Black, Brown,
and Over-Policed
in L.A. Schools:

Structural Proposals to End the School-to-Prison
Pipeline in the Los Angeles Unified School District
and to Build a National Movement to Stop the Mass
Incarceration of Black and Latino Communities

A report by
Community Rights Campaign
of the Labor/Community Strategy Center
October 2013

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About the authors
The Community Rights Campaign is a project of the
Labor/Community Strategy Center. The Community
Rights Campaign’s lead organizers are Manuel
Criollo, Ashley Franklin, and Barbara Lott-Holland.

The Community Rights Campaign’s grassroots
organizing model is led by Haewon Asfaw, Carlos
“Elmo” Gomez, Carla Gonzalez, and Melissa “Mello”
Lemus.

We are leading a long-term campaign to challenge
suppressive, pre-prison conditions in Los Angeles
public schools. We believe it is parents, teachers, and
students—not police, tickets, and courts—who will lead
the way to transforming our schools.

While we take sole responsibility for this report and
any errors it may contain, we want to acknowledge
all the organizations who are helping to build a
movement to end the school-to-prison pipeline, many
of whom are named herein.

Since our launch in 2007, the Community Rights
Campaign has built a grassroots civil and human
rights movement of youth, teachers, parents, and
community members that works with advocacy
organizations and decision-makers to break from
exclusionary “zero tolerance” discipline policies that
criminalize Black and Brown youth and establish real
alternatives that can transform the school climate to
support students, protect their rights, and keep them
in school and away from a jail cell.

Thank you to the hundreds of young people,
parents, teachers, organizers and leaders who are the
Community Rights Campaign. Our movement is the
engine of history.

2

Writing, Research, Editorial: Jim Freeman, Daniel
Kim, Zoe Rawson
Design: Burt Vera Cruz
Maps: Adriana Quiquivix
Data support: Julian Lamb

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

Section 1

Introduction
THE CIVIL RIGHTS CROSSROADS
This report is being issued on the 50th anniversary
year of the March on Washington. All who gathered
there and who looked on with such hope in 1963 could
foresee hard fought victories on the horizon: finally
defeating legal racial segregation and passing the 1964
Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Yet it
would have been hard for them to imagine the election
of the first Black president of the United States only 45
years later.
In 1963, at such a time of hope, it would have been
just as hard to imagine that four decades later the U.S.
would have become the world’s largest jailer, with
mass incarceration enveloping whole Black and Latino

communities. 200,000 people were incarcerated
in the 60s; today 2.5 million people are behind bars,
nearly 60% of them Black and Latino. It would
have been difficult in 1963 to imagine that the U.S.
government would initiate a War on Poverty and then
reverse it by launching a war on the poor, slashing the
social services legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt under
a two-party pledge to “end welfare as we know it.”
And for anyone who was moved by Dr. King’s dream
of true racial equality for “all of God’s children,” the
creation of a “school-to-prison pipeline” for Black and
Brown youth would have been incomprehensible.

HOPE, CONTRADICTION AND A CALL
FOR LEADERSHIP IN LOS ANGELES
SCHOOLS
Today the Los Angeles public school system is at
a parallel moment of hope and contradiction. In
the last two years, through dramatic reductions in
truancy and tardy ticketing under the Daytime Curfew
law and most recently through the passage of the

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

3

School Climate Bill of Rights,1 Los Angeles has made
significant progress in reversing “zero tolerance”
disciplinary policies that repress and criminalize the
overwhelmingly Black and Latino youth of the public
school system. For some, these reforms are seen as
encouraging first steps; for others, they represent the
end of the road. This report argues that while we have
made very encouraging initial changes in policy, more
structural, comprehensive, and enforceable remedies
are urgently needed.
For those of us who work every day with the youth of
the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), we
understand only too well that when students arrive
at school, many of them have already “overcome”
almost unimaginable conditions of overcrowding,
unemployment, hunger, poor housing, poor public
transportation, medical problems, and family stress.
While the LAUSD and its School Police Department
(LASPD) are not responsible for those conditions,
we can all agree that the role of public schools in
communities experiencing great poverty and societal
discrimination is to do everything we can to create
a supportive, tolerant, appreciative school climate
and end the criminalization of their childhood and
adolescence.

DAYTIME CURFEW: A GATEWAY FROM
SCHOOL TO JAIL
In February 2012, Los Angeles was the site of one of
the most important breakthroughs in recent years for
the national movement to end the criminalization
of youth in public schools that leads toward the
mass incarceration of Black and Latino people. The
Community Rights Campaign led a broad effort—with
our allies ACLU and Public Counsel, the support of
the L.A. Chapter of the Dignity in Schools Campaign,2
and the outstanding leadership of former L.A.
Councilmember, now Congressman Tony Cardenas—
to amend Los Angeles Municipal Code 45.04, the

4

Daytime Curfew.
LAMC 45.04 was the
#1 cause of police
referrals of students
into the juvenile
system from LAUSD,
the country’s second
largest school district.

WHO ARE
LAUSD
STUDENTS?
"!662,000 students, 2nd

largest school district
population in the country
after NYC
"!88% students of color,

including 72% Latino, 10%
Police had been
Black, 10% white, 4% Asian
sweeping up and
ticketing more than
"!80% qualify for free or
10,000 public school
reduced cost lunch
students every year,
"!56% graduation rate
over 90% youth of
color, for being absent
or late to school. Most
LAUSD Black and Latino working class, low-income
families could simply not afford the $250 tickets, the
additional $1000 in court fees, and the missed days of
work to attend the required court hearings. Unpaid
fines accumulated over the past decade have resulted
in driver’s license holds for upwards of 300,000 youth,
many of whom are now adults.3

ROLLING BACK TRUANCY TICKETING,
SHIFTING THE PUBLIC DEBATE
It took six years of uphill organizing to roll back
LAMC 45.04. The Community Rights Campaign
engaged thousands of youth, parents, teachers,
community members and allies to speak out against
the educational, civil and human rights harms that
go beyond the tickets themselves. By systematically
enabling and encouraging punitive ticketing at school,
this curfew law had been a literal gateway to juvenile
court, and in some cases even juvenile detention, for
many of our youth. On February 12, 2013, we packed
city council chambers and won a 14-0 unanimous vote
led by Councilmembers Tony Cardenas and Bernard

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

3500

3,341

2006-2007 CRC launches
campaign to decriminalize
tardiness and truancy

2,855

April 2011 LAPD directive
to scale back truancy
ticketing

2625

August 2011 CRC holds
community forum with
Judge Nash and School
Attendance Task Force

1,618

1750

875

Total LASPD
Truancy Tickets

Oct 2011 LASPD directive to
scale back truancy ticketing

DAYTIME CURFEW VIOLATION CITATIONS,
YEARLY THROUGH MAY 2013

0

2009-2010

2010-2011

2011-2012

Parks to radically reduce the tickets and fines imposed
on students.
Today in LAUSD, the most visible signs of the
Daytime Curfew—the morning “tardy sweeps” by
police in front of schools, cafeterias turned into
ticketing stations—have nearly ended. The fines of
$250 and more, with mandatory court appearances,
have been virtually eliminated, truancy and tardy
citations by the school police department are down by
as much as 80%, and youth having serious attendance
problems are being sent to counselors instead of
courtrooms. Officials now talk of “being there for
youth and listening”
instead of “zero
School police
tolerance.” Recently,
ticketing across
LAUSD took another
all categories is
step responding to
down by as much community organizing
by passing a School
as 50%.
Climate Bill of Rights

Sept 2011 City Councillor
Tony Cardenas introduces
motion to amend LAMC
45.04

209

Feb 2012 City Council
passes LAMC 45.04
amendment

2012-2013 (through May)
that addresses push-out policies such as suspensions
for “Willful Defiance” and commits to defining and
limiting the role of school police on campus.
These movement victories sent waves around the
country because they mark an historic turn away
from decades of “zero tolerance” school discipline
policy. As the public debate has shifted, there seems
to be growing momentum for reversing the pre-prison
environments of public schools.

REAL PROGRESS, BUT IS IT ENOUGH?
In this report, we examine new LAUSD school policing
data for the previous school year (2012-2013). And we
compare it against data for the year prior (2011-2012).4
Through this comparison, the data gives us a picture
of significant early progress that must be protected and
supported. LAUSD and LASPD have reduced truancy
ticketing by 80%. School police ticketing across all
categories is down by as much as 50%.

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5

RACIAL
DISCRIMINATION
RACIAL
DISCRIMINATIONINDEX
INDEX|-POLICE
POLICE TICKETS
TICKETS
Ratio of citations per Black student to citations per white student
Calculation explained on p28.

2010-2011

3.8
2011-2012

4.5
2012-2013

5.8

Ratio of Citations per Black Student to Citations per White Student
This is real progress that our movement should be
proud of having won, as should the L.A. City Council,
LAUSD board members, LASPD, the Los Angeles
Police Department (LAPD), and the Juvenile Court,
who all supported the major change in policy. Our
grassroots movement has helped to change the terms
of the debate and this is reflected in a very positive
shift in how the district is thinking about school
discipline.

THE CIVIL RIGHTS CRISIS IS STILL
PROFOUND
At the same time, the data shows an urgent need for
more comprehensive solutions.5 LAUSD’s job is not
done. Even as overall numbers have come down,
the intense racialization of tickets and arrests has
worsened. A Latino student continues to be more than
twice as likely to be ticketed and arrested at school
than a white student. Over the past year, a Black
student went from being four and a half times more

6

likely to almost six times
more likely to be ticketed
and arrested at school
than a white student.

LAUSD’S JOB
IS NOT DONE.
OVERALL
TICKETING
NUMBERS HAVE
COME DOWN BUT
THE INTENSE
RACIALIZATION
OF TICKETS AND
ARRESTS HAS
WORSENED.

For specific categories
of tickets, racial
discrimination intensifies
such that Black and
Latino students are 6
times to 29 times more
likely than white students
to be ticketed for the
same exact behavior.
Statistics like these raise
the question of whether it
has become social policy
to criminalize Black and Latino youth for behaviors
that are considered normal and acceptable for white
students. Virtually all of these tickets and arrests are
for minor incidents that schools traditionally handled

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

without criminalizing youth prior to the onset of
school policing—skipping class, smoking, drinking,
writing on desks or walls, getting into fights.

TWISTED SYMBOLS, BROADER
SOCIAL PRIORITIES
In spite of the progress of the past year, school
policing is still a daily reality for the Black, Latino,
and low-income youth of L.A.’s public schools. The
roots of the problem run deep in LAUSD, which in
2011-2012 led the country among large school districts
for criminalizing students, as we show below (see
page 10). The school-based tickets and arrests remain
a powerful symbol of how twisted our broader social
and educational policies have become.
We live in a state that invests more in prisons than
higher education. California is #1 in the country for
prison spending per person and #49 in education
spending per person.6 These gaps would only get
worse under recent proposals by Governor Brown
to expand prison spending upwards of $730 million,
over the next two years. The state is cutting teachers,
counselors and important programs from our schools.
California now has just 1 counselor for every 1016
students, the worst ratio in the country.7 Many schools
now have more police and security than guidance
counselors. Under present policies—which must be
reversed—our schools are more equipped to prepare
our youth for prison, not a college or career path.

OUR GENERATION’S FIGHT
AGAINST SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL
EDUCATION
One of the defining civil rights questions for our
generation is this: Will we stand up for education, not
incarceration? We can and must break from these
policies of disinvesting in our youth and criminalizing
them, and advance toward policies that truly reinvest

in our youth, to keep
them in school and
away from a jail cell.
This is key to our
generation’s fight
against separate and
unequal education.

“This is 2013, not
1999, and the L.A.
School Police
Department, with
the support of our
chief, recognizes this.
We have changed by
leaps and bounds to
bring our practices
and philosophies
current so that we
not using citations
and using discretion
whenever possible.”

We call upon the
School District, City
Council, Mayor, and
law enforcement
agencies to take
immediate action to
reverse the continuing
James Ream, President, L.A.
School Police Association
violations of students’
civil and human
rights that are having
devastating implications for our communities’ overall
health and prosperity.

A COMMON BASELINE FOR MOVING
FORWARD
We were very heartened to hear the statements
of officials at the May LAUSD board vote for the
School Climate Bill of Rights. The president of the
Los Angeles School Police Association, James Ream,
stated:
As a 20-year veteran officer, I have seen the pendulum
swing back and forth on this issue. A lot has changed.
This is 2013, not 1999, and the LA School Police
Department, with the support of our chief, recognizes
this. We have changed by leaps and bounds to bring
our practices and philosophies current so that we not
using citations and using discretion whenever possible.
At that same vote, Superintendent Deasy explained
that, as a science and math teacher, he took a long,
careful look at the numbers of “Willful Defiance”

OVER-POLICED AND UNDER-EDUCATED | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

7

suspensions and came to the conclusion that the
high level of disproportionality—where young
Black men were being suspended at nine times the
rate for whites—compelled the district to address
it. He reiterated his commitment to ending “early
criminalization and the school-to-prison pipeline as
part of the unintended consequences of district policies.”
Then Board Member Mónica García (Board President
at the time) encouraged our student members and
leaders:
“I came to tell you that you are our leaders. Help us
turn our schools around. Help us recruit more brothers
and sisters to the path of graduation. Your energy is
right. You saw a problem. You organized for a solution.
And remember when you win, there’s a responsibility to
implement and see it through.”
We see these views as creating a powerful baseline for
moving forward with a district led by board members
who have championed this issue—especially Mónica
García—and board members who voted resolutely
to support rolling back truancy and tardy ticketing
and to enact the School Climate Bill of Rights. We
are encouraged by LASPD Chief Steve Zipperman’s
leadership, his commitment towards community
engagement and transparency through the sharing of
data with the L.A. Chapter of the Dignity in Schools
Campaign.
It’s time for California to write a new chapter, with
LAUSD and our movement in the lead. Let’s stop
alienating and pushing students away from school.
Instead of handing over responsibility for student
discipline, school safety, and school climate to law
enforcement, courts, and the penal system, let’s
use the energy of youth, parents, teachers, and
administrators to create the schools and communities
our people deserve.

