas like cafeterias unless they are called to respond. Some favor removing police from schools entirely and spending the money instead on personnel like school counselors and social workers.
David Payne, a civil rights advocate and director of the Atlanta Community Engagement Team, said he understands the desire to keep police in Atlanta鈥檚 schools, but he hopes that school climate work and improved relationships between students and adults will reduce the need for a law enforcement presence in the future.
Neighborhood and parent groups plan to monitor school discipline data as the district carries out its plans, he said.
Officer Kimberly Chamblee works at Sylvan Hills Middle School. She says it鈥檚 important for her to 鈥渒now all of the kids, not just the ones who have issues.鈥�
Sylvan Hills has a social-emotional learning period built into its schedule every day, and it uses peer mediation groups to address some student behavioral issues. Chamblee quickly adopted the approach by asking students about the cause of their behavior at the moment she intervenes.
Once, the officer asked a girl to throw away a bag of hot fries before she entered the building鈥攁 routine practice because junk food isn鈥檛 allowed. When the girl resisted, Chamblee pulled the student aside to a private room, where she told the officer that her family shares a house with others, and children were stealing her food at night.
Chamblee took the girl to school staff, who ensured that she had food to take home.
鈥淓verything doesn鈥檛 have to be 鈥榶ou鈥檙e going to jail,鈥� 鈥� Chamblee said.
