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The social movement for #PoliceFreeSchools (and the adjacent campaign on college and university campuses called #PoliceFreeCampuses) welcomes an opportunity to reimagine school discipline and safety in contradistinction to current carceral forms. Scholars have moved away from notions of "school to prison pipeline" by demonstrating the many ways schools are organized as carceral spaces (e.g., school-prison nexus). A conceptual framework of Anti-carceral leadership is put forward in this paper to underscore the need for a leadership paradigm that actively refuses the logics of the carceral state (e.g., social control). The paper underscores how the logics of antiblackness may sustain mechanisms of social control in education policy intended to undo racialized harm. The tensions of be(com)ing an anti-carceral leader and its significance for undoing technologies of punishment, confinement, and constraint that reinforce schooling as a site of Black pain and suffering are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Criminalization of Childhood and Adolescence" is a review of the book "Willful Defiance: The Movement to Dismantle the School-To-Prison Pipeline" by Mark R. Warren. The review discusses the disproportionate impact of the school-to-prison pipeline on children of color, children with disabilities, and LGBTQ youth. It highlights the negative consequences of zero tolerance policies and the presence of police in schools, including increased arrests and racial disparities. The review emphasizes the need for reform and alternative approaches, such as restorative justice and counseling, to create safer and more equitable school environments. It also acknowledges recent resistance to these reforms and the importance of revisiting the lessons presented in the book. "Willful Defiance" by Professor Daniel J. Losen and Professor Russell J. Skiba is a book that explores the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) and provides practical guidance on how to dismantle it. The book focuses on the experiences of black and brown parents and communities affected by the STPP and emphasizes the importance of community organizing and grassroots empowerment. It discusses the history and evolution of the STPP, as well as community-based initiatives to challenge zero tolerance policies. The book also addresses the significance of centering the voices and stories of affected communities and the challenges of collaborating with national advocacy efforts. While progress has been made in reducing suspension rates, racial disparities persist, and the book calls for the authentic implementation of strategies to transform school climate and culture. It also recognizes the need [Extracted from the article]

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) describes in shorthand the problematic relationship between some students' school experiences and their subsequent incarceration. One summer, in response to vocal concerned parents, a suburban school board adopted a zero-tolerance policy for smoking and vaping. Through the combined effects of the zero-tolerance approach, exclusionary punishments, the presence of SROs (school resource officers), racially disproportionate disciplinary practices, and a culturally nonresponsive school setting, 90 students were introduced to the criminal justice system in one school year. This case helps school leaders examine the elements of the STPP and how they work together to damaging effect. The questions and activities will guide readers to develop multiple ways to forestall and/or repair STPP supporting policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increases in student experiences with social and mental health, acts of violence, and the school-to-prison nexus have prompted many schools to evaluate alternatives to safety that are equitable, inclusive, and student and family-centered. Punitive approaches to school safety have been shown to disproportionately affect underserved schools and students, especially racially- and ethnically-minoritized students, students with disabilities, LGBTQ + students, and students of low socioeconomic status. Building on an equity-based framework, we reviewed the literature on school safety alternatives that promote a safe, inclusive campus and foster students' overall wellbeing. In our scoping review, we identified 17 alternatives aligned with the equity-based framework. We then used an integrative review to organize these alternatives into four approaches: Equity and Inclusion, Social-psychological, Community-based, and Self-governance. Research findings of these approaches support the adoption of programs and practices across these four areas to enhance students' overall well-being and provide an equitable and safe environment for all within the school community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based policing programs started as far back in the USA as the 1950s and became more popular in part as concerns about school safety increased. After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the scrutiny of municipal police extended to school policing, and the concerns that policing exacerbates the school-to-prison pipeline, particularly for Black and Brown children, led several districts to remove officers from their schools. However, some of these same districts have reinstated police following widespread reports of fighting and behavioural issues among students after nearly 2 years of sporadic education due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper discusses some of the recent trends and highlights evidence from several systematic reviews of evidence on the efforts of school policing, including a large-scale effort for the Campbell Collaboration. A more recent evaluation published since the reviews were done is also discussed. Finally, the article highlights a report to Congress by the National Institute of Justice and concludes with policy implications and a future agenda for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the link between zero-tolerance policies and the school-to-prison pipeline from the perspective of school resource officers. Zero-tolerance policies are disciplinary measures that exacerbate the school-to-prison pipeline by treating students like potential criminals and forcing them out of the educational system. Prior research has investigated the perspectives of students, teachers, principals, and the general public regarding school resource officers. However, there exists a research gap concerning the perceptions of school resource officers themselves regarding their role