8

The Community Rights
Campaign’s Equal
Protection Plan
A real commitment to ending the civil
rights crisis of the school-to-prisonpipeline will require policies that
delineate the role of police at school
and prevent the widespread use of
tickets and arrests.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS
REPORT IS:
1. To mark the progress of the movement to
dismantle the school-to-prison-pipeline in
LAUSD;
2. To present the most current data and the
ongoing civil rights harms of tickets and
arrests at school;
3. To call on LAUSD and LASPD to
a) cease tickets and arrests for all school
discipline matters
b) end all LASPD ticketing and arrests for
elementary and middle school students
c) ensure civil rights remedies at schools
where tickets and arrests demonstrate racial
inequities
d) implement the further recommendations
contained within the Equal Protection Plan
attached to this report, a comprehensive
sample policy to further define and limit the
role of police in schools and to build robust
school- and community-based alternatives
for discipline.
4. To highlight additional solutions beyond
LAUSD at the local, state and national level
that can strengthen the movement to stop
the criminalization of Black and Brown
youth in our schools and communities.

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

Section 2

The Oversized Role of Police in
Los Angeles Schools
It would be difficult to find any group
of non-incarcerated people in the
U.S. who have had more contact
with law enforcement on a daily
basis than Los Angeles public school
students.
DAILY CONTEXT OF YOUTH POLICING

PAGE

LASPD TICKETS & ARRESTS IN NATIONAL
COMPARISON, 2011-2012
LASPD TICKETS & ARRESTS BY RACE, 2011-2012
LASPD TICKETS & ARRESTS BY AGE, 2011-2012
LAPSD TICKETS & ARRESTS BY GENDER, 2011-2012
LASPD TICKETS & ARRESTS BY CHARGE, 2011-2012
ANALYZING LASPD ARRESTS, 2011-2012
MORE THAN TICKETS AND ARRESTS

9

PAGE

10

PAGE

11

PAGE

12

PAGE

12

PAGE

13

PAGE

14

PAGE

15

DAILY CONTEXT OF YOUTH POLICING

GROWING UP POLICED, GOING TO
SCHOOL POLICED IN LOS ANGELES
Research has demonstrated that having police in
schools puts students at greater risk of unnecessary
involvement in the juvenile system through the
criminalization of behaviors traditionally resolved
through standard school discipline policies.8

In many cities, school districts will contract with
local police departments to have officers assigned to
schools. LAUSD is one of a handful of districts which
runs its own dedicated police department: the Los
Angeles School Police Department (LASPD).

LASPD LAUSD’s dedicated school police
department is the largestof its kind and has over 350
sworn police officers, 126 non-sworn school safety
officers (SSO), and 34 civilian support staff, with an
annual budget of over $52 million.9 LASPD officers
are stationed at most high schools and many of the
middle schools, especially in predominantly Black and
Latino communities. LASPD and LAUSD policies are
the focus of this report but it is not the only agency
involved.

LAPD The L.A. Police Department also has a
strong presence in Black and Latino communities
and schools. LAPD officers write tickets and arrest
youth for many of the same behaviors that are
targeted inside the school grounds: underage smoking
or drinking, tagging/graffiti, getting into fights.
Neighborhood policing of youth also results in stops
by LAPD, questioning, pat downs and bag searches—
all tactics in the endless “war on drugs,” “the war on
crime,” and “the war on gangs” that besiege poor and
working-class communities of color.

L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF Students are
routinely at risk of being criminalized on their way to
and from school on public transit by the L.A. Sheriff’s

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

9

BUS
STOP

LASD

LAPD

HOME

LASPD
PROBATION
ROOM
103

Department (LASD), which provides all transit policing
services under contract with L.A. Metro (MTA SD).
“Fare evasion” is currently the #1 category of police
referral for youth across L.A. County, accounting for
27% of all tickets issued countywide with numbers
approaching the dramatic levels of truancy ticketing
at its worst.10 ”Fare evasion” can operate as a “stop
and frisk” type of offense by empowering LASD and
the MTA transit police to stop and question youth on
public transit, often resulting in unnecessary searches.
In addition to patrolling public transit, LASD deputies
are stationed in many schools in areas of the school
district that fall outside of L.A. City boundaries. In
a society of such enormous wealth and unbearable
poverty, it is beyond comprehension that police
are used to arrest young people for the suspicion or
“offense” of not paying their fare.

L.A. COUNTY PROBATION In addition
to LASPD officers, LAUSD schools have probation

10

It is a common experience in many low-income Black and Latino
neighborhoods for a
student to walk out their
door in the morning and
run a gauntlet of LAPD
in their neighborhood,
then LASD patrols on
public transit, then
LASPD and Probation
at their school all day,
at the front gate, in the
halls, the cafeteria at
lunch, in random bag
searches during their
classes. At the end
of the day, they must
pass through the same
gauntlet in reverse to
get home.

officers assigned to them. In many schools, probation
officers are present every school day.
LASPD TICKETS & ARRESTS IN NATIONAL
COMPARISON, 2011-2012

LOS ANGELES HAS LED THE COUNTRY
IN CRIMINALIZING STUDENTS
We compared LAUSD to the 15 largest school districts
for which data was available, and calculated each
district’s “Student Criminalization Rate,” which is
the number of arrests and tickets/citations per 100
students in the district.11 LAUSD had the highest
Student Criminalization Rate of all its peer large
districts in 2011-2012. It criminalized its students at
five times the rate of New York City, and almost nine
times the rate of Miami-Dade, both of which have
their own well-documented problems with overpolicing of schools.12

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

LAUSD
CHICAGO
PHILADELPHIA
ORANGE CO. (FL)
GWINNETT CO. (GA)*
HILLSBOROUGH CO. (FL)
SAN DIEGO*

Comparing school-based
policing in large school
districts 2011-2012

BROWARD CO. (FL)
PALM BEACH CO. (FL)
DUVAL CO. (FL)

Note: All data is from 2011-2012 except for those districts marked with an
asterisk, which is from 2009-10.

HAWAII DEPT OF ED.*
COBB CO. (GA)*
NEW YORK CITY
MIAMI-DADE CO.
MONTGOMERY CO. (MD)*

0.0

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2

1.5

CRIMINALIZATION RATE

Ticket and arrests per 100 students
During the 2011-2012 school year, there were a total of
8,993 arrests and tickets of students by LASPD, which
is more than any other district has reported.13 To put
that in perspective, the entire state of Pennsylvania –
which has faced intense criticism for its use of police
in school – had only 5,837 for a student population of
1.8 million.14
LASPD TICKETS & ARRESTS BY RACE, 2011-2012

CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS & THE
CRIMINALIZATION OF BLACK AND
LATINO YOUTH
The over-policing of Los Angeles schools
overwhelmingly impacts Black and Latino youth. In

2011-2012, 93% of all LAUSD arrests and tickets went
to Black and Latino students.15
Compared to white students within LAUSD, Latino
students were 2.6 times more likely to be arrested
or ticketed, and Black students were 4.5 times more
likely.
Parents and youth have long known that Los
Angeles students receive radically different school
disciplinary consequences depending on where they
attend school and how they are perceived by the
disciplinarians. Evidence strongly suggests that these
racialized punishments are not caused by differences
in student behavior, but rather by differences in adult
responses to that behavior.16 In fact, studies routinely
find that the racial demographics of a school and

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

11

When you get an LASpd ticket, does it matter what color you are?

2011
2012

in 2011-2012, some were as
young as six or seven years
old. Overall, nearly half of
the arrests and tickets –
4,115 – were of youth ages
14 and under.

The data represent what
countless students and
parents have described
and experienced when
transitioning from
Latino students are 2.6 times more likely than white students to get ticketed.
elementary to middle
school when youth are
between 12 and 14 years
old. Suddenly the school
climate shifts sharply
Black students 4.5 times more likely than white students to get ticketed.
towards punishment and
“zero tolerance.” Coming
from elementary school,
the percentage of students identified as low-income
th
6 graders often experience a shock encounter with
are associated with higher percentages of the same
a more chaotic and hostile school environment that
offenses being reported to the police, rather than
too often includes unhealthy exposure to an escalated
handled through the school.17
LASPD TICKETING & ARRESTS BY AGE, 2011-2012

WELCOME TO MIDDLE SCHOOL,
WELCOME TO SCHOOL POLICING

LASPD ARRESTS
AND TICKETS BY AGE
AGE

What makes the civil rights harms even more destructive
is the young ages at which school policing begins.

Student criminalization in LAUSD
not only hits Black and Latino youth
the hardest, but it hits them very
young.
Among the many thousands of students who were
introduced – or reintroduced – to the juvenile system

12

NUMBER OF
TICKETS AND
ARRESTS

6

1

7

1

8

1

9

5

10

10

11

205

12

698

13

1,455

14

1,739

15

1,867

16

1,672

17

1,226

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

46.3%
WERE 14 AND
UNDER

Denver Police Chief Robert
White: “We have, as the

police, no desire to be
disciplinarians. That’s not
our job. That’s the parents’
job, that’s the schools’ job.
Our job is to deal with serious
violations of the law and
that’s what we’re going to do.”

level of school
policing. Given
how especially
vulnerable and
formative these
early teenage years
are, we should be
Responding to a grassroots
choosing to foster
campaign by Padres & Jóvenes
a school climate
Unidos, the Denver Police
Department and Denver Public
that emphasizes
School District signed an
support and,
agreement to restrict the role of
when needed,
police on school campuses.
intervention for
young students.
The school climate
should create an expectation of mutual respect
between students and school staff, rather than an
atmosphere of fear and intimidation caused by police
ticketing and arrests.
LAPSD TICKETS & ARRESTS BY GENDER, 2011-2012

GENDER AND SCHOOL POLICING
The criminal justice system has traditionally focused
on males. The prison incarceration rate for males is 15
times the rate of females. LASPD tickets and arrests
continue that pattern with over 70% of tickets and
arrests going to males.
Looking at ticketing and arrest data by gender
ultimately reveals that race is the more critical factor
in criminalization. For men and women alike, Black
and Latino communities in the U.S. have lived through
the most dramatic increases of incarceration rates over
the past two decades. These outcomes only reinforce
the need for change at the beginning of the pipeline, to
remedy racial harms and stop criminalization where it
starts.

LASPD TICKETS & ARRESTS BY CHARGE, 2011-2012

WHEN POLICE BECOME
DISCIPLINARIANS: TURNING THE
SCHOOLYARD INTO MINEFIELDS OF
CRIMINAL ACTS
The harmful overreaching of the criminal system in
schools becomes only clearer when we examine what
behaviors are being treated as “criminal.” Smoking,
drinking, writing on desks/walls, getting into fights,
skipping class, rebelliousness—schools and adults
have been dealing with these youth behaviors since
the beginning of schools. It is with the advent of “zero
tolerance” and the introduction of police presence at
school that the playground and school yard have been
turned into minefields of criminal violations.18
The vast majority of LASPD’s arrests and tickets in
2011-2012 were for behavior that posed little to no
serious threat to the physical safety of students or
staff members. In fact, 56% of the arrests and tickets
were for either possession of tobacco (or a lighter),
possession or consumption of alcohol, daytime curfew
violations, possession of marijuana, or vandalism/
graffiti (or possession of a marker or aerosol paint).
While these are all behaviors that should be
discouraged and addressed, it is clearly excessive
for the police and the court system to be involved
in these issues at all. These are all behaviors that
can and should be handled using existing LAUSD
school discipline policies, like School-wide Positive
Behavior Interventions and Supports 19 and restorative
justice, with the involvement of parents, teachers,
administrators, and school support staff such as
counselors, social workers, psychologists, and nurses.
We cannot imagine these behaviors being criminalized
in wealthier white suburban schools.

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2011-2012

LASPD ARRESTS
AND TICKETS
MOST COMMON CHARGES

21.7%

Disturbing the Peace

18.4%

Possession of Marijuana

18.0%

Daytime Curfew

13.5%

Possession of Tobacco or Lighter

6.3%

Vandalism and Graffiti

3.6%
2.0%

Trespassing

ANALYZING LASPD ARRESTS

LASPD ARRESTS, DISCRETION AND
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Possessing or Consuming Alcohol

Skipping class, smoking, drinking, writing on a wall, getting into a shoving match--why are we criminalizing youth
for behaviors that have been traditionally handled by the school? These are all behaviors that can and should be
handled by involving parents, teachers, administrators, counselors, restorative justice coordinators, social workers,
psychologists, and nurses.

