Hall Monitors with Handcuffs

How Alabama’s unregulated, unmonitored school resource officer program threatens the state’s most vulnerable children

A report from Alabama Appleseed

Arrests in school ensnare Alabama children in a school-to-prison pipeline that many will never escape. In many cases, these arrests are made by school resource officers (SROs) who work exclusively within schools.

SROs are law officers, not hall monitors with handcuffs. Yet children can be arrested for common childish misbehavior like talking back or cursing.

That’s why Alabama must implement evidence-based policies to keep all children safe. We should not tolerate a system that sets up a false choice between standards on one hand and safety on the other. Our children deserve both.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

3.1 to 1: The disparity between referrals of African-American boys with disabilities to law enforcement as compared to the overall population of Alabama schoolchildren. African-American boys with disabilities were more likely than any other group to be referred to law enforcement in connection with conduct at school.
23%: The percentage of teachers we surveyed who knew of a student in their school being arrested for what they perceived as an incident that could have been handled with school disciplinary procedures such as detention or suspension.
Zero: The amount of specialized training Alabama school resource officers are required to get before taking on the delicate task of patrolling a school, almost always as the only armed individuals with arrest authority onsite.
Untracked and unknown: The violations that prompt student referrals to law enforcement, and the outcomes of those referrals for the students involved.

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