within the educational system. Semi-structured interviews were completed with a purposive sample (n = 25) of school resources officers from the Midwest. Some SROs emphasized the counselor/mentor role to provide emotional support to students, others were more inclined toward problem-solving or law enforcement and focused on rules enforcement. SROs express diverse views on the impact of zero-tolerance policies, with some acknowledging harm to students' success and others displaying indifference or cynicism, often attributing responsibility to parents, teachers, or the students themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the southern influence and litigation around carceral logic in public education, as evident in the racialized disciplinary codes and police presence in schools that led to the criminalization of youth during desegregation through the 1960s and into the 1970s. Southern school districts and state legislators worked in tandem with law enforcement to increase discipline and surveillance in newly desegregated spaces, changed laws to swiftly prosecute and remove youth from schools, and increasingly targeted youth with harsh disciplinary policies grounded in racist assumptions categorizing Black students as inherently violent. This form of disciplinary power and control presaged federal legislation including the Law Enforcement Assistance Act of 1965 and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, and shaped the foundations of today's anti-Black school discipline policies and police presence in schools. This article explicates how southern schools contributed to a burgeoning carceral logic that shared commonalities across the nation but at the same time were distinct from other regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1990s there has been a significant rise in the number of police officers in schools. There have been growing concerns regarding the effects of school resource officers (SRO) on students' long-term outcomes and whether or not they are an effective aspect of school safety. Public opinion, especially among key stakeholder groups, impacts policy and practice decisions, and, therefore, there is a need to examine and synthesize the current state of the literature on stakeholder perceptions of SROs. We conducted a systematic review of the literature regarding student, teacher, principal, parent, and SRO perceptions of the role and effectiveness of SROs. The findings across thirty-one publications suggest that key stakeholder groups largely report SROs as a positive presence within schools. Findings are mixed across studies, however, and key differences in perceptions of law enforcement among important school stakeholder populations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two broad trends inform public K-12 education’s current trajectory. One involves persisting (and recently increasing) school racial isolation which helps account for an array of costs borne by students, schools, and communities. A second trend, involving a dramatically increasing police presence in schools, is evidenced by a rising school resource officer (“SRO/police”) presence in schools. Increases in the magnitude of a school’s SRO/police presence correspond with increases in the school’s propensity to engage law enforcement agencies in student disciplinary matters which, in turn, help fuel a growing school-to-prison pipeline problem. While these two broad trends propel two distinct research literatures, these research literatures do not meaningfully engage with one another. Empirical research is largely silent on the degree to which, if at all, variation in a school’s racial isolation level influences how its SRO/police presence interacts with the school’s propensity to report student discipline issues to law enforcement agencies. This Article examines whether variation in school racial isolation levels informs whether a school’s SRO/police presence influences the school’s law enforcement reporting rates. Results from this study imply that any such influence is confined to schools where non-white student enrollment ranges from 11% to 50%. The research literature on tipping points provides one helpful interpretative lens to better understand why this specific school racial isolation band systematically differs from others when it comes to SRO/police presence’s influence on a school’s propensity to report student discipline matters to law enforcement agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose : In the 2016–17 school year a Florida county integrated and formalized their school resource officer (SRO) program while simultaneously expanding SRO presence into the elementary schools. This study examines whether these changes influenced the number of school-based arrests. Methods : Descriptive statistics explored demographic and offense characteristics of school arrests of juveniles in the county. Interrupted time series analysis was used to examine arrest trends over a six-year period and explore whether formalization and expansion of the county's SRO program immediately impacted student arrests. Results : Results showed that contrary to the proffered hypothesis, the number of school arrests decreased by 5% post-intervention. Interrupted time series analysis indicated that the new SRO program did not have a statistically significant impact on total number of student arrests, but disaggregating the data revealed a significant increase to felony arrests and arrests completed by certain law enforcement agencies. Conclusions : Findings suggest that expanding SRO presence into elementary schools does not automatically result in an increase in student arrests. However, the reorganization and formalization of SRO programming attempted in the county did not appear to universally prevent the criminalization of student behaviors. • Changes to an SRO program did not result in an overall increase in school arrests. • School-based arrest trends were not uniform across offense levels. • School-based arrest trends were not uniform across law enforcement agencies. • School-based arrest trends differed from non-school arrest trends in the same county. • Probation violations comprised a substantial proportion of juvenile arrests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on school-to-prison pipeline annually showing thousands of Maryland students into the criminal justice system. Topics include practice of suspending or expelling students for nonviolent disruptions and the statewide requirement of school policing; and several hundred Maryland students experiencing arresting or referral to law enforcement for the crime of disturbing school.

