INVEST IN RESTORATIVE & TRANSFORMATIVE JUSTICE: 

REMOVE ALL SCHOOL POLICE

We, the undersigned: ACLU PA, One Pennsylvania, Women and Girls Foundation - Girl Gov, Youth Advocacy Clinic at Duquesne Law School, Education Rights Network, Gwen's Girls/Black Girls Equity Alliance, Education Law Center, Journey for Justice, Dignity in Schools, ARYSE, Pittsburgh for CEDAW Coalition, Center for Popular Democracy, Opportunity Fund, The Pittsburgh Center for Autistic Advocacy, 1Hood and the National Movement for Black Lives, submit the following demands to the Pittsburgh Public School Board of Directors, in order to increase support for all students, and decrease harmful tactics that target black and brown students.

Demands of the Pittsburgh Public Schools Board of Directors

Removal of Police:

• Immediately remove all 22 Pittsburgh Public School Police Officers from inside and outside of our schools;

• Immediately stop the open-door policy that over utilizes the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police in school-based incidents, and immediately adopt policies that exclude the involvement of law enforcement, except when required by state law and/or there is an imminent risk of serious physical harm;

• Immediate removal of probation officers inside of Pittsburgh Public School buildings.

End Systems of Policing:

• Eliminate policies,practices, and funding that contribute to the surveillance, militarization and criminalization of schools;

• Eliminate policies or practices that allow Law Enforcement to place handcuffs and/or restraints on any student under the age of 10 (42 Pa. C.S. 6302 does not allow children under 10 to be prosecuted) and ensure compliance with state and federal disability laws for students with disabilities of all ages;

• End all ALICE trainings and evaluate all current public safety and de-escalation trainings;

• Moratorium on School Police issuing summary citations to students; these place an unnecessary financial burden on students and families for minor infractions;

• Full transparency from PPS by publicly reporting all interactions between police and young people, including by type of incident, disaggregated by race, gender and disability.

Invest:

• Divest from policing and invest in culturally-responsive approaches to restorative and transformative justice, social-emotional learning, trauma-informed curricula, implicit bias training and disability awareness for all PPS staff, support for healing and mental health supports;

•  Utilize newly available funds to hire peacebuilders, intervention workers, counselors and other support staff to create safe, positive and supportive environments for learning;

• Increase the number of counselors, psychologists, social workers, and paraprofessionals who serve children's needs to reach the recommended ratio of 1:100 in high needs schools and 1:250 in all other schools;

• Creation of a community-led police review board to evaluate instances when police are called to schools, so as to ensure tracking and monitoring of criminalization and over-policing of our students;

• Invest in a community led re-envisioning process of what school safety and support can look like moving forward without police, guided by these priorities. The envisioning process must be led by young people and parents, and cannot include police.

“It is time to take back our schools from the hands of the police, and to place our students in the loving palms of community driven and culturally informed processes,” said Ms. Paulette Foster, a district guardian and co-founder of the Education Rights Network. For too long, harmful policies and practices have been the drivers of so-called public safety. Today we demand that the School Board remove police from our schools, and instead look to investment in a community-led re-envisioning process that puts students first. 

PPS already has one of the highest student arrest rates in the state. Information compiled from city of Pittsburgh data shows that Black youth are referred to law enforcement or arrested at nearly 9 times the rate of their White peers. Within the city of Pittsburgh, Black youth account for 84.4% of all arrests, and 87% of all disorderly conduct charges despite accounting for only 40.4% of the youth population

“Research indicates that police in schools do not make schools safer, but instead criminalizes black and brown students. This philosophy of school safety stems from a lens of hate and low expectations as opposed to compassion, love, and accountability.” said Jitu Brown, National Executive Director for the Journey for Justice Alliance.

Community members plan to hold an in person and virtual rally at the Pittsburgh Board of Education building (341 South Bellefield Avenue) in Oakland on June 22,2020. Visit Facebook Event for RALLY for more info and to RSVP.

If you are part of a group that would like to join our coalition and co-sign these Demands email us. SOUTH@ONEPA.ORG  We are stronger together.