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(108,903 posts) Tue Feb 25, 2014, 08:31 AM Feb 2014

San Francisco Takes Lead Defining Role of School Police, Sets Limits on Interrogations, Arrests

http://www.alternet.org/education/san-francisco-takes-lead-defining-role-school-police-sets-limits-interrogations-arrests

As debate over harsh school discipline heats up nationwide, San Francisco is taking a lead role among big cities by formally limiting the role of police on campuses and requiring specific types of training for school-based officers.

The California city known for its progressive politics is putting the final touches this month on a new agreement, or memorandum of understanding, between the city’s police department and schools that’s designed to further restrain law enforcement involvement in routine discipline and ensure that arrests of students are a last resort.

“This is really extraordinary work,” said Matt Haney, a San Francisco Board of Education commissioner, at a meeting of the board this month. “We realize that there is an important role for police officers on our campuses, but only in very specific, narrow situations.”

Karn Saetang, an organizer with Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth in San Francisco, said: “We’re putting the responsibility for student behavior back where it belongs, with educators, students and parents, not with police. When police get involved in school discipline, it sends all the wrong messages to students.”