For too many children the schoolhouse doors become a point of entry into the criminal justice system. Children of color are the most likely to suffer from this phenomenon. The presence of policing in schools is a key contributor to this "schoolto-prison pipeline." This Note argues that broad, discretionary mandates for school resource officers (SROs) promote biased law enforcement that impacts Black girls in different and specific ways. I contend that SRO mandates can be effectively limited by strategically bolstering community organizing efforts with impact litigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students in suburban schools have experienced increased enforcement of a dress code in their schools since 2010, surpassing the rates of students in city schools, which were initially higher. For more serious offenses, students in majority student of color schools experience more severe disciplinary actions than students in majority white schools. The force of policy along the lines of GFSA 1994 could initiate a legal framework that could transform school discipline nets in spaces characterized by restorative infrastructures, school-community-social service entanglements, and policy and practices that foster student creativity, inspiration, and academic excellence. The prevalence of harsh discipline policies and practices in schools negatively affects students' abilities to academically and socially thrive (Brown, [7]; P. Noguera, [31]; Skiba et al., [42]). [Extracted from the article]

Bogotch (2002) proposed that educational leadership cannot be separated from social justice, and this is a sentiment that is taken to heart at an urban Title-1 school district in Houston, Texas. To intentionally address the need for such alignment between mission and practice, the district implemented a recruitment and talent development initiative that actively sought to change the district's talent pool. This program develops effective leaders through a fellowship that focuses on building and leading an effective team, coaching and managing with excellence, and solving high-impact, complex problems. Using a position- subject approach (Conrad, Haworth, & Millar, 2001), this paper evaluates the extent to which the program uplifts diverse voices in school leadership and the extent to which the program successfully prepares participants for leadership roles. This manuscript includes a description of a successful and inclusive school leadership pipeline, an explanation of challenges and resistance faced for both leadership initiatives, and strategies to continue growth in this particular area of educational leadership through data collected via survey, interview, and autoethnographic reflections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a racialized moral panic around serious youth violence, we have seen a resurgence of calls to increase the presence of police in English schools in recent years. As well as a lack of popular and political opposition, there is a dearth of critical academic consideration of the placement of police in schools, and even less from a Critical Race Theory perspective. Given that teachers' perspectives are relatively absent from academic and popular debates, this paper draws upon data from semi-structured interviews with 24 secondary school teachers. In doing so, the paper argues that an increased police presence in school will impact negatively upon learning environments, create a culture of low expectations, criminalize young people, and feed a school-to-prison pipeline. Noting that racially minoritized students will be affected most harshly, the article provides empirical evidence to warn against the presence of police in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School resource officers' (SROs) presence (e.g., engagement in patrol, carrying firearms, etc.) and prevention (e.g., mentoring, teaching) roles have not been distinguished in investigations of SROs' association with student outcomes. A model predicting nonviolent incidents and serious violent incidents reported to police from SRO presence and prevention roles while controlling for limits in mental health availability, teacher training, and school problems was fit to an archival dataset of 1529 school administrators' responses to the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSCOS). SRO prevention significantly predicted lower numbers of nonviolent incidents reported to police (β = −.28) and SRO presence significantly predicted higher numbers of nonviolent (β =.51) and serious violent (β =.24) incidents reported to police in the high school sample. SRO presence and SRO prevention were not significantly associated with either nonviolent or serious violent incidents reported to police in the middle level sample. Greater acknowledgement of limitations in mental health service availability was associated with reports of school problems across samples, and school problems were significantly associated with higher numbers of nonviolent and serious violent incidents reported to police. Results suggest that investment in the SRO prevention role over presence is needed. Impact Statement In high schools employing school resource officers (SROs), law enforcement SRO presence was associated with higher levels of nonviolent and serious violent incidents reported to police, whereas the SRO prevention role was associated with lower levels of nonviolent