The types of tickets that students receive clearly
demonstrate the expanded disciplinary role that police
now have at LAUSD schools. In fact, in many cases
tickets are the direct result of a discretionary referral
to the police by school staff, where the ticket replaces,
or is added to, other school-based punishments
such as in-school and out-of-school suspensions. In
either case, whether a ticket or arrest is initiated by
the police or by a school staff referral, it is frequently
a missed opportunity to build trusting relationships
with students that have a long term impact on their
behavior and future outcomes. Law enforcement and
the juvenile court are simply not in the position, nor
should they be, to respond to student behaviors with
the positive approaches that years of research support
as effective.20
As the most common charge, the frequent use of
“Disturbing the Peace” tickets are perhaps the clearest
indication of the backward lens of over-policing in
schools. Peer-to-peer and student-to-staff conflicts
create stress for the individuals involved and often
disrupt the broader school community. Without

14

resolution, these conflicts can last and escalate
throughout the school year. A ticket or arrest punishes
the individuals separately and does not create
opportunities for resolution. In contrast, restorative/
transformative justice programs are uniquely situated
to repair a harm that is experienced and convey the
importance of accountability to yourself and your
school community. When implemented correctly,
such programs are fostering school environments that
students want to be a part of and infusing life skills for
well beyond the classroom.21

Most, if not all tickets could be eliminated by
decriminalizing the underlying student conduct,
and where appropriate, replacing the ticket with
intervention and supportive services. But what about
the arrests? There is a common misassumption that
when a student is arrested, the incident must have
crossed the line from being a disciplinary issue to
involving a serious violation of the law or threat to
school safety. In reality, students are often arrested for
many of the same underlying behaviors that can result
in a ticket.

Virtually every arrest category, and all
ticket categories, are discretionary.
That is, the police officer had the leeway in nearly
every incident to weigh the situation and decide
whether to arrest, ticket or do neither.22 For example,
in a situation where an upset student pushes a peer
during a heated exchange, the officer can decide
whether to:
"!arrest the student (“Battery”)
"!ticket the student (“Disturbing the Peace”)
"!or refer both students to school administration to
get help dealing with the underlying sources of their

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

anger and to learn better methods of resolving peer
conflict through counseling, restorative justice or
other school-based intervention programs.
Even prior to police involvement, there is tremendous
discretion on the part of school staff, teachers, and
school administrators to handle almost all schoolbased incidents. In the same example above,
in responding to a student conflict, a teacher or
administrator could decide whether to:
"!Respond directly with restorative justice or Positive

Behavior Interventions and Supports
"!Refer to designated staff for a restorative justice
response
"!Refer to designated staff for positive behavior
intervention supports (i.e., counseling, conflict
resolution, behavior expectations and agreements)
"!Issue a suspension
"!Refer to police for ticket or arrest.

LASPD TICKETS VS. ARRESTS
POLICING TO DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH

Arrests made up
only 14% of the
overall LASPD
tickets and arrests,
for the 201112 school year.
While there are
far fewer arrests
than tickets, the
future educational
and criminal risks
associated with
arrests are far
greater.23

“To say I will work in a
public school is to say I
believe every young person
deserves to be cultivated,
nurtured and guided to
the adult process. It is to
say we don’t have children
who we just throw away. I
believe restorative justice
gives us the means to
reclaim the child who
in traditional discipline
models has been thrown
away or pushed out.”
Katie Rainge-Briggs
Teacher, Augustus Hawkins High School

In the vast
majority of cases, 86%, the officer involved judged it
unnecessary to introduce a more severe consequence
or removal of the student from the campus through an
arrest. Even within the arrests, a large portion, 43%,
were handled as misdemeanor arrests rather than
felony arrests, meaning that the underlying behavior
of the student would not support a more serious
charge. In fact, school-based arrests follow a similar
pattern as tickets with the most common underlying
charge, ‘battery,’ being related to physical altercations
or conflicts between students at school.24
MORE THAN TICKETS & ARRESTS

86%

THE SCHOOL AS A CHECK-POINT

TICKETS

8%

FELONY
ARREST

6%

MISDEMEANOR
ARREST

The vast majority of school police incidents involve no
serious threat to school safety or personal safety.

Despite evidence that a very small subsection of
school incidents are deemed by law enforcement
themselves to be the most serious, the LASPD daily
presence and interaction in the educational system
continues to be deeply entrenched. And for every
‘documented’ law enforcement contact with a student
(a ticket or arrest) there are many other police roles
at school that have been demonstrated to change the
climate of a campus and the perceptions of a student.

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For example, students report widespread, random,
and targeted searches of their person and bags, many
schools going so far as to bring drug-sniffing dogs
on campus. Intimidating posturing by officers in the
halls. Handcuffing in front of peers, even for truancy.
And at it’s worst, an ongoing form of profiling of the
‘bad’ students that can have lasting consequences for
their future potential, for example, through the gang
database.25
Such law enforcement tactics seem simply an
extension of what is happening in poor and Black and
Brown communities throughout the nation.26 Students
are being preemptively policed at school in ways
that can be likened to New York City’s controversial
‘stop and frisk’ policy, where race, not crime, is the
significant factor in predicting police contact.27 In
Oakland, for example, black youth are an alarming
73.5% of overall juvenile arrests and 73% of school
police arrests, despite making up less that 31% of the
city or school district’s student population.28 Over the
past two years, the Oakland School Police have not
reported a single white student arrest.29 And nearly
one in three families, in a comprehensive nation-wide
survey project led by Justice for Families, indicated
that their child’s first arrest took place at school.30

presence and searches are commonplace. The sheer
reliance on a public educational system that has
adopted such a policing model increases the likelihood
that all students, even with the best intentions, may be
stopped and searched during their school experience,
or ticketed when they arrive late to school.
In other cases, a student’s behavior is related to an
underlying incident, a personal or family circumstance
that signals the need for a deeper understanding
of their well-being. Sometimes there is a source of
stress in the school environment. Sometimes the
student has a personal or psychological difficulty, or
a problem in their family relationships. Other times a
negative interaction with a peer, a teacher, or police
will be causing distress. In all such cases, the goal
must be for students to build trusting relationships
with adults that positively impact their long-term
future potential. Relying on tickets, arrests, and the
criminal system undermines this goal.

In LAUSD, students are exposed to the schoolto-prison-pipeline through no fault of their own
but simply as an extension of attending their
neighborhood school where there is constant police

16

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

voices of the students

Michael

Grade: 11
Region: South L.A.
Race/ethnicity: Black and Salvadorean
Citation for Daytime Curfew violation

When I was in middle school, I got a ticket for being
tardy. I was in 7th grade and, at the time, I didn’t
even realize there were police on campus. One day
I was walking in and an officer stopped me and said
I was late and took me to the principal’s office. The
principal told everyone to get out of the office, even
though everyone could see through the glass what
was happening inside. That year I had been getting
into trouble at school, so he told me that I’d better
straighten up: “If you keep acting like this you’ll get
sent to another school and then you’ll see. If you
were at another school and you acted like this you’d

get jumped.” Then the officer came in and wrote me a
ticket for ditching.
While at school since then, I have been stopped by
police, questioned by police, yelled at by police, had
my bag searched, been patted down, put in a police
car and taken home by police. I have friends who
have been ticketed or arrested for skipping class,
fighting, having cigarettes or marijuana on them,
tagging, being on school grounds when they say you’re
not supposed to, and stealing.
Even for minor things, it seems like police are always
involved in our lives at school. When you get treated
like this it is demeaning and it’s a big part of how
we get pushed out of school. A lot of people I know
just stop caring about school. They just don’t care

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17

anymore. And it fits with how police treat us in South
L.A. at school and in the neighborhood, the message
is: “You are nothing.”
What we need is for schools and police to stop this
treatment, stop ticketing and arresting and harassing
students of color. We need positive alternatives at
school like counseling, rehabilitation programs, and
therapists.

Jacquelin

Grade: 11
Region: South L.A.
Race/ethnicity: Latina
Stopped and questioned for suspected
marijuana use

When I was in 8th grade, I went to the bathroom with
a friend and there were girls smoking in there. The
police came in and accused us of being with them.
We told them we weren’t but they still accused us
and searched our bags and interrogated us, asking us
invasive questions, like whether any of our parents or
family members smoked marijuana. After that I went
back to class but I couldn’t really concentrate. It gave
me a headache. The next day I didn’t want to go to
school. I was scared I might get blamed or accused of
doing something else I didn’t do. That feeling lasted
for about a month and then it slowly started going
away. My mom was really mad about it all.
That same year, I had a cousin at another nearby
middle school who got a ticket for tagging. He was
in 7th grade. And I had two other friends at my
middle school who got tickets, one for stealing and the
other for marijuana. This kind of thing really affects
students. You have this constant fear that you are
going to get caught for doing something, or that you
are going to be at the wrong place at the wrong time
and get caught up. You worry about getting a criminal
record that will mess up your life.

18

It continues now at my high school. The assistant
principal regularly comes into classes to do random
searches, often with a Security Officer. Because of my
experience in middle school, every time this happens,
I feel nervous and stressed. What if they find the
markers in my bag—will I get a ticket for tagging like
others I’ve seen who get caught with markers?

Brandon

Grade: 10
Region: South L.A.
Race/ethnicity: Latino
Citation for vandalism

When I was 13 years old in 7th grade middle school
in French class, I saw another kid writing on the wall
and so I asked him to borrow his marker so I could
write my nick-name on the floor. When the teacher
found the writing she stopped the class and called in
the police to find out who did it. The officer came into
the class and started calling out names of students
from our class and some students snitched on me.
The officer took me outside and asked me if I had the
marker and I said no and then he started asking me
these questions like if I had a tattoo [gang symbol] or if
I smoked and I said no. Then he kept asking questions
for awhile and at the end he told me that if I ever
did something to the students who told on me, that I
would get sent to Juvie.
I got a ticket for something like $800. When I went to
court the judge told me I have a one-year suspension
on my license whenever I get it. So if I get my license
it would be suspended for a year. I also got 48 hours
community service. And I got kicked out from that
school. But it was the last 3 weeks of CST testing
and no school would accept me. So I missed a lot of
school and I lived with my father until I could get into
a new school.

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

Jazmin

Recent graduate from a South L.A. high school
Currently junior at Evergreen State College
Race/ethnicity: Latina
Two citations for daytime curfew violation,
handcuffing, bag search

In middle school, I just didn’t like school. There were
a lot of things going on in my life. I had a lot of family
issues, my parents were breaking up. So I would ditch
and go to different places, and one of those times I got
my first citation. I was 2 blocks away from school in
front of my friend’s house. They handcuffed me and
searched me and my friend’s parents came out and
said, “What is going on?” They said, “You’re supposed
to be at school.” They patted me down, they searched
me, put me in the police car and drove me back to
my middle school. When we got to school, they made
me walk through the halls in handcuffs to the dean’s
office, which was really embarrassing. At the dean’s
office they gave me a citation.
The second time I got a ticket, I was at Venice
Beach and they took us to a school gym set up like
a detention center with all the students they had
rounded up. After they searched you and went
through the whole process of confiscating your stuff,
you had to go up and sit there in the gym stands--all
these seats and all these students, you just had to sit
there and wait for your parents to come. And when
my mom came, the officer told my mom “You know
most of the students that ditch do drugs and you
should really have her drug tested because her eyes
look really dilated right now.” It made me really upset,
Nobody ever asked what was going on, how was I
really doing. I was just being put in a box: if I was
ditching then I must be doing drugs. After that, things
got worse with my mom.

Rosa

Grade: 12
Region: Boyle Heights
Race/ethnicity: Latina
Citation for disturbing the peace

In 8th grade, me and a girl got into a fight. It was after
school and the police officers came pretty fast. They
took me to their car and they just gave me a ticket and
said I was suspended and couldn’t come to school
for a few days. They said, just come back on this
day. When I came back a few days later, nothing had
changed. That girl is now at my high school and I still
don’t like her, and it’s still awkward when we see each
other on campus. We just stare at each other. Our high
school has started a Restorative Justice program. That
would have been a lot more helpful if we had it in 8th
grade.

Ellis

Recent graduate
Region: Central L.A.
Race/ethnicity: Black
Stopped for daytime curfew violation, searched,
citation for marijuana possession

In my senior year, I was late getting to school and got
stopped by a school police officer. I figured I would
get a truancy ticket but instead the officer sent me to
the dean’s office. In the office the dean told me to take
everything out of my pockets and my backpack. I had
a pipe and a little marijuana. Instead of talking to me
or trying to help me, the dean just called in the police.
Before this incident with the police, I was active in
school and even part of student council but after that
I felt like the school was judging me and wanted me to
leave. It seemed like I was thought of as a nobody.

And when I see police, even to this day, I’ll get nervous,
even if they’re just next to me in the car. If I have to talk
to them I get nervous and feel like I did something wrong.

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19

Lydia

Grade: 12
Region: Central L.A.
Race/ethnicity: Latina
Citation for daytime curfew violation, searches

At my middle school, it was like a prison. There was a
police station right next to it and the police were always
there inside the door, in the halls. The police were even
at the orientation. They gave a powerpoint telling us not
to bring your electronics because some kid got jumped
for an ipod. They told us not to bring our sharpies
because of the tagging. They told us we couldn’t wear
sharp earrings, we couldn’t wear hoops, we couldn’t wear
star earrings. All these crazy rules and it was part of the
presentation and the police stayed on stage.
The police and security were giving tickets for just
about anything, like if you were late. They were
constantly searching our bags and taking things away.
There would be a day where they would just open
everyone’s lockers and tell you to leave them open so
they could check them. They would metal detect you.
They would take away your markers, your makeup,
take away like anything.
Now I’m in high school and the school police have been
stopping people at the gate who are late and searching
your bags. A few weeks ago, I was 15 minutes late and
they stopped me and made me open my bag. They aren’t
giving tickets but what they’re doing still makes me mad.

