| News Report RACISM IN NY'S SCHOOLS ALLEGED
School Safety Report
History of
Police Brutality
Case
Studies of Police Brutality
Giuliani's
Ton Ton Macoutes
Resources:
Center for Constitutional Rights (800) 764-0235
National Coalition on Police Accountability (312) 663-5392
National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights 212 614-5355 rperez@boricuanet.org
National Peoples Campaign - 39 West 14th Street, #206, NY, NY 10011. (212) 633-6646;
(Fax) (212) 633-2889
Speak Out! - POB 99096, Emeryville, CA 94662 Phone: (510) 601-0182; Fax: (510)
601-0183; speakout@igc.apc.org |
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The Board of
Education voted unanimously Wednesday night (September 16, 1998) to transfer control of
security in the city's public schools to the Police Department. The 7-0 vote came
after more than two dozen speakers implored board members not to turn security over to the
police, saying it would create a prisonlike atmosphere in the schools. Since when did the NYPD become a model of professionalism?
Professionalism in whose interest? Certainly not minorities, who are railroaded into
prisons by the hundred of thousands, making this a country with the absolute highest
number of prisoners with smaller a population than dictatorial, "third world"
regimes in China, India, and Nigeria.
Far from being professional, the NYPD are racists and
corrupt at all levels. Reports from the Knapp Commission, the Mollen Commission, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and many others, all
document a history of racism and corruption in the police department, including the murder
of black and latinos, rape of females, systemic harassment of minorities driving or on the
streets, drug dealing, running prostitution houses, and on and on.
Racist white cops in the public schools will cause more
insecurity among the majority of public school students who minority students. These
students already have to deal with racist white teachers and administrators, so adding
racist police will not make them feel more secure!
Who will guard these poor, underclass, under-represented,
and mis-educated students from this unholy racist trinity? Who will be there to defend
these young ones criminalized and dehumanized in the classroom, media and society, those
most vulnerable in standardized racist and class-biased tests? Who will fortify students
considered as lesser academic, cultural, moral and social beings? In short, who will
protect our children from the physical, mental and social abuse of their
racists "protectors" in the schools’ halls, grounds, surrounding streets
and communities? Please...
Further, racist cops in the public schools will cause
un-documented Latino and black students to face deportation in attending schools, and many
may choose not to attend school at all. Thus a growing underclass of minority immigrants
will remain uneducated, unable to read or write English, and trapped in dead-end jobs and
lives. Of course, white immigrants need not feel as fearful from police and teachers as
they are contributing to the population strategies of the dominant white system.
How safe is it in NYC's schools? Violence in High Schools
averages about 3.1 incidents per 100 students (including minor infractions and serious
offenses).
There is certainly no epidemic here, so why are police,
who are trained for street crimes, patrolling learning environments? The message being
sent by the NYC Bd. of Education's 80% white teaching, administrating, and policing staff
to minority students and communities is clear - schools are equated with the streets (or
the "Zoo" as police refer to the City), and discipline (i.e. obedience and
conformity) is the main lesson to be learned in both spaces.
It is true that violence in schools affects educators and
students alike, by reducing school effectiveness and inhibiting student learning.
Additionally, unsafe school environments expose students who may already be at risk for
school failure to physical and emotional harm. In recent years, educators and policymakers
have voiced growing concern about possible increases in the incidence of school-related
criminal behavior. Yet, trends in victimization rates in schools shows that there is no
pandemic of violence.
Nationally and in NYC, victimization rates at school for
high school seniors changed little between 1976 and 1996. there were, however, small
increases in the percentage of students who reported being threatened both with and
without a weapon in the previous 12 months. The most common type of victimization at
school reported by high school seniors in 1996 was having something stolen (38 percent).
In 1996, black and white high school seniors were about
equally likely to report being victimized at school in the previous 12 months, except
blacks were more likely to have been injured with a weapon than whites. Ten percent of
black high school seniors reported being injured with a weapon in the previous 12 months
in 1996, compared to 4 percent of white seniors.
In 1996, high school seniors from metropolitan and
nonmetropolitan areas were about equally likely to report being victimized at school in
the previous 12 months.