and serious violent incidents reported to police. Only mental health availability had a significant influence on reducing school problem behavior across middle and high schools. Investment in the SRO prevention role over presence is needed, and collaboration with other mental health professionals to support the SRO preventative role is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has demonstrated that school disciplinary practices lead to juvenile justice intervention or the "school-to-prison pipeline" and that juvenile justice intervention leads to adversities, including drug-using behavior, in adolescence and adult life. Yet, it is not clear which form of official intervention, school suspension, and expulsion or police arrest, is more predictive of drug use among young people. Using data from the Rochester Youth Developmental Study, we examined both the immediate, concurrent influence of school and police intervention on drug use during adolescence and the long-term, cumulative impact of school and police intervention during adolescence on subsequent drug use in young established adulthood. The results indicate that school exclusionary practices appeared to be more predictive of drug use than police arrest during both adolescence and young adulthood. Additionally, such negative effects mainly exhibited among minority subjects, and the effects by gender appeared contingent on developmental stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used national-level two-wave longitudinal data from school principals (N = 850) to examine whether and the extent to which implementing school resource officers (SROs) with varying role profiles related to changes in crime recorded in schools and reported to police. We identified three common role profiles of SROs: Low Engagement, Full Triad, and Reactionary. Implementing SROs engaged primarily in law enforcement (i.e., Reactionary SROs) predicted increases in recording nonserious violent and property crimes and a decrease in reporting drug crime to the police, respectively. Implementing Full Triad SROs who were also engaged in additional roles (e.g., mentoring) predicted a reduction in recording nonserious violent crimes, but an increase in recording property crimes and reporting crime to law enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Officers assigned to schools are highly visible with many opportunities to communicate with citizens, though they are relatively isolated from other officers. School resource officers (SROs) are often expected to perform unconventional police roles, including counselling and teaching. Research is beginning to explore how SROs respond to different work settings and role expectations, which poses practical implications for how officers adapt and how they influence the lives of students, parents, and school staff. The present study first examined the work roles of SROs in a Midwestern region. Secondly, this study explored the relationships between SRO roles, individual characteristics, and school characteristics. SROs assigned to programmes in Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri were surveyed and a subset of 20 officers were interviewed and observed during their shifts. Findings showed SROs performed both conventional and non-conventional roles. Multivariate analyses revealed SROs in urban schools and high schools performed more conventional police tasks involving law enforcement and order maintenance, while SROs who supported community policing engaged in more service, mentoring, and teaching tasks. The results highlight areas to enhance community policing in schools, particularly through selection and training of SROs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School Resource Officers (SROs) have become increasingly commonplace in schools across the nation. The role and purpose of SROs in the educational setting have evolved over time, often without formalized policies or guidelines. Increasingly, SROs have been called upon to deal with school discipline issues, which has inadvertently increased the likelihood of student contact with the juvenile justice system, and promoted the school-to-prison pipeline. This has impacted minorities and students with disabilities, especially those with emotional behavioral disorders, who are disproportionately at risk of exposure to adjudication. The purpose of this review is to examine the availability and nature of current state legislation and Department of Education (DOE) recommendations regarding the use and training of SROs. Additionally, recommendations are provided regarding the use of SROs in public schools to provide administrators with assistance on how to develop safe and effective SRO programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research has suggested that the use of police in schools has resulted in negative outcomes for students; however, this line of research has failed to consider other factors that may influence an officer’s response outside of their mere presence. Over time, the roles and duties of police in a school setting have continued to expand as a result of social and political shifts in criminal justice and education policy. Paralleling this expansion has been the development of a more punitive school discipline environment where students are more likely to be suspended, expelled, a ticketed, and/or arrested. As these two separate bodies of research