James

Grade: 11
Region: South L.A.
Race/ethnicity: Black
Citation and arrest for weapon possession

names and saying they were going to kick my ass.
When school ended they found me walking with my
girlfriend and started following us and saying they
were going to hurt me. But when we got to the front,
they saw my mom’s car and pulled back, telling me to
be ready tomorrow. The next day I started bringing a
knife in my bag for self-defense.
A couple of days later in my 3rd period English class,
the dean came in with three security guards for a
random bag search. The teacher told us all to make it
go easy by taking out anything we had, so I took out
my knife and put it on my desk. I told them why I
brought it but they took me to the school police office
on campus and told me they had no choice but to
arrest me because that was the law if it was longer
than your palm, and mine was an inch too long.
They took me to the police station and booked
me, then took me to another station where I was
questioned and kept in a holding cell for four hours
until my mom could come pick me up. This was a
shock to me since it was my first time getting into any
kind of trouble. I’d never been suspended, expelled,
ticketed or arrested before. When I went to the court
referee, they gave me community service and an essay
to write. My mom eventually got my record expunged.
It gets to me that I was treated like that for trying to
protect myself in the first place. There was no one at
the school I felt I could talk to or trust, especially since
it would be easy to get labeled a “rat” for telling. It
just felt like school staff were there to catch me doing
something wrong rather than preventing the bullying
or helping me.

I got bullied and harassed starting in middle school.
It affected me a lot inside but I still managed to do
alright in school. When I was in 10th grade, a couple
of boys took it to another level. One day in second
period, they started throwing paper at me, calling me

20

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

Perspectives from legal advocacy
How tickets, fines, and driver’s license holds intersect with life
circumstances for youth in L.A.: foster care, homelessness,
special education, and immigration
Zoe Rawson, Legal Advocate, Community Rights Campaign
As part of our campaign to decriminalize student
discipline, Community Rights has had the opportunity
to advocate for hundreds of students over the last
several years that have received school-based tickets.
In many of these cases, the young people and their
families were already in a time of crisis, experiencing
extraordinarily stressful life conditions at the time they
received one, or often several, school police tickets.
Thankfully, many of the problems associated with the
excessive fines that were commonplace have been
resolved through advocacy efforts with the juvenile
court and Probation. Unresolved driver’s license holds,
however, still plague hundreds of thousands of young
adults and have longstanding consequences, including
preventing individuals from applying for deferred
action, from participating in the Job Corp program,
and from sealing their juvenile court record.

policy of citing students immediately upon arriving to
school late.

HOMELESSNESS B contacted Community
Rights after having successfully completed high
school. She was working and interning but got ‘stuck’
because of the fines holding up her ability to get a
driver’s license. B estimated that she received about
12-18 tickets for truancy and tobacco when she was in
high school and homeless. Mental health, substance
abuse and domestic violence led to B leaving her

FOSTER CARE At a time in his life when J’s
focus should have been on “wraparound” services and
family reunification, he was attending court dates and
completing community service hours for 4 tickets that
he received in the span of just 5 months. J was ticketed
for fighting, marijuana possession, truancy and fare
evasion, receiving his last ticket 3 months prior to
entering the foster care system. J’s first exposure to
school tickets was attending a middle school with a

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21

family home and staying with friends and on the
street.
G’s case is similar. By the time G reached us, he owed
over $1,500 in fines for several truancy tickets and a
vandalism ticket that he received during a transitional
time that his mother was staying in a homeless shelter.
When we appeared in court to clear his driver’s
license hold, G himself was residing in a youth shelter.
Luckily, he was granted community service hours;
however because his fines were so high, he was
ordered to complete 173 hours.

As one of the most egregious forms of criminalizing
truancy, F was locked-up twice when the judge
determined that the truancy tickets were a probation
violation.

IMMIGRATION
L was terrified when stopped by the police outside
his high school for being late, because he was
undocumented. His mother reported that he felt
fearful and ashamed and it was several weeks before
his low spirits subsided.

SPECIAL EDUCATION D’s story is like many
students with underlying special education needs
that attend schools with a “zero tolerance” punitive
approach. D’s behavioral and emotional symptoms
at school triggered tickets and suspensions rather
than an evaluation for special education. By the
time D was 12 years old he had received 3 tickets
at school: one for fighting with a friend, another for
being accused of writing on the school hallway, and
a third for leaving school after getting upset about an
incident in class. Fortunately, D’s mother understood
he had a legal right to an assessment; however, her
formal request was denied by the middle school. After
a very chaotic year, several court visits, and filing a
complaint against the school for not following special
education law, D was finally evaluated and received
an IEP, which now allows him to attend a specialized
school.
F’s story was different in that having an IEP did
not stop his behavioral and emotional symptoms
from triggering tickets and arrests. F had an IEP in
place for his depression but continuously received
truancy tickets for missing class. Eventually, F owed
more than $3,000 in fines with just one of the tickets
alone costing $1,300. F’s depression continued and
worsened at school where eventually he was arrested
for carrying a knife for protection to and from school.

22

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

Section 3

The Consequences of
Over-Policing in Los
Angeles Schools

The harms caused by Los Angeles schools’ excessive
reliance on police cannot be overstated. Among them
are the following:
Arresting and ticketing students as a form of
school punishment has systemic civil rights
consequences: Black and Latino youth are pushed
out of school and into the “school-to-prison
pipeline.” Arresting or ticketing students can have
dramatic effects on their lives. It subjects them to the
potentially serious consequences within the juvenile
system – such as fines, probation, and detention.
Research also shows that a first-time arrest doubles
the odds that a student will drop out of school, and
a first-time court appearance quadruples the odds.31
Moreover, students who are arrested or ticketed in

school can face major obstacles when applying for
college or a job.32
These effects have been concentrated among
students of color who already face the most obstacles
in obtaining a quality education. When additional
factors are involved, the potential exposure to punitive
school discipline, ticketing and arrest increases. If a
Black or Latino LAUSD student also has a learning
disability, is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer
or questioning (LGBTQ), or is homeless or in foster
care—these factors can increase their likelihood of
school push-out.
The overuse of school-based arrests and tickets
is making many Los Angeles schools less safe.

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23

Research does not support Los Angeles schools’ use
of tickets and arrests as a school-safety strategy. For
example, a recent study of 470 schools nationwide
found no evidence suggesting that school-based police
officers contribute to school safety.33 On the contrary,
this approach can make schools less safe. Widespread
use of arrests and tickets dramatically changes the
culture of schools, leading to greater antagonism and
distrust between students and staff.34 In fact, these
practices have turned many Los Angeles schools
into unwelcoming and even hostile environments for
students that actually provoke school disorder, rather
than prevent it.35 For many white suburban students,
the school is a welcome sight; for many Black and
Latino children, the school is an alienating, hostile and
even fearsome institution.
Additionally, the over-reliance on law enforcement
intervention often fails to address the root cause of
the behavior in question. Police officers are neither
social workers nor psychologists. They are not
trained to identify or address students’ academic,
social, emotional, psychological, or physical needs.
Nor should they be, as that is not their role. Thus, by
resorting to punitive responses instead of attempting

24

to address students’ developmental needs, we miss an
opportunity to help youth in need and prevent further
occurrences that might impact school safety.
Over-policing of schools undermines academic
achievement and emotional well-being in Los
Angeles schools. There are impacts on a young
person’s psyche, self-perception, confidence, family
relationships, and outlook on the future from being
stopped, questioned, searched, ticketed or arrested
at school—or of witnessing it happen to peers. It can
be profoundly alienating —even traumatizing—and
result in serious academic setbacks and harms to
their emotional well-being.36 Instead of seeing their
school as a safe and supportive environment in
which to learn, grow, become more self-aware, find
self-expression and deal with questions of identity
and social belonging, the school becomes a hostile
institution where they feel treated as inherently guilty,
suspect, or deficient.
The effects of needless arrests and tickets within
schools are not limited to the students directly
involved; these practices have created a toxic
environment within many schools that affects all

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

students and staff. Over-policing of schools makes it
extremely difficult, and in some cases impossible, for
young people to feel secure in building connections
with adults in their schools, and become invested
in their own education, all of which are essential to
academic success and personal growth.37 The negative
school climate created by current police practices
thus undermines student engagement, creates an
additional obstacle for educators, inhibits school
improvement, and harms students’ emotional wellbeing.
Arresting and ticketing youth in school plays into
a long history of racialized policing in the US,
further damaging the relationship between police
and communities of color and perpetuating the
devaluation of Black and Latino lives.
The criminalization of everyday life in Black and
Latino communities—and the devaluing of Black
and Latino lives—is part of the origins of policing in
America and at the root of the deep ambivalence and
distrust communities of color have historically had
with the police.38 It is also a part of the racist social
tendency to view Black men in particular as inherently
dangerous or violent, deeply linked to the profiling
tragedies of young Black men like Trayvon Martin and
Oscar Grant.39 Confident, assertive, or non-compliant
Black and Latino men tend to be perceived as “defiant”
and “dangerous” to the larger, that is, white, society.
There is a fear of “Black militants” that has extended
from Malcolm X to Martin Luther King Jr, which
has led to the repression and suppression of Black
assertiveness and Black expressions of anger about
injustice, especially from Black men.

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

25

Section 4

Assessing Recent Reforms
of School Policing
REAL PROGRESS FOR
POLICYMAKERS, A REAL ADVANCE
FOR OUR MOVEMENT
To LAUSD and LASPD’s credit, they are responding
to years of community organizing and advocacy by
taking large steps toward reducing the use of tickets.
"!LASPD truancy and tardy tickets under the
daytime curfew are down by 93.7% from 20092010 to 2012-2013.
"! School ticketing across all categories has decreased
by 54.8% from 2011-2012 to 2012-2013.40

It is important to mark these steps as a real
breakthrough for the district and its school police
department, and as a real advance for our grassroots
movement. At the same time, L.A. is an important
case for understanding the road blocks and pitfalls to
achieving meaningful reform.

THE JOB IS NOT DONE WHILE
SYSTEMIC CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
CONTINUE FOR BLACK AND LATINO
YOUTH

Oct 2010 CRC with DSC-L.A. releases report
on Police in LAUSD Schools: The Need for
Accountability and Alternatives

12000

11,698

Jan 2012 Judge Nash, Presiding Judge of the
Juvenile Court, releases policy to end excessive
fines and allow community service to satisfy all
tickets.41

10,719

9000

7,740
6000

3,499
3000

Total LASPD Tickets
ALL CHARGES, YEARLY THROUGH MAY 2013

0

26

2009-2010

2010-2011

2011-2012

2012-2013

Feb 2012 City Council passes LAMC 45.04
amendments to the daytime curfew
Apr 2012 All tickets are referred directly to
Probation due to closures of the Informal Juvenile
Traffic Courts (13 throughout L.A. County)
Jun 2012 In response to CRC demand to decrease
tickets by 75%, LASPD and district commit to
have “an alternative diversion to Probation
Department” on selected citations
Aug 2012 CRC seeks the school district’s support
for the Equal Protection Plan to decriminalize
student discipline

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

How much progress
has been made in 2012-2013?
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
INDEX - INDEX
POLICE TICKETS
RACIAL
DISCRIMINATION
| POLICE TICKETS
Ratio of citations
per Black student
to citations per
white student

2010-2011

3.8
2011-2012

4.5
2012-2013

5.8

Ratio of Citations per Black Student to Citations per White Student

2012-2013

2012-2013

LASPD TICKETS BY AGE

AGE

NUMBER OF
TICKETS

9

3

10

4

11

103

12

442

13

816

14

908

15

1009

16

817

17

640

47.4%
WERE 14 AND
UNDER

BLACK, BROWN, AND

LASPD TICKETS
MOST COMMON CHARGES

32%

Possession of Marijuana

29%

Disturbing the Peace

15%

Possession of Tobacco or Lighter

7%

Vandalism and Graffiti

6%

Daytime Curfew

4%

Trespassing

3%

Possessing or Consuming Alcohol

Skipping class, smoking, drinking, writing on a wall, getting into a shoving match--why are we criminalizing youth
for behaviors that have been traditionally handled by the school? These are all behaviors that can and should be
by involving parents, teachers, administrators, counselors, restorative justice coordinators, social workers,
OVERPOLICEDhandled
IN L.A.
SCHOOLS
| COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN
psychologists,
and
nurses.

27

When youBlack
get
an LASPD
students are now 8 times more likely than white
studentsticket,
and Latino students
are 6it
times more likely than
“vandalism”
does
white students to be ticketed for having markers or
writing oncolor
desks/wallsyou
(“Vandalism/Graffiti”)
matter what
are?

When you get an LASPD ticket for
In 2012-2013
studentsdoes
are 29 times
“disturbing
theBlack
peace,”
it
more likely than white students to be
matter ticketed
whatforcolor
you
are?
Disturbing
the Peace

Vandalism tickets include
tickets for possession of
markers and writing on
desks or walls.

In 2012-2013, Black students were 5.5 times more likely
than white students to be ticketed.

In 2012-2013, Latino students were 5.2 times more likely
than white students to be ticketed.

The reduction in tickets and
arrests over the past year has not
benefitted all students equally. In
fact, racial disparities have actually
gotten worse.
In 2012-2013, 93.9% of all LAUSD tickets went to
Black and Latino students. We calculated a “Racial
Discrimination Index” for Black and white LAUSD
students for the 2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013
school years. The index compares the ratio of tickets
per Black students to tickets per white student (tickets
were used because arrest data was not available for
2012-2013). While the Racial Discrimination Index for
2010-2011 was already very high – 3.8 – it increased to

28

Blackstudents
students
were
29.1 more
timeslikely
more
likely
than
*In
In2012-2013
2011-2012, Black
were
23 times
than
white
white students
to beforticketed.
students
to be ticketed
disturbing the peace.

