NYC Calls The Cops On Unruly Elementary Schoolers Hundreds of Times Each Year

[Kamaji]

New York City Calls The Cops On Unruly Elementary Schoolers Hundreds of Times Each Year

While city policy dictates that 911 calls should only occur when a student poses a genuine safety threat, parents say it's become a run-of-the-mill disciplinary tactic.

EMMA CAMP
5.10.2023

Each year, police are called thousands of times to New York City schools over incidents where children become emotionally distressed or disruptive. In 2022, according to a new investigation published jointly by ProPublica and THE CITY, schools called police 560 times to deal with children under 10 years old. Even when they don't threaten themselves or others, these children are frequently restrained by police or sent to local hospitals. Some of these children have been as young as four years old.

According to THE CITY reporter Abigail Kramer, New York City public school employees called the police on emotionally distressed students 2,656 times in 2022. In five incidents, school employees called the police on four-year-olds. While black students only make up 25 percent of New York City schools' population, they comprise 46 percent of "child in crisis" police calls and 59 percent of the students who are handcuffed at school.

While New York City schools policy dictates that a police call should only be used as a last resort, parents told Kramer that school officials used these calls to punish unruly students who were not posing a legitimate safety threat. Further, these parents claimed that police calls frequently ended with their children—many of whom have developmental disabilities—being taken to local hospitals despite no medical emergencies occurring, leading to expensive medical bills.

According to Kramer, school officials called the police on a second-grader named Ethan three times in several weeks. His mother told Kramer that the boy "was a gentle and sweet kid at home," who often got "got overwhelmed and acted out at school" by running out of the classroom or hitting other children.

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Source:  https://reason.com/2023/05/10/new-york-city-calls-the-cops-on-unruly-elementary-schoolers-hundreds-of-times-each-year/

[Kamaji]

[Smokin Joe]

One track mounted nun per school, with WMD (weapon of metacarpal destruction: Hickory yardstick with brass end caps) was all it took to sort out any grade classroom in my day...