have been tangentially related, in this study, we use role theory as a guiding framework to connect these two bodies of research and examine how officers’ roles may influence their responses to student misconduct. Data was collected via an online survey distributed to a sample of commissioned law enforcement officers working in Texas schools. The survey included measures of officer roles as well as vignettes to assess how officers would respond to specific situations involving students. Results of this study suggest that an officer’s role may influence how they respond to student misconduct, and therefore, may be an important piece of information for both researchers and practitioners when looking to minimize the potential negative impacts of using police in schools. These findings related to officer roles are discussed in terms of both practice and future research, while considering the larger discipline environment of schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use 3 years of youth court data from a southeastern state to examine whether referrals that originated from school resource officers (SROs) involve greater proportions of less serious offenses than referrals from other sources. Referrals from SROs during the 3-year period were similar to referrals by law enforcement outside of school for status and serious offenses. SROs were less likely than law enforcement officers outside of school to refer juveniles for minor offenses during the 3-year period. Our findings suggest that schools, not solely police in schools, make a large contribution to the number of juveniles referred to the juvenile justice system for less serious offenses. Implications for policy and future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been an increasing number of incidents in which school resource officers (SRO) have been used to manage student disciplinary issues with disastrous results. Court cases brought by parents and advocacy groups claim SROs have traumatized and injured students. This article addresses several critical issues concerning SROs being used to manage student misbehavior, lack of training, lack of policies regulating roles and responsibilities, and inadvertently promoting a school-to-prison pipeline. The authors provide recommendations and best practices for future use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminalization of minorities and people with disabilities begins early. It begins in school. This "school-to-prison pipeline" is exacerbated by the presence of police in schools, commonly known as "school resource officers" or "SROs." Schools' use of SROs has grown in response to perceived threats to student safety, but this growth has also coincided with a rise in those schools' disproportionate and harsh punishment of students of color and students with disabilities. Schools need to use SROs to restore justice, not diminish it. Unfortunately, lawsuits against SROs and law enforcement agencies for excessive use of force offer few victories for students and do nothing to address the overcriminalization of student conduct. At the same time, the restorative-justice movement is gaining traction in the United States, and many organizations are coming to see the value of repairing harm and restoring relationships when a person wrongs another, rather than simply referring disputes to the criminal justice system. State and federal agencies too are beginning to recognize the usefulness of restorative justice, but to date neither governmental policies nor local implementation of SROs in schools has done much to decrease the trend toward criminalizing student behavior. This Article argues for reorienting the role of SROs away from criminal justice and toward restorative justice. It calls for increased support for restorative justice both from the top down, by tying SRO funding to an actual mandate to use restorative justice, and from the bottom up, through schools developing their own restorative-justice programs. Schools and school districts must work to curb the ability of SROs to mete out punishment by changing schools' disciplinary cultures from ones focused on criminal justice to ones focused on restorative justice, as well as by placing limits on the types of punishment and charges SROs can administer. Legislatures and other governmental bodies must provide incentives for such re-evaluations, making restorative justice an explicit focus of SRO programs. In this way, SROs can become a true resource for justice in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schools in the United States are well understood as sites of social control, but the prevailing view is that schools have only become directly and closely linked with justice systems in recent decades. This article argues that much of the recent literature on school policing, the school-to-prison pipeline and related phenomena have overlooked the deeper history of mass education as a fertile grounds for law enforcement activities. The article shows how early on in the life of American mass education, a group of organizations called Coordinating Councils brought schools and law enforcement together to detect, prevent and control delinquency. I conclude that this history troubles dominant explanations of the causes of the close relationship between schools and police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of zero-tolerance behavioral policies