Very scary report from the ACLU: Criminalizing the Classroom

Just finished reading a recent ACLU report on the NYC schools.
Yikes.
It’s some pretty scary stuff..and not scary in the “I’m so mind-numbingly bored” or “I wish I were way cooler” way.
Scary in the, there’s a serious police presence in too many NYC schools and schoolchildren are being terrorized by the very people meant to serve and protect.

According to the report, over 93,000 children have to pass through metal detectors each morning. This includes about 100 schools with permanent metal detectors, and those schools subjected to part of the roving program.

It seems really strange to be protesting police presence in schools.
People always talk about making schools safer. We all know why.
But this report presents a pretty compelling case FOR school safety while being AGAINST police officers and metal detectors.

For one thing, there seems to be a lot of confusion over the role of the police officers and SSA (School Safety Agents) within the school and general law enforcement context.
The report documents numerous occasions in which students have been arrested for breaking rather insignificant school rules.

There’s really no excuse for a 9th grade to be handcuffed and brought to the police station for cursing in the halls. That’s a minor school infraction, best ‘policed’ and punished by a school administrator.

The power dynamic just sounds awful.
Fully armed police officers patting down young students, with multiple reports of a flagrant disregard for policies meant to ensure student safety and security.
Male police officers are not supposed to pat down female students. Yet the report contains numerous personal accounts (from students, faculty, and parents) of this rule being ignored. Another male student reported that he is routinely humiliated by the police officers for being openly gay. He reported that they flip coins to see who will have to pat him down, something they do not subject his subjectively heterosexual peers to daily.

Worse yet, almost 1/3 of all the students polled in the study felt that an officer had touched them inappropriately or made them feel uncomfortable through verbal communication.

Since the officers (both NYPD and SSAs) are overseen by the Police department, students, their families and educators have to navigate a large and confusing system to lodge a complaint.

Even if a student believes that their rights are being violated, how are they going to protest their treatment?
Most people do not clearly understand their constitutional rights, and even if they do, are they all expected to have the knowledge and resources to navigate the legal system?
The report also highlights that paying for the metal detectors and other security measures has had a direct impact on the ability of the schools to provide educational material. While the city has been paying hundreds of millions of dollars to provide these ‘safety services,’ they have also been routinely cutting allocations for book and salaries. The report notes that in one large school (4,000+ students) there are multiple metal detectors and SSAs, but not nearly enough desks. The entire complex also lacks a single librarian.

The sad part about this situation is that all of the police officers, metal detectors and SSAs have not made the schools safer. The report points out that the decline in school violence is NOT statistically significant, a fact that is often obscured when the city is reporting on its progress.

Rather, police personnel get involved in more than twice as many non-criminal incidents at schools with permanent metal detectors that at typical similarly sized schools. So the children attending these schools are instead being forced to endure a police presence that does not increase their safety, but does increase their level of negative interaction with the legal system.


Getting back to safety, the ACLU proposes several measures that have been highly successful in other school districts across the country.

The Los Angeles school system has a police force, but it reports directly to the superintendent of the district. It also does not allow police officers to use the metal detectors, and allows school administrators to take over this role.

Another large school district, Miami-Dade does not employ any walk through metal detectors at all, and police officers again report directly to the school administrators and superintendents.

Educators and administrators in NY have expressed rather clearly that many of these matters are best handled within the school. They of course want safe environments for their students, but not by turning their schools into mini-penitentiaries.

There are other obviously other options.
We don’t have to have metal detectors.
Or police officers who pat down students, confiscate food, and terrorize students.
NYC should learn a lesson from this failed experiment, and change course before a generation of students learn that government officials would rather pay for handcuffs than books.

Back back back!

Back from STL

I might need to add another cup of coffee to my daily routine.
I’m tired out !

B and I arrived back in NY at around 12 last night.
Our flight was delayed 2 or so hours to do an engine problem.
They ended up swapping out or aircraft for another one, but it caused a big hold up.