High school seniors were more likely to report being
threatened without a weapon at school than with a weapon during the previous 12 months (22
versus 13 percent) in 1996. Similarly, high school seniors were more likely to report
being injured at school without a weapon than with a weapon in 1996 (12 versus 5 percent). |
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NYC Graduation
Rate for All High-Rated Public Schools: 48.7% Many
public schools in minority neighborhoods have up to 80% drop-out rates for Blacks
and Latinos. The drop-out rate in Special Education classes reaches 98%.
(see Related Article on Special Education) Given these drop-out
rates for the last 20 years, why is it that the Mayor and NYC Bd. of Education's only
solution is to introduce cops into the schools?
Why is the drop-out rates among minority public school
students so high? These drop-out figures are scandalous, yet the staff of NYC Bd. of Ed.
face no charges of accountability or serious resistance from students, parents or minority
communities, who are paying taxes for the relatively high salaries of these "public
servants." Not surprisingly, public education bureaucrats think that they are doing a
great job, taking full credit for the 20 to 50 percent of students who actually survive
the racist, sexist and class-biased system.
Why do a majority of "minority" students
drop-out from the public schools? First of all blame must be placed on the two most
powerful figures in the public schools - teachers and administrators. It is this majority
of Jewish and Italian women and men who are responsible for the day-to-day as well as
overall management of the public's schools, so if students drop-out in droves, it is quite
reasonable to assume that their education is being seriously mismanaged. Conveniently,
drop-out is seen as not teachers' and administrators' problem, it's the students
fault!
It is only racist opportunism which could explain why this
bizarre, failed occupational group of educational functionaries, 80 percent white, have no
remorse or guilt over the fact that they have not served the interest of minority
communities and students during the last fifty years. Indeed in pursuance of ethnic
privilege and discrimination, this group have networked and organized itself for increased
salaries and benefits, and to vigorously resist all attempts to integrate the racist
education bureaucracy, for example in training and hiring of minority staff. The
vast majority of minorities hired in these prison-like institutions, are on the lower
rungs working in the cafeteria and in maintenance, or as para-professionals, at much less
wages than mostly white teachers and administrators.
Now security personnel will become another expensive and powerful leg of this unholy
schooling trinity, linking the public school to the most feared institution in minority
communities - the racist police stations. This will give minority students, who
already suffer from severe harassment by the police, another reason to drop-out.
One important reason why a majority of
"minority" students drop-out is that they get worn down by the racist K-12
curriculum which worships all things white and which treats minority cultures as
"dirty and uncivilized" and minority peoples as "fit only to be servants
and slaves." Or maybe they get shredded by the curriculum's denial of
minorities' contributions in art, culture, science, writing, mathematics, ecology, and to
the construction of European and American civilizations. It is also likely that these
students are pulverized from the mainstreaming of white racism and Eurocentrism in all
disciplines and grades. Whichever the case, minority students are forced to carry the
racist public school curriculum, indexed and cyclical, literally on their backs from day
one to graduation.
Ten Possible Solutions and/or Revolutions
(i) providing smaller classes in school (15-20 students
maximum)
(ii) ensuring minority parents' access, involvement and
control of public schools
(iii) encouraging minority communities' access,
involvement and control of public schools
(iv) applying conflict resolution in schools between
students, and also between staff and students, parents and the community
(v) protesting and demanding that as public servants
teachers and administrators be held accountable for a majority of "minority"
students drop-out
(vi) filing class-action suits against the NYC Bd. of
Education and Mayor's office on behalf of parents and students for a majority of
"minority" students drop-out
(vii) implementing students' choice over the kinds of
curriculum they will take in public schools. Choice should consist of culturally-specific
materials across all disciplines: Native American, Latino, Afrocentric, Asian American,
and European; as well as issue-specific content through all grades: gender, sexuality,
spirituality and/or class focused.
(viii) withholding the payment of public education taxes
until adequate public educational services are provided to minority communities
(ix) observing student boycott of public schools; self-
and group teach yourselves through public libraries, the internet, and alternative
education opportunities in the community such as volunteering in community groups and
organizations; learning from elders, musicians, artists, poets, and activists; joining the
"Y" or forming your own groups.
(x) calling for teacher, administrator and staff boycott
of public schools; unfortunately, these folks are "just doing a job" and
"getting paid" so this option is most unlikely |
