Today at 4:30 p.m. approximately 150 people gathered in front of the Salem-Keizer School District building in a protest, organized by Latinos Unidos Siempre [LUS]. Their goal was to demand that the district divest from policing in schools and reinvest in black, disabled and indigenous students of color.
Over a dozen students and community members of color spoke during the protest about their experiences with racism and racial profiling, particularly within the Salem-Keizer school system. The speakers suggested the school district’s funds currently allocated to policing methods, such as School Resource Officers [SROs], security guards and behavioral specialists, should be invested in alternatives. Some examples speakers gave of these alternatives were implicit bias training, scholarships or giving more funds to educators to allow them to create a safe space for students.
“Stop the school to prison pipeline,” one of the protestor’s signs said.
This “school-to-prison pipeline,” referenced by many at the protest, is referring to how schools push students into the criminal justice system. When schools allow students to be arrested or disciplined by SROs in the school they are giving the students to the juvenile justice system. No matter the severity of offenses, this system makes it much easier for students to get a juvenile record.
Within this system, there is disproportionate incarceration of people of color, and this racial targeting and profiling starts at a very young age. According to the Department of Justice, as of 2015, black youth were five times more likely as white youth to be committed or detained in a juvenile detention facility. The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights reported that in the 2011 to 2012 school year, while black children made up only 18 percent of the preschool enrollment, 43 percent of children that received more than one out-of-school suspension were black.
In the same report, it shows that black students are three times more likely to be suspended or expelled than white students. Furthermore, although Native American students represented less than one percent of the student population they represented two percent of the suspensions and three percent of the expulsions in 2014.
LUS encouraged the group of protestors to sign their petition to defund policing in schools. They also asked youth to submit their stories about how policing in the Salem-Keizer schools has directly impacted them, particularly because of the upcoming City Council and School Board Meetings. The next Salem City Council Meeting will occur on June 22 at 6 p.m. and the next Salem-Keizer School Board Meeting will occur on June 23 at 6 p.m.
After the speakers had finished, the protestors were led in a call and response chant saying, “What do we want?” “No police in schools,” directed at the school district building. They then continued protesting in front of the building.