I was only marginally annoyed.
It meant less sleep..but after the recent plane issues (birds, French flights) I was happy to wait for a plane that was not having ‘problems.’

Anyway, we had a really nice but very busy few days.
BBQ @ C’s house and a K1 mini reunion plus friends
Some celebrating of baby E’s 1st birthday, and a visit with brand new baby L (such hard work visiting with so many cute little munchkins!)
A little bit of quality time with B’s family..with more to come in August. They’re taking a roadtrip and will be visiting for a few.

Even brought a few cupcakes home.
Just to show all these fancy shmancy NYC cupcake places what they’re missing.

Life in my cubicle

Sometimes I really feel like I’m working @ the set of The Office.

Today we celebrated the 60th birthday of a co-worker.

We surprised him with lunch and cake in a nearby room.

We don’t have our own conference room or break room, so they booked us time in one of the hearing rooms.
Someone hung up sad little balloons, and pictures of the birthday boy with other staff members.

One picture showed him getting a ‘lap dance’ from another woman in the office.
Apparently she just likes taking pictures that make it LOOK like she’s giving her co-workers lap dances..she doesn’t actually perform.

We didn’t invite the temporary staff members because “There wasn’t enough food.” (There was enough food. The temps now also know they were not invited because it’s all sitting in the fridge).

The birthday boy received gifts. The big gift was a stuffed giraffe. Apparently he mispronounces giraffes due to his accent, and it sounds like “Shiraffe.”
This is so funny, that we have to commemorate the occasion with a pricey doll.

Fake lap dances, mocking of co-workers, and exclusion.
Sounds like situational comedy to me!
Oy vey.

Maybe I'm becoming a New Yorker..since I always seem to be rushing off to do something!

I realized that this has been a pretty crazy past few weeks. In the past 6 weeks:

1. I moved into the Pineapple apt with B
2. We went to Italy for a week Started a new job (OK, internship)
3. Moved out of the Pineapple apt. Goodbye 250 square feet, helllloo 1+ bedrooms.
4. Built several pieces of furniture (with help!)
5. (Hopefully fully) moved into the new apt
6. (Hopefully) figured out how to re-plug in all of the tv equipment and get our internet/cable back
AND
7. Flown half-way across the country for a STL visit!!

--B’s god-daughter just turned 1, another set of friends just had a baby girl—welcome baby L!, and there will be BBQs and friend dates galore packed into our 3 day trip

Getting settled. Very very slowly.

I think that the moving in might be almost done!
Or at least, the first part.

You know, the part where you lovingly arrange all of the knick knacks, and swear that it’s going to stay just this neat.

Actually, I’m getting ahead of myself slightly.
We just finished building our new piece of bedroom furniture last night (much love to Al & Meg for helping!).
So now I can start putting all of our non-hanging clothing away.
And by ‘our’ I clearly mean mine.
Poor B is going to get about half a drawer. We’re going to put the rest of his stuff in clear plastic drawers hidden inside a closet.
We have a plethora of closets, but not so of drawers.

Our new set of drawers looks just like this:


It’s nothing fancy, and yes it’s from IKEA..but it fits most of my clothing (and a tiny smidgen of B’s) and it matches the bed.

Once the clothing is put away, I can tackle the first part of decorating and knick knack arranging.
A few things also need to get figure out:

1. Where to hang the spice rack. Our new galley kitchen is long and narrow. If I hang it on the bare wall (facing all of the appliances) I’m worried that I’ll spend half my time trying not to knock my head into it as I cook. If I hang it on the side wall/entry to the kitchen near the fridge, that will be the first thing you see sticking out as you enter.Hmm.

2. Where do we find a rug that isn’t a billion dollars and/or hideous? Thoughts? Suggestions?

3. Must buy sleeper sofa ASAP. Ikea sleeper sofas in our price range were shlocky. Yes, that’s the technical term. Want something nice, but not expensive. We’re going to peek @ Jennifer Convertibles when we have a second. But again, other thoughts/suggestions?