and the presence of school resource officers (SROs) are receiving justifiable scrutiny for the deleterious effects they have on students' functioning. While many have argued the convergence of these policies thwart the development of Black and Latino boys, critiques examining the experiences of Black girls are scant. Disaggregated disciplinary data from across the country reveal "... black girls are suspended at higher rates (12%) than girls of any other race or ethnicity and most boys ..." (U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2014, p. 1) suggesting that when it comes to schooling, Black girls are, indeed, "pushed out, overpoliced and underprotected" (Crenshaw, Ocen, & Nanda, 2015, p. 1). The authors of this chapter argue that youth advocates can use hip-hop culture, a tradition rich with resistant prose, to develop critical consciousness and engage Black girls in discussion about socially contrived binaries that reinforce the STPP. The authors demonstrate how the anti-oppressive lyrics of women emcees (e.g., Rapsody, Sa-Roc) can foster therapeutic alliances and dialogues with young Black girls, and how these lyrics might serve to inspire Black girls in composing their own counterhegemonic autobiographical narratives to resist the school-to-prison pipeline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study argues that the under-diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactive disorder in Black children is a result of racism that is structurally and institutionally embedded within school policing policies and the tendency to not recognize Black illness. The purpose of this research is to examine how micro-processes lead to structural inequality within education for Black children. It seeks to better understand how institutional racism and flawed behavioral ascriptions lead to the under-diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) in Black children and how that may also contribute to their over-representation in the 'school-to-prison pipeline.' The goal of this study was to review ethnographic, empirical data and examine the ways (1) how racism within some schools may contribute to the under-diagnosis of ADHD in Black children, (2) how their under-diagnosis and lack of treatment leads to their over-punishment, and (3) how they are over-represented in today's school-to-prison pipeline phenomenon, possibly as a result of such disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this essay Ken McGrew critically examines the school-to-prison pipeline metaphor and associated literature. The origins and influence of the metaphor are compared with the origins and influence of the competing prison industrial complex concept. Specific weaknesses in the pipeline literature are examined. These problems are described as resulting, in part, from the influence that the pipeline metaphor has on the thinking of those who follow it. McGrew argues that addressing the weaknesses in the literature, abandoning the metaphor, and adopting a more complex theoretical orientation grounded in critical scholarship, will enable educational scholars to better capture the relational nature of the social phenomena being described while simultaneously making their work more useful to emerging movements for social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been considerable recent scholarly commentary about the existence of a school-to-prison pipeline. In this research, several authors have questioned whether the presence of school resource officers (SROs) has increased the proportion of students being referred to juvenile justice systems for status or minor offenses. Research to date, however, has not established a clear relationship between the presence of SROs and these referrals. In this study, we examine the relationship between referrals made in urban and rural schools to determine whether rural students are disadvantaged by net widening when compared with their urban counterparts. To carry out this study of justice by geography, the referrals of 57,005 urban and rural students into the juvenile justice system of a southeastern state over a three-year period were analyzed. The findings presented here suggest that there are important rural/urban differences in the impact of the Department of Human Services and schools in the expansion of the school-to-prison pipeline. Implications for policy and future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential of abolishing school resource officers (SROs), their history in education, and their role in exacerbating the effects of the school-to-prison pipeline and racial injustice. In the midst of calls to defund the police, policies to abolish police in schools are a vital first step. This paper argues that there is an interconnected history between SROs and surveilling youth-led civil rights movements. Today, we see the results--SROs have negatively impacted Black and brown youth subjugating them to higher rates of school-related arrests. Using historical case studies of Oakland and Los Angeles, this research draws on the potential to enact policies that end police in schools. Additionally, this paper places organizers as key actors in policy change. The analysis situates the movement to eliminate SROs as an extension of the civil rights struggle and as a microcosm of the modern-day struggle for abolition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]