The pandemic has created a student mental health crisis that schools are increasingly addressing through harsh discipline rather than support, according to experts interviewed on a Vermont Conversation podcast. Student discipline was historically handled by guidance counselors and principals, but police are now regularly called to respond to behavioral issues, contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline. More than 1.5 million students attend schools with police but no counselors. Students are 5 times more likely to be arrested and charged when they attend schools with police, also known as school resource officers, or SROs.
Pandemic Trauma and Disciplinary Response
According to Mark Warren, a professor of public policy and public affairs at the University of Massachusetts Boston, “The pandemic has really caused a lot of trauma and a lot of stress, economic hardship, family loss for young people and disruption of schooling.” Instead of receiving support and investment, schools have intensified discipline and policing practices. Warren notes there is no research-based evidence that police presence improves school safety. Since June 2020, more than 138 school districts in the U.S. have announced they would remove police from schools. Several Vermont school boards, including Burlington, have voted to end or reduce police contracts.
Structural Gaps in Resources
A Burlington School District task force report concluded: “The majority of SRO activity is not associated with law enforcement but with mentoring students and connecting them with needed resources. These additional roles fell to the SROs due to social workers being overwhelmed with cases.” Jonathan Stith, national director of the Alliance for Educational Justice, described the simultaneous push to increase school policing and contentious debates over teaching of critical race theory as a “white lash post the Trump presidency.” A national campaign is working to limit police presence in schools through the National Campaign for Police-Free Schools.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://vtdigger.org/2022/01/30/vermont-conversation-the-pandemic-to-prison-pipeline-and-the-student-mental-health-crisis/