4.5 in 2011-2012. Then, in the 2012-2013 school year, it
reached a startling 5.8. In other words, Black students
have been nearly 6 times more likely to be ticketed
and referred to the juvenile system as white students
this past school year.
For Latino students, there has been no progress. They
continue to receive tickets at more than twice the rate
of white students.
Similarly, the most racialized categories of ticketing
have also remained constant or worsened:
"!Black students went from being 23 times more likely
to now 29 times more likely than white students
to be ticketed for “Disturbing the Peace.” This is
an egregious violation of 14th amendment “equal
protection” law, as well as international human
rights standards.

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

"!Black students are now 5.5 times more likely than

white students and Latino students are 5.2 times
more likely than white students to be ticketed for
having markers, damaging or writing on school
property (“Vandalism/Graffiti”).

INADEQUATE PROGRESS ON
AGE AND GENDER
While overall numbers of tickets are down, youth
under 15 still receive nearly half the tickets.
In terms of gender, males continue to receive a large
majority of the overall tickets but a very significant
portion of tickets are going to females, 30%. In many
categories of ticketing, for example school fights
(Disturbing the Peace), we are actually now seeing
a slight majority (53%) of tickets going to females
over males. In L.A. County, young women are the
fastest growing population to enter the juvenile court
system and the same remains true for female adults
nationwide.42

THE RACIALIZATION OF DISRUPTION/
DEFIANCE TARGETS BLACK
STUDENTS
One of the most frequent tickets issued by school
police is “Disturbing the Peace.” This category of
school “disruption” or “defiance” presents a unique
challenge and is perhaps most indicative of the
punitive, disciplinarian function of tickets. “Disturbing
the Peace” tickets are issued in cases where a student
has a verbal or physical conflict with a peer or school
staff. With rates far exceeding other categories of

tickets, “Disturbing the Peace” has resulted in extreme
disparities for Black students, with tickets being
issued starting at age 10. In 2012-2013, a Black student
became 29 times more likely to be ticketed than a
white student for “Disturbing the Peace.”
The very notion that Black youth are already being
perceived as dangerous or violent as early as age
10 points to a broader societal construct rooted in a
history of structural racism. The childhood behaviors
of Black youth—often called “acting out”—are more
frequently viewed through a lens of disruption and
defiance. These behaviors are punished through
“Willful Defiance” suspensions and expulsions, and
through “Disturbing the Peace” tickets, resulting in
school push-out. Black students made up 40% of
suspensions and expulsions for “Willful Defiance”, the
most common grounds for out-of-school suspensions
in the 2011-2012 school year. The extreme outcomes
for Black youth in this category have devastating
impacts over time, including the relationship to mass
incarceration rates for Black communities.43

NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS REMAIN
UNDER LOCKDOWN IN BLACK AND
LATINO COMMUNITIES
The racialized treatment of students is perhaps
best understood by examining the geographic
concentration of school policing in certain regions of
the school district.
The maps below (see page 30-31) show that
the highest intensity of student criminalization

Charter Schools and School Discipline
While the data presented here is for LAUSD schools, it is important to mention that some of the most harsh
and extreme disciplinary practices in Los Angeles take place within charter schools. Unfortunately, because
relevant data is unavailable for most of those schools, we were not able to present it here. The exemption of
charter schools from district disciplinary data reporting requirements is an important problem that requires
attention, especially in light of school push-out problems specific to charter schools.
BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

29

LAUSD SCHOOLS WITH THE HIGHEST RATES OF
TICKETING
AND
ARRESTS
IN IN2011-2012
LAUSD
SCHOOLS WITH THE HIGHEST
RATES
OF TICKETING AND ARRESTS
2011-2012
Of the more than 150 middle and high schools in LAUSD, These top 20 schools had the highest rates of ticketing and
arrests in 2011-2012 and are listed in alphabetical order.
San Fernando Valley
3 Middle Schools; 7 High Schools

Sylmar

9

17

Chatsworth

14

Northridge

19
Pacoima

San Fernando Valley
Canoga
Park

14
Sun
Valley

North
Hills

Reseda

8
Woodland
Hills

The schools are located in neighborhoods where 57% of the residents are
Latino, 28% are white and 19% of
families with children are in poverty.

San
Fernando

Porter Ranch

17

Verdugos

15

18

4

20

S.F. Valley: 45% Latino, 40% white
and 15% of families with children are
in poverty.

La Cañada
Flintridge

South L.A.

Glendale

13 Middle Schools; 6 High Schools

Pasadena
Encino
Universal
City

Central L.A.

Northeast
L.A.

Hollywood

Westside
Beverly
Hills

Mid-Wilshire

Culver
City

Santa
Monica

12

2

Marina del Rey

2

9

38% of families with children are in
poverty.

19 Westlake
Eastside
1
7
3
10 Boyle
Heights
8

South
5
Leimert L.A. 20
Park 1
16
7
15

South L.A.: 64% Latino; 30% African
American.

Glassell
Park

10

1111
12
13 18

FlorenceGraham

4

Central L.A.

2 Middle Schools; 2 High Schools
3 of the 4 schools are in the Westlake
neighborhood.

East Los Angeles

6

Huntington Park

6 3
16 Watts

El Segundo

Lynwood

Westlake: 70% Latino and 47% of
families with children are in poverty

Pico Rivera

South Gate

Southeast

Central L.A.: 47% Latino; 26% white

Downey

Norwalk
Paramount
Bellflower

South Bay
Gardena

Eastside
1 Middle School; 1 High School

5

Both schools are in the Boyle Heights
neighborhood.

Cerritos

Lakewood

13 Harbor

Torrance
Carson

Wilmington

Boyle Heights: 95% Latino and 35% of
families with children are in poverty.

Signal Hill

Long Beach

L.A. County

School Type
Middle School
High School

N

0

5

10

Miles
Ticket and arrest data is from LASPD 2012-2013. School point data is from the California Department of Eduation.
Demographic data is from the 2010 U.S. Census. Poverty data is from the American Community Survey 2007-2011 5 Year
Estimates. Geographic data is from Esri and L.A. Times. Only regions that fall within the LAUSD board are labeled. Map
created by Healthy City - Advancement Project (August 2013).

Top 20 Middle Schools
1 Audobon Middle
2 Barack Obama Global Preparation
Academy
3 Berendo Middle
4 Bret Harte Preparatory
5 Dr. Julian Nava Learning Center
6 Edwin Markham Middle
7 George Washington Carver Middle
8 Hollenbeck Middle
9 Horace Mann Junior High
10 John Muir Middle

25% Latino
28% white
8% African American
18.7% Familes with children are in
poverty.

Top 20 High Schools
11 Los Angeles Academy Middle

1 Belmont Senior High

11 Social Justice Schools*

12 Mark Twain Middle

2 Crenshaw Senior High

12 South Region High #2*

13 Mary McLeod Bethune Middle

3 David Starr Jordan Senior High

13 South Region High #4

14 Pacoima Middle

4 East Valley Senior High

14 Sun Valley High

15 Roy Romer Middle

5 Gardena Senior High

15 Susan Miller Dorsey Senior High

16 Samuel Gompers Middle

6 Huntington Park Senior High

16 Thomas Jefferson Senior High

17 Sun Valley Middle

7 Miguel Contreras Senior High

18 Thomas A. Edison Middle

8 Reseda Senior High

17 Valley Academy of
Arts and Sciences

19 Vista Charter Middle

9 San Fernando Senior High

20 William Jefferson Clinton Middle

10 Mendez Learning Center*

18 Van Nuys Senior High
19 Verdugo Hills Senior High
20 William Howard Taft Senior High

* This is a single campus which contains two or more small schools.

1
30

STRATEGY CENTER / ISSUE BRIEF / AUGUST 2013
BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

LAUSD SCHOOLS WITH THE HIGHEST RATES OF
TICKETING
IN 2012-2013
LAUSD SCHOOLS WITH THE HIGHEST
RATES OF TICKETING IN 2012-2013

Of the more than 150 middle and high schools in LAUSD, These top 20 schools had the highest rates of ticketing in 2012-2013 and are listed in alphabetical order.
San Fernando Valley
Sylmar

2 Middle Schools; 4 High Schools

20

The schools are located in neighborhoods where 70% of the residents are
Latino, 17% are white and 20% of
families with children are in poverty.

San
Fernando

Porter Ranch

Chatsworth

14

Northridge

S.F. Valley: 45% Latino, 40% white and
15% of families with children are in
poverty.

Pacoima

San Fernando Valley
Canoga
Park

2

South L.A.

18

North
Hills

Reseda

17

Sun
Valley

La Cañada
Flintridge

Verdugos

10

Glendale

Woodland
Hills

7 High Schools; 11 Middle Schools

Pasadena
Encino

South L.A.: 64% Latino; 30% African
American.

Universal
City

Glassell
Park Northeast

Central L.A.

38% of families with children are in
poverty.

Westside

Central L.A.

3 Middle Schools; 3 High Schools
2 of the schools are in the Westlake
neighborhood.

L.A.

19

Westlake

6

Beverly
Hills

19

Leimert
Park 1

South 10
L.A.

3

12

Marina del Rey

2

9

Westlake: 70% Latino and 47% of
families with children are in poverty

Eastside

11 7

3

Mid-Wilshire

Culver
City

Santa
Monica

13

5

Hollywood

1

12

Boyle

11 Heights
8

7

East Los Angeles

14
13 18

FlorenceGraham

4 17

Huntington
Park

5

6 4
15 Watts

Central L.A.: 47% Latino; 26% white

El Segundo

16

Southeast

16
Lynwood

Downey

Norwalk
Paramount
Bellflower

South Bay

Eastside

Pico Rivera

South Gate

Gardena

1 Middle School; 1 High School
Lakewood

Both schools are in the Boyle Heights
neighborhood

Torrance
Carson

Boyle Heights: 95% Latino and 35% of
families with children are in poverty.

L.A. County

25% Latino
28% white
8% African American
18.7% Familes with children are in
poverty.

8

15 Harbor
Signal Hill

20 9
Wilmington

Long Beach

School Type
Middle School
High School

N

0

5

Ticket data is from LASPD 2012-2013. Arrest data is not yet available for 2012-13. School point data is from the California
Department of Eduation. Demographic data is from the 2010 U.S. Census. Poverty data is from the American Community
Survey 2007-2011 5 Year Estimates. Geographic data is from Esri and L.A. Times. Only regions that fall within the LAUSD
board are labeled. Map created by Healthy City - Advancement Project (August 2013).

Top 20 Middle Schools

Top 20 High Schools

1 Audobon Middle

11 John H. Liechty Middle

1

Augustus F. Hawkins High*

2 Barack Obama Global Preparation
Academy
3 Berendo Middle

12 Marina Del Rey Middle

2

Canoga Park Senior High

12 Social Justice Schools*

13 Mary McLeod Bethune Middle

3

Crenshaw Senior High

14 Pacoima Middle

4

David Starr Jordan Senior High

13 Sonia Sotomayor Learning
Academies*

15 Samuel Gompers Middle

5

Helen Bernstein High

16 Southeast Middle

6

Los Angeles Senior High

17 Sun Valley Middle

7

Miguel Contreras Senior High

18 Thomas A. Edison Middle

8 Nathaniel Narbonne Senior High

4 Bret Harte Preparatory
5 Charles Drew Middle
6 Edwin Markham Middle
7 George Washington Carver Middle
8 Hollenbeck Middle
9 Horace Mann Junior High
10 John Adams Middle

10

Miles

19 Virgil Middle

9

20 Wilmington Middle

10 Reseda Senior High

Phineas Banning Senior High

11 Mendez Learning Center*

14 South Region High #2*
15 South Region High #4
16 South Region High #9*
17 South Region High #12*
18 Sun Valley High
19 Susan Miller Dorsey Senior High
20 Sylmar Senior High

* This is a single campus which contains two or more small schools.

1

STRATEGY CENTER / ISSUE BRIEF / AUGUST 2013
BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

31

is concentrated in majority Black and Latino
communities in the county, especially in South L.A.,
Westlake, Boyle Heights and the East Valley.
These concentrations remained largely unchanged
between the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years.

THE CONCENTRATION OF TICKETS
AND ARRESTS IN SOUTH L.A. CALLS
FOR CIVIL RIGHTS REMEDIES
The sheer concentration of schools in South L.A.
with the highest ticketing and arrest rates for Black
and Latino students is troubling enough. But
the conditions in these communities make the
concentration of criminalization in South L.A.
devastating. Black and Latino youth in Los Angeles
County struggle through conditions of deprivation—
from birth to adulthood. These conditions have
resulted from social neglect and disinvestment in
Black and Brown communities.
"!The infant mortality rate for African Americans in

Los Angeles County is about twice as high as the
overall rate and three times that of white babies.
African Americans comprised 8% of all births and
16% of all infant deaths in 2007.44

Only the progress on truancy
and tardy ticketing is actually
protected by law. The reductions
in other forms of tickets and
alternative diversion programs
are currently only informal
directions that can be reversed
or regressed upon at any time.
32

"!In Los Angeles, 31% of Black children live in poverty,

29% of Hispanic children, compared to only 11% of
white population.45
"!As the UCLA School of Public Affairs describes

the crisis of human services in L.A. “Poorer
neighborhoods in Los Angeles County, where
needs are the greatest for shelter, food, job
training, health services, prenatal care, alcohol
and substance abuse counseling and other basic
services, contain fewer human services than middle
and upper income neighborhoods. In particular,
African American neighborhoods in South Los
Angeles have been hardest hit, like urban deserts
when it comes to access to jobs and healthy foods
that are vital to improving the quality of life in poor
neighborhoods.46
"!In Los Angeles, although African Americans are

only 9.3% of the population, they make up 40% of
the homeless youth population.47

NOW IS THE TIME TO ESTABLISH
DURABLE EQUAL PROTECTION
UNDER THE LAW
Overall ticket reductions are encouraging but the
worsening racial inequalities and the continuing
problems associated with punitive school discipline
and the role of police show the urgent need for more
comprehensive measures of two kinds: (1) to further
define and limit the role of police in schools and
(2) to build robust school- and community-based
alternatives for discipline.
Given the progress made in reducing overall tickets,
now is the time to turn the work of the past year into
durable equal protection for all students. In fact, of
all the improvements we see now, only the progress
on truancy and tardy ticketing is actually protected
by law. The reductions in other forms of tickets
and alternative diversion programs are currently

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

We are seeing troubling new
proposals to train police to play
a new “youth-friendly” role
as mentors and intervention
workers
only informal directions of the district, LASPD and
the Probation Department that can be reversed or
regressed upon at any time.
The need for bold action has been made only more
urgent by the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in
Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012. The
Newtown tragedy has prompted proposals for a
variety of strategies for addressing gun violence and
improving community safety by increasing police
in schools. Numerous states and cities have already
responded by increasing the presence of armed police
officers in schools.48 Just weeks after the shooting,
Senator Barbara Boxer introduced a bill to deploy the
National Guard into schools.49 And President Obama’s
proposals for increasing federal funding for schoolbased police came to fruition this September when
the Department of Justice awarded $45 million to
cities throughout the nation to increase school police
officers.50 These federal funds came through despite
multiple sources issuing either opposition or strong
reservations about increasing police in the schools
given the harms associated with the school-to-prisonpipeline.51
In Los Angeles, the tremendous progress reducing
overall ticketing numbers has been matched by several
steps backward. LAPD announced plans immediately
following Sandy Hook to begin patrolling elementary
and middle schools for the first time.52 Then LAUSD
added a new layer of patrols, dedicating $4.2 million
to assign “campus security aides” to the elementary
schools and an additional $4 million to increase
LASPD’s budget.

There are many social forces pursuing a long-term
agenda of expanding police presence, increasing
surveillance and increasing suppression. In the
name of “school safety” and “protecting our children,”
they use every Newtown-like crisis to advance their
agenda. It may take a few weeks, a few months, or
years, but the calls for guns and armed security in our
schools will fade, and yet children will go on being
stopped, ticketed and arrested by police for tardiness,
skipping class, scribbling on walls, and getting into
school fights. We must redefine what “school safety”
means by emphasizing public health, mental health
and emotional well-being as the foundations for
school environments and holistic systems that achieve
the best possible outcomes for all of L.A.’s students.

A WORD OF CAUTION: WHY TRAINING
LAW ENFORCEMENT IS NOT AN
ADEQUATE SOLUTION.
As our movement to end the school-to-prisonpipeline grows and changes the debate, we are seeing
new proposals to train police to play a new, “youthfriendly” role and to act as mentors or youth workers.
The Community Rights Campaign strongly
disagrees with these proposals for several reasons.
First, campuses can prioritize adult professionals with
the skills and experience to properly intervene and
support students: intervention workers, mental health
providers, nurses, teachers and counselors. Many
of these positions have been severely underfunded
and completely cut in schools and school districts
throughout the state. In fact, California has the
worst student-to-counselor ratio in the nation: 1,000
students to 1 counselor, despite a standard best
practice of 250 to 1.53
Second, funding for police (re)training programs
continues to entrench police in the schools as the

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

33

solution for every campus climate problem, even
when more effective alternatives exist that desperately
need these resources. Third, youth are rightly at
school to learn and mature and should be free to
focus on their educational progression, not to assist
the police in criminal investigations. Finally, putting
police in the role of mentors or youth workers will
damage students’ ability to trust adults who can help
them. A student would have to be afraid of profound
consequences if they do not agree or comply with the
suggestions of a police officer acting as a mentor or
youth worker.
Similarly, the Probation Department is increasingly
being positioned as an agent of reform. As a result
of several juvenile court closures in Los Angeles, the
Probation Department has taken over the handling
of all school-based tickets. Probation is currently
attempting to ‘divert’ most school police tickets from
the juvenile system by avoiding overly punitive
responses. For instance, they are issuing warning
letters for truancy tickets instead of imposing fines, or
requiring court appearances. In other cases, students
may be required to attend a ‘behavior management’
class. But the consequence of having police referrals
go through Probation is still a significant risk.
Probation’s primary role is to monitor compliance and
they have the authority to refer cases to the juvenile
system for delinquency prosecution. Even through
‘diversion’ an extra hurdle is unnecessarily created for
the youth and their family, and resources are ‘diverted’
away from the school-site and student services.

QUICKFACTS ON
PROBATION:
Largest probation agency in the
world
Budget: $630 million
Mission: “recommending sanctions
to the court, enforcing court orders,
operating correctional institutions,
incarcerating delinquents”

Even at its best, where resources-based services are
required through the Probation process, students
are still removed from the origin of the incident
and the potential community of supports at school.
Student conflicts rarely occur in an isolated context.
Whether the disagreements are peer-to-peer, between
students and staff, or the result of everyday social
pressures facing students, the underlying ‘conflict’
does not necessarily get resolved by sending a young
person away from the source. On the contrary, many
students will come back to school having complied
with Probation requirements without having a chance
to resolve or ‘restore’ the incident within the school
community. Having the juvenile system involved in
this manner continues a cycle of missed opportunities
and, unfortunately, contributes to an already existing
imbalance in enforcement versus intervention as the
response to student behaviors.

Virtually all school-based
behaviors are potentially
subject to law enforcement and
Probation-involvement with high
stakes consequences attached.
34

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BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

35

Recommendations
The over-policing of schools has fundamentally
transformed the school experience for LAUSD’s
overwhelmingly Black and Latino students,
eliminating much of the separation between the
education system and the justice system. To alleviate
this tension, and ensure that all Los Angeles youth
are provided a full and equal opportunity to get an
education, our schools simply must take a different
approach.

National Momentum for
Alternatives to Tickets and
Arrests
Research and experience have demonstrated the
devastating consequences of Los Angeles schools’
current approach to school policing. In fact, there are
now several national initiatives that are in the process
of addressing the damage caused by the oversized role
of law enforcement in schools and promoting alternative strategies that better support school safety and
academic achievement.54 For example:
"!In 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S.

Department of Education launched a collaborative
project called the “Supportive School Discipline
Initiative,” which was designed to address
the School-to-Prison Pipeline and the use of
disciplinary policies and practices that push
students out of school and into the justice system.55
"!The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
Judges passed a resolution in 2012 encouraging
the reduction of school-based arrests and
“inappropriate referrals to juvenile court,” and
their members are working in jurisdictions across

36

the country to implement alternative strategies.56
Additionally, NCJFCJ President – and Presiding
Judge of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court – Michael
Nash sent a letter to Vice President Joe Biden
discouraging additional police presence within
schools in response to the Newtown incident.57
"!The Council of State Governments Justice
Center is leading a national consensus-building
process designed to identify and promote school
disciplinary methods that result in improved
academic outcomes and fewer referrals to the
juvenile justice system.58
"!Denver IGA: In
February 2013,
“Too many schools
community-based
are employing
organization
policies and
Padres y Jóvenes
practices of extreme
Unidos successfully
discipline that push
campaigned for an
young people out of
Intergovernmental
school and into the
Agreement (IGA)
juvenile and criminal
between the Denver
Public Schools and
justice system. The
the Denver Police
influx of police in
Department. The
schools has been
IGA is designed
one of the main
to explicitly
contributors to the
minimize police
growing number of
involvement in
children funneled
schools, emphasize
into this pipeline.”
restorative
approaches to
Presiding County Juvenile
student behaviors
Court Judge Michael Nash
and provides for
important due

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

process protections such as parent notification
when students are ticketed or arrested at school.
"!In May 2013, the New York City School-Justice
Partnership, released their report Keeping Kids
In School and Out of Court,’ which contains best
practice recommendations that include clarifying
and focusing the role of school police so they are
not first-responders to school behavior.59
"!In September 2013, Texas Senate Bill 393 went into
effect. The new law completely eliminates the use of
school police tickets in response to student behavior
across the state.
"!Pasadena MOU: In September 2013, Pasadena
City Council approved a sweeping agreement
between the Pasadena Unified School District
and the Pasadena Police Department, achieved
through negotiations with the ACLU of Southern
California, to restrict police intervention to only
the most serious cases that have law enforcement
notification requirements under state law.
These efforts reflect widespread national recognition
that the over-policing of schools has been unjust and
harmful. Instead, we need to shift our understanding
of what makes a school safe. We must recognize that
the best school safety strategies have nothing to do
with heavy reliance on police and juvenile courts to
address common, school-based offenses. Instead, they
involve creating healthy, supportive environments
where students can develop strong relationships with
teachers, administrators, and other school employees.

The Community Rights Campaign is a
long-term campaign to challenge suppressive, pre-prison
conditions in Los Angeles public schools. Our members
are primarily Black and Brown students in LAUSD
schools in South and East L.A. and the San Fernando
Valley, parents, teachers and community members. Our
goal in this document is to solidify the philosophical shift
and the important reductions in school-based tickets that

have taken place within the district over the last year by
putting into place concrete and lasting policies.
Last year, we began developing the Equal Protection
Plan (EPP) to decriminalize student discipline in
LAUSD.60 It is a product of our youth-led movement.
It is a sample comprehensive policy that contains
specific guidelines to decriminalize student behavior
on campus and to ensure that criteria are in place
to properly define and limit the role of police at
school. The EPP also builds upon existing LAUSD
commitments to prevent exclusionary school
discipline practices with alternatives such as SchoolWide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports
and Restorative Justice.
Many of the following recommendations are central
components of the EPP. We are hopeful that the
district will take these important steps towards
restoring a positive school climate for all students. We
also encourage L.A. leadership at all levels to engage
in a systemic evaluation of the allocation of resources
and take bold action to finance resource-based
alternatives to school policing.

RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR LAUSD
1. Cease LASPD ticketing and arrests
for student conduct in the following
disciplinary categories (outlined in the Equal
Protection Plan),61 where there is not an immediate
and serious threat of physical harm to students or
staff:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

disturbance and/or disruption;
truancy;
trespass;
loitering;
profanity;

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

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f.

insubordination and/or noncompliance
with school rules;
g. vandalism, graffiti or possession
of implements of graffiti;
h. fighting and/or physical conduct
not involving serious bodily harm;
i. verbal disruption or aggression;
j. petty theft;
k. possessing tobacco or a lighter; and
l. possessing or using any controlled substance
or alcoholic beverage that does not mandate
suspension or expulsion.

2. End all LASPD ticketing and arrests
for elementary and middle school
students.
3. Ensure civil rights remedies at
schools where tickets and arrests
demonstrate racial inequities. Under
the School Climate Bill of Rights, the district will
provide restorative justice training for civil rights
violations at school-sites where 10% of a particular
subgroup or 10% of overall students were arrested
or given citations.

4. Clearly define and limit the role of
police on campus and build the capacity
of youth intervention workers, counselors,
administrators, teachers, and other support staff to
respond to school-based incidents. The police role
should be focused on preventing and handling the
most serious school safety issues. Police should
not be retrained as counselors, mentors or youth
workers. The district is responsible for creating
clear guidelines for the role and responsibilities
of school police that contain criteria to properly
distinguish administrative from criminal
responses.

38

5. Direct new federal funding for
safety to increase counselors, youth
intervention workers and other
resource-based school personnel,
not to add police. Unfortunately, the
Department of Justice has already awarded more
than $125 million towards law enforcement postNewtown with at least $45 million directly tied to
increasing police presence in schools. Similarly,
President Obama’s proposed $150 million for
increasing counselors OR police is currently
moving through Congress.

6. Build Restorative Justice programs
and fully implement SWPBIS as
positive alternatives, consistent with the
District’s Discipline Foundation Policy and under
the School Climate Bill of Rights. A meaningful
and lasting emphasis on positive alternatives may
require a significant shift in our funding priorities.
It is disheartening that in the same year that the
School Climate Bill of Rights resolution passed,
there was a combined $8.2 million increase to the
LAUSD police and security infrastructure budget.
To staff most public middle and high schools
with a full-time restorative justice coordinator in
LAUSD is comparable at $8 million. In contrast,
LAUSD’s implementation of the Local Control
Funding Formula is an opportunity to begin
to remedy the school-to-prison-pipeline by
ensuring that funds are directed to support full
implementation of School-Wide Positive Behavior
Interventions and Supports and capacity for
Restorative Justice programs in all schools.

7. Provide LASPD quarterly data and
reporting to the District on all citations,
arrests, referrals, complaints, stops and searches—
broken down by age, race, and gender. The
process for reviewing the data and ensuring
accountability should be overseen by those most

BLACK, BROWN, AND OVERPOLICED IN L.A. SCHOOLS | COMMUNITY RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

impacted by school-based policing: parents,
students, teachers and community organizations.

ADDITIONAL
SOLUTIONS BEYOND
LAUSD
What is happening in Los Angeles is
connected to wider arenas of policy.
There are other agencies and bodies
which have an important role to play.
MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL AND MTA
"!End all tickets and stops for “Fare
Evasion”—Implement a free youth
pass. “Fare Evasion” is currently the #1 category
of police referral for youth across L.A. County,
accounting for 27% of all tickets issued. We urge
the Mayor, L.A. City Council and L.A. Metro to
end this form of youth criminalization (ticketing,
unnecessary searches) so that public transit
can serve as a bridge, not a barrier, for student
attendance and success.62

PRESIDENT OBAMA
"!Reject proposals to increase
security and police in schools
"!Increase

funding for federal civil
rights oversight of school discipline
and school-based policing. Affirm
the recent work of the Department of Education
in gathering civil rights data on school-based
policing. Ensure that the Department of Education
and the Department of Justice diligently review
civil rights complaints and order remedies when
students’ educational, civil and human rights are
egregiously violated, as in the recent Mississippi
case. Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prevents
agencies receiving federal funding from using
funds in a racially discriminatory manner. In
L.A., Title VI can guide LAUSD to end racially
“disparate impacts” of ticketing and arrests and
to reach full compliance with Title VI by working
with students, parents, and community groups to
initiate policies that offer “equal protection” to all
students regardless of race, ethnicity, or national
origin.

CALIFORNIA STATE LEGISLATURE
"!Clarify role of adults on campus and
include limitations on police role.
Create a meaningful process requiring schools
and school districts to work with students, parents
and community members to develop codified
guidance to clarify the role of adults on campus
in relationship to school discipline and impose
limitations on police involvement in schoolbased incidents that should be handled through
administrative, not criminal, responses. Prioritize
funding for alternative forms of school discipline
— for strategies that prevent school ‘push out’ and
criminalization of student behavior.63

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39

ENDNOTES
1.
The School Climate Bill of Rights (‘SCBR’) is a resolution
authored by Board Member Monica Garcia passed by the LAUSD
Board on May 14, 2013, to enact policy to roll back “zero tolerance”
discipline and implement resource-based alternatives. The SCBR
is a project of the Brothers, Sons and Selves Coalition, of which the
Community Rights Campaign is a founding member, in partnership with Board Member (former Board President) Monica Garcia.
The full text of the resolution is available at http://www.thestrategycenter.org/node/6060. More information about the Brothers,
Sons, Selves Coalition is available at http://www.libertyhill.org/
Programs/campaigns/brotherssonsselves

The Dignity in Schools Campaign is a national effort to challenge the systemic problem of school pushout. The L.A. Chapter
of the Dignity in Schools Campaign is a coalition consisting of
the American Civil Liberties Union – Southern California (ACLU
- SC), the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), Community Asset
Development Re-defining Education (CADRE), Community Rights
Campaign (CRC), Public Counsel and Youth Justice Coalition (YJC).
2.

Recent projections by juvenile court officials indicate that
there are possibly close to 300,000 unresolved cases with current
holds on the ability to obtain a driver’s license carried over from
the now closed Informal Juvenile Traffic Court.
3.

We thank Public Counsel for submitting and covering the
costs of Public Records Act Requests (PRAR) to obtain schoolbased ticket and arrest data and for distributing the data to community groups.
4.

The comparisons of the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years are
more generous than reality. The 2012-2013 ticket and arrest data
exclude the last month (June) because they were not available at
the time of writing. Both years of data exclude incidents involving youth 18 or older. For school-by-school data below, a small
percentage of school tickets and arrests were not counted because
of inadequate record keeping. Finally, 2011-2012 was not a typical
year for tickets and arrests, since our advocacy efforts had already
resulted in lower levels from historical norms.
5.

Prerna Anand, Winners and Losers: Corrections and Higher
Education in California, California Common Sense (Sept 5, 2012)
http://www.cacs.org/ca/article/44; see also John Fendsterwald,
California drops to 49th in school spending in annual Ed Week
report, Ed Source (January 14, 2013).
6.

Data released by the American Association of School
Counselors available at http://www.schoolcounselor.org/files/Ratios10-11.pdf 850b-e29b2f1ff17f&Menu=dbd39a1f-3319-4a75-8f69d1166d-ba5d70&res=.
7.

The Sentencing Project, The Facts About Dangers of Added
Police in Schools (citing Torres, & Stefkovich, Demographics and
Police Involvement: Implications for Student Civil Liberties and
Just Leadership, Education Administration Quarterly 45(3) (2009)
450-473).
8.

Los Angeles School Police Department, What is the LASPD
About, http://www.laspd.com/about.html.
9.

According to data provided by the L.A. County Probation
Department.
10.

40

Florida district data was taken from: Florida Department of
Juvenile Justice, Delinquency in Florida’s Schools: An Eight-Year
Study, Jan. 2013, http://www.djj.state.fl.us/docs/comm/fy-201112-delinquency-in-schools-analysis-(final-release)-(1-3-2012).
pdf?sfvrsn=2. Philadelphia was taken from: Pennsylvania
Department of Education, “Safe Schools Online,” https://www.
safeschools.state.pa.us/Main.aspx?App=6a935f44-7cbf-45e1850b-e29b2f1ff17f&Menu=dbd39a1f-3319-4a75-8f69-d1166dba5d70&res=. Chicago data was provided by Voices of Youth in
Chicago Education, and was obtained through a public records
request to Chicago Public Schools. New York City data came
from the New York Civil Liberties Union, http://www.nyclu.org/
files/releases/School%20Safety%20Fact%20Sheet%202011-2012.
pdf. All other data comes from the U.S. Department of Education
Office of Civil Rights’s Civil Rights Data Collection, http://ocrdata.
ed.gov. Note that districts that did not submit complete data sets
to the Office of Civil Rights, and did not publicly report their data
elsewhere, were excluded from this analysis. Enrollment data used
came from state departments of education or the Civil Rights Data
Collection.
11.

See, e.g., New York Civil Liberties Union, School to Prison
Pipeline, http://www.nyclu.org/issues/youth-and-student-rights/
school-prison-pipeline; Florida State Conference NAACP, Advancement Project, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, Inc., Arresting Development: Addressing the School Discipline Crisis in Florida (Spring 2006), available at http://b.3cdn.net/
advancement/e36d17097615e7c612_bbm6vub0w.pdf.
12.

Data obtained from LAUSD and LAPD, via the Los Angeles
Chapter of the Dignity in Schools Campaign and Public Counsel.
Note that all data are likely conservative because they exclude
tickets for anyone over the age of 18, and exclude arrests for anyone over the age of 17 (18-year-old school-based arrests were not
discernible from the data provided). The 2011-12 school year was
defined as 7/5/11 through 6/29/12, which represented the first and
last days of any of the academic tracks within LAUSD. LAUSD,
“LAUSD Announces School Calendars for 2011-2012,” http://
notebook.lausd.net/pls/ptl/docs/PAGE/CA_LAUSD/LAUSDNET/ABOUT_US/INFORMATION/DISTRICT_CALENDARS/
KEY%20CALENDAR%20DATES%202011-12SCHOOL%20CALENDAR.PDF. National context is based on conversations with Jim
Freeman, a nationally recognized expert on school discipline.
13.

See, e.g., Youth United for Change & Advancement Project,
Zero Tolerance in Philadelphia: Denying Educational Opportunities and Creating a Pathway to Prison (Jan 2011); see also Pennsylvania Department of Education, Safe Schools Online available at
https://www.safeschools.state.pa.us/Main.aspx?App=6a935f447cbf-45e1-850b-e29b2f1ff17f&Menu=dbd39a1f-3319-4a75-8f69d1166d- ba5d70&res=.
14.

Race data was not provided for 102 of the tickets and arrests;
these were excluded from this calculation.
15.

See, e.g., American Psychological Association (APA) Zero
Tolerance Task Force, Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the
Schools? An Evidentiary Review and Recommendations (2006).
16.

The Sentencing Project, The Facts About Dangers of Added
Police in Schools (citing Mario S. Torres, Jr. & Jacqueline A.
Stefkovich, Demographics and Police Involvement: Implications
for Student Civil Liberties and Just Leadership, Education Administration Quarterly 45(3): 450-473, 2009).
17.

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See, e.g., Bernadine Dohrn, “Look Out Kid, It’s Something
You Did” The Criminalization of Children in The Public Assault on
America’s Children, Poverty, Violence and Juvenile Injustice (Polakow, edit., 2000) p. 157; Advancement Project, Test, Punish, and
Pushout: How “Zero Tolerance” and High Stakes Testing Funnel
Youth Into the School- to-Prison-Pipeline (2010); Michelle Fine
and Jessica Ruglis, Circuits and Consequences of Dispossession: The
Racialized Reallignment of the Public Sphere for U.S. Youth (2009)
Transforming Anthropology 17 (1) pgs. 20-33; Aaron Kupchik and
Geoff K. Ward, Reproducing Social Inequality Through School
Security: Effects of Race and Class on School Security Measures
available at www.edweek.org/media/kupchikward-02security.pdf
18.

In 2007, CADRE, a parent-led community group based in
South L.A., with allies Public Counsel, secured a major school
discipline victory with the passing of LAUSD’s School Discipline
Foundation Policy: School-Wide Positive Behavior Support, BUL
3638.0 (March 27, 2007).
19.

Amrit Thapa, National School Climate Center, School Climate Research (February 2013) available at www.schoolclimate.
org/publications/documents/sc-brief-research.pdf
20.

Free LA High School (Fight for the Revolution that will Education and Empower Los Angeles), a project of the Youth Justice
Coalition, is an exemplary school environment serving one of the
most economically disenfranchised areas of South L.A. that relies
on transformative justice to respond to school-based incidents and
rejects the presence of armed police or security on campus. In addition to the core academic programming, Free L.A. o”ers training
and direct, experiential learning in social justice organizing and
movement building.
21.

Under very limited circumstances, school administrators are
required to notify law enforcement of acts on campus. The decision to arrest however remains at the discretion of the officer. (See
Ed. Code section 48902).
22.

David S. Kirk & Robert J. Sampson, Juvenile Arrest and
Collateral Educational Damage in the Transition to Adulthood,
Sociology of Education, 86(1) (2013) 36-62.
23.

According to data provided by Public Counsel and the
School-Based Arrest Reform Partnership, batteries (a harmful or
offensive touching of another) made up the majority of schoolbased arrests at 55% in 2011. Further, 61% of the arrests for black
students were for battery charges.
24.

CalGang is a statewide database that allows police to track
and share information about alleged gang members. For a comprehensive review of the history and problems associated with
gang databases see Youth Justice Coalition’s REALSEARCH Action
Research Center, Tracked and Trapped: Youth of Color, Gang Databases and Gang Injunctions available at http://www.youth4justice.
org/.
25.

See, e.g., Stop, Question and Frisk in New York Neighborhoods, The New York Times (July 11, 2010) available at http://www.
nytimes.com/interactive/2010/07/11/nyregion/20100711-stopand-frisk.html?ref=stopandfrisk.
26.

Report of Jeffery Fagan, Ph.D., in Floyd, et. al. v. City of New
York (case holding that City is liable for policy of unlawful stops
resulting in racial profiling) available at http://ccrjustice.org/files/
Expert_Report_JeffreyFagan.pdf.
27.

The Black Organizing Project, Public Counsel and ACLU of
Northern California, From Report Card to Criminal Record (August
2013) (overall arrests percentage is over 2006-2012; and school
arrest percentage is over the last 2 years).
28.

29.

Id. at 28.

Report by Justice for Families with research support by
DataCenter, Families Unlocking Futures: Solutions to the Crisis in
Juvenile Justice (September 2012).
30.

Kirk & Sampson, Juvenile Arrest, 86 (1) 36-62; see also Sweeten, Who Will Graduate? Disruption of High School Education by
Arrest and Court Involvement, 23 Justice Quarterly 462, (2006)
473-477.
31.

See, e.g., Advancement Project, Test, Punish, and Pushout:
How “Zero Tolerance” and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into
the School-to-Prison Pipeline (2010) http://b.3cdn.net/advancement/d05cb2181a4545db07_r2im6caqe.pdf.
32.

Chongmin Na & Denis Gottfredson, Police Officers in
Schools: Effects on School Crime and the Processing of Offending
Behaviors, Justice Quarterly (2011) 1-32; see also Jennings, et al.,
Evaluating the Relationship between Law Enforcement and School
Security Measures and Violent Crime in Schools, Journal of Police
Negotiations 11(2) (2011) 109-124.
33.

See, e.g., Youth United for Change & Advancement Project,
“zero tolerance” in Philadelphia: Denying Educational Opportunities and Creating a Pathway to Prison, Jan. 2011.
34.

Randall R. Beger, The Worst of Both Worlds, 28 Crim. Just.
Rev. (2003) 336, 340; Matthew J. Meyer & Peter E. Leone, A Structural Analysis of School Violence and Disruption: Implications for
Creating Safer Schools, 22 Education and Treatment of Children
(1999) 333, 352; Gary Gottfredson, et al., School Climate Predictors
of School Disorder: Results from a National Study of Delinquency Prevention in Schools, 42 Journal of Research in Crime and
Delinquency (2005) 412, 433 available at www.joannmaher.com/
my_documents/courses_hs_english_012/unit_2/ sidcra/resources/ schoolclimatepredictors.pdf (finding students rate their schools
higher on scales of student delinquency and victimization when
they report unfair implementation of arbitrary rules).
35.

See e.g., Report by Justice for Families with research Support
by DataCenter, Families Unlocking Futures: Solutions to the Crisis
in Juvenile Justice (September 2012).
36.

See, e.g., ACLU of Mississippi, Mississippi NAACP, Mississippi Coalition for the Prevention of Schoolhouse to Jailhouse, &
Advancement Project, Handcuffs on Success: The Extreme School
Discipline Crisis in Mississippi (2013).
37.

38. See Douglass A. Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name: The

Re-enslavement of Black Americans form the Civil War to World
War II (2008); see also Kristian Williams, Our Enemies in Blue:
Police and Power in America (2007).
See Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010): see also Lynnell Hancock,
Framing Children in the News: The Face and Color of Youth Crime
in America in The Public Assault on America’s Children, Poverty,
Violence and Juvenile Injustice (Polakow, edit., 2000) p. 78.
39.

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As with the 2011-2012 data, the beginning and end points of
the school year were defined as the first and last days of any of the
academic tracks within LAUSD, per that year’s academic calendar.
40.

Judge Nash’s policy is a product of his collaboration with the
ACLU – Southern California, Community Rights Campaign and
Public Counsel.
41.

Marc Mauer, The Sentencing Project, The Changing Racial
Dynamics of Women’s Incarceration (Feb 2013).
42.

43.

Kirk and Sampson, Juvenile Arrest, 86 (1) 36-62.

44.

California Department of Public health Vital Statistics.

45.

Blumenberg Child Poverty Study UCLA Lusk School.

Spread Thin: Human Services Organizations in Poor Neighborhoods, UCLA School of Public Affairs.
46.

The Homeless Youth Project (HYP), a program of the California Research Bureau, released the report. State Action Plan to End
Youth Homelessness 2013.

47.

See, e.g., Nirvi Shaw, Districts Get Bold on School Security,
Education Week (Jan. 22, 2013) http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/01/23/18safety_ep.h32.html?tkn=ZPXF2DlVWcI8Gn5YupLTT9aJAutMdIbMpiXf&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1.
48.

Richard Simon, Sen. Boxer Proposes Deploying National
Guard at Schools, L.A. Times (Dec. 19, 2012) available at http://articles. latimes.com/2012/dec/19/news/la-pn-sen-boxer-nationalguard-schools-20121219.
49.

“Department of Justice Awards Hiring Grants for Law
Enforcement and School Safety Officers” Sept 27, 2013. http://
www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2013/September/13-ag-1088.html?utm_
source=DOJ+School+Resource+Ofcr+Response+9.13&utm_campaign=SRO+funding+by+DOJ+9.13
50.

Correspondence to Vice President Joe Biden from the Honorable Michael Nash, President of the National Council on Juvenile
and Family Court Judges “Re: Response to Follow-up Newtown Call for Ideas” (January 14, 2013); Correspondence to Vice President
Joe Biden from the National Education Association (January 4,
2013); and Advancement Project, Alliance for Educational Justice,
Dignity in Schools Campaign and Legal Defense Fund, “Police in
Schools Are Not the Answer to the Newtown Shooting” (Jan 2013).

51.

Joel Rubin, Howard Bloom, & Andrew Blankstein, In Wake of
Newtown Tragedy, LAPD to Step Up Presence at Elementary, Middle Schools, The Los Angeles Times (Dec. 17, 2012) http://articles.
latimes.com/2012/dec/17/local/la-me-lapd-security-20121218.
52.

Data released by the American Association of School Counselors.
53.

Secretary Duncan Announce Effort to Respond to School-to-Prison Pipeline by Supporting Good Discipline Practices (July 21, 2011)
available at http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/July/11-ag-951.
html.
Press Release, Attorney General Holder, Secretary Duncan
Announce Effort to Respond to School-to-Prison Pipeline by Supporting Good Discipline Practices (July 21, 2011) available at http://
www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/July/11-ag-951.html.
55.

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Resolution, Juvenile Courts and Schools Partnering to Keep Kids in
School and Out of Court (March 21, 2012) available at http://www.
ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/RESOLUTION%20Partnering%20
to%20Keep%20Kids%20in%20School%20and%20Out%20of%20
Court_fnl-3-21-12.pdf.
56.

National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, NCJFCJ’s Position on Increased Police Presence in Schools, http://www.
ncjfcj.org/ncjfcjs-position-increased-police-presence-schools.
57.

Council of State Governments Justice Center, http://justicecenter.csg.org/resources/juveniles.
58.

National Leadership Summit on School-Justice Partnership,
Keeping Kids In School and Out of Court (May 2013).
59.

60. The Community Rights Campaign’s Equal Protection Plan

(EPP) is a working document. Several existing sources on school
discipline policy and the role of law enforcement were relied upon
in the development of the EPP including but not limited to the
National Dignity in Schools Campaign’s “Model Code”; Denver
Unified School District’s “Student Conduct and Discipline Procedures”; Clayton County’s “School Referral Cooperative Agreement”; Birmingham City Schools’ “Collaborative Agreement”; San
Francisco Unified School District’s “Student - Parent/Guardian
Handbook Police Contact and Intervention Policy”; and Los Angeles Unified School District’s “Discipline Foundation Policy: SchoolWide Positive Behavior Support, BUL-3836.0” (March 27, 2007).
61.

See Appendix for full text of the Equal Protection Plan.

See Los Angeles County School Attendance Task Force, A
Comprehensive Approach to Improving Student Attendance in
Los Angeles County (Feb 2012) 28-29; see also the L.A. County Education Coordinating Council’s Resolution (April 4, 2013) (supporting a free youth transit pass).
62.

A statewide collective of community and advocacy organizations have partnered to proactively seek these policy reforms at
the state level. The organizations include ACLU of Southern California, Black Organizing Project of Oakland, Children’s Defense
Fund California, Community Rights Campaign, PolicyLink, and
Youth Justice Coalition.
63.

See, e.g., Press Release, President Obama Signs New Initiative to Improve Educational Outcomes for African Americans (July
26, 2012), The White House: Office of the Press Secretary, available
at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/26/
president-obama-signs-new-initiative-improve-educational-outcomes-africa; National Leadership Summit on School-Justice
Partnerships, Keeping Kids in School and Out of Court (May
2013) available at http://www.nycourts.gov/ip/justiceforchildren/
school-justice.shtml; Press Release, “Attorney General Holder,
54.

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APPENDIX

Community Rights Campaign’s

Equal Protection Plan
To Decriminalize School Discipline
(proposed policy for the Los Angeles Unified School District)

SECTION ONE – GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF SCHOOL DISCIPLINE & EQUAL
PROTECTION
1. Characteristics of Disciplinary Practices
A. Successful disciplinary practices have the following characteristics:
1. They are explicit, reasonable, and timely;
2. They have logical, fair, and consistent consequences that match the severity of the behavior they are intended
to address;
3. They include a variety of prevention, intervention and support measures;
4. They provide the opportunity for meaningful parent/guardian and student participation and input;
5. They respond to individual differences among students with insight and sensitivity;
6. They ensure the opportunity for students to be engaged in their school community and obtain an education;
7. They are paired with meaningful instruction, guidance and support and offer students an opportunity to learn
from their mistakes;
8. They take into account the needs of the student, the needs of those who were affected by student behavior, and
the needs of the overall school community.
2. Refraining from Use of Exclusionary Discipline
A. Schools shall refrain from interrupting a student’s education to the greatest extent possible. Schools shall
minimize referrals to law enforcement, to the greatest extent practicable, while remaining consistent with state
statute, local ordinances, and mandatory reporting laws.
3. Preventive and Positive Discipline
A. Schools shall implement preventive and positive approaches, pursuant to existing District-wide policy, that
create safe, supportive and positive school climates and respond to student behaviors with interventions and
consequences aimed at understanding and addressing the causes of misbehavior, resolving conflicts, meeting
students’ needs and keeping students in school and learning.
B. Schools shall prioritize disciplinary approaches that support a culture of respect between students, parents
or guardians, teachers and administrators. Schools shall utilize disciplinary approaches to the greatest extent
practicable, that include opportunities for a restorative process to take place and allow for balanced and equal
participation and input of all the parties involved, including students, teachers and parents or guardians.
4. Non-Discrimination

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A. School district staff responsible for implementing this Policy shall do so without discrimination based on
ethnicity, race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, gender, sexual orientation, age, immigration status or
disability.
5. Addressing Racial Disparities
A. The Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and State doctrines,
such as the California Constitution, demand and guarantee equality of treatment, social justice, protection of civil
rights, and freedom from racial discrimination.
B. The District shall work together with parent groups, community organizations, and institutions of higher
education to explore methods of addressing and remedying the disparate treatment and outcomes for youth in our
schools and community, including but not limited to the review and evaluation of current school police policies,
practices and training relating to the equitable treatment of students.1
C. Each school shall additionally establish committees comprised of school personnel, parents, and students to
monitor, evaluate and inform school discipline policies and address factors relevant to school climate including
the use of school police citations, referrals to probation and/or potential arrests. The use of school discipline and
school police data is recommended in this process.

SECTION TWO – THE ROLES OF LAUSD AND THE LOS ANGELES SCHOOL POLICE
DEPARTMENT
1. Role of LASPD in the Educational Context
A. The mission of the LASPD and LASPD employees is to improve school safety and the educational climate at the
school, not to enforce school discipline or punish students. The District and the LASPD shall implement a nonpunitive enforcement model that supports strategic problem-solving models rather than citation and arrest driven
enforcement.2
B. Law enforcement citations, referrals to the probation department and/or potential arrests, shall not be used as a
form of school discipline. Although some incidents may be viewed as both criminal and disciplinary, LASPD shall
follow the guidelines contained within, to avoid unnecessarily criminalizing student behavior.
C. LASPD shall refrain from formal law enforcement intervention (e.g. issuance of citation, referral to a probation
officer, or actual arrest) for students in elementary and middle school. Special consideration shall also be given for
students 16 and younger in order to more effectively support a healthy integration for youth into the high school
environment.
D. Absent an immediate and serious threat of physical harm to students or staff, student conduct shall be
considered school discipline issues to be handled by school officials rather than criminal offense issues warranting
1
2

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See LAUSD Board Resolution, supra note 4.
See LAUSD Strategic Plan 2012-2015, Strategy #4, Initiative A.
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formal law enforcement intervention, (e.g., issuance of a citation, referral to a probation officer, or potential arrest3)
including but not limited to the following:
a. disturbance and/or disruption;
b. truancy;
c. trespass;
d. loitering;
e. profanity;
f. insubordination and/or noncompliance with school rules;
g. vandalism, graffiti or possession of implements of graffiti;
h. fighting and/or physical conduct not involving serious bodily harm;
i. verbal disruption or aggression;
j. petty theft;
k. possessing tobacco or a lighter; and
l. possessing or using any controlled substance or alcoholic beverage that does not mandate suspension or
expulsion.
E. The purpose of existing District policy regarding student conduct involving controlled substances, alcohol,
tobacco, and intoxicants, is to maintain safe and drug-, alcohol-, tobacco-, and intoxicant-free schools, as well as
to provide programs and services that reduce and curtail student use of these substances. Whenever possible,
positive, non-punitive interventions that are designed to help the student shall be implemented.4
F. The school administrator or designee shall be notified and consulted in the event of law enforcement
involvement with students and prior to the issuance of a citation, a referral to probation and/or an actual arrest of a
student takes place on school grounds.
G. A student’s parent or guardian shall be notified immediately if a citation, referral to probation and/or an actual
arrest takes place on school grounds. Notification shall include the basis for the citation, referral to probation and/
or actual arrest, information regarding the student’s legal rights and information regarding District policy on student
discipline, including but not limited to the guidelines contained within this Plan.
H. To the greatest extent practicable, the District intends that the guidelines contained within shall apply to all law
enforcement entities, including but not limited to LASPD, LAPD, LASD, School Safety Officers and/or private
security officials, where contact with LAUSD students is related to incidents that arise on school grounds or in
relationship to the student’s educational setting.
I. To the greatest extent practicable, the District intends that the guidelines contained within shall apply to all
LAUSD schools, including charter, public choice schools and community day schools.
J. Nothing in this Plan prevents schools administrators from further defining and clarifying the role of LASPD and
other law enforcement officers on their campus in relation to improving school safety and the educational climate,
such as notification to school administration regarding student conduct or school-based incidents for the purpose
3
LAUSD and LASPD are committed to continuing ongoing participation on the School-Based Arrests Reform process. Nothing in
this Plan shall prevent the District from taking additional measures in direct relation to school-based arrests and efforts to reduce juvenile
court involvement for LAUSD students.
4
LAUSD BULL 3277.1
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of initiating an administrative assessment an implementation of preventive and positive interventions as an
alternative to citations, probation referrals and/or potential arrests (See Section Three).
2. The Role of the District
A. The District shall obtain from the LASPD Chief quarterly district-wide reports that include data and descriptions
of all complaints filed; incidents or calls for service; administrative referrals; school-based referrals and notifications
to law enforcement; searches; student questioning; citations; filing of delinquency petitions; referrals to probation;
actual arrests; and other referrals to the juvenile justice system.
B. The District, in collaboration with the LAUSD Board of Education, shall implement a process for quarterly
meetings and public review and comment regarding LASPD data and reporting, within 3 months of adopting this
Plan.
C. The District, in collaboration with the LAUSD Board of Education, shall review all quarterly reporting for the
purpose of monitoring for compliance with this Plan.
3. Procedures Concerning Other Law Enforcement Contact with LAUSD Students
A. Law enforcement shall not conduct a search of a student’s person, possessions, or locker unless there is probable
cause to believe the student committed or is committing a serious offense and the offense at issue poses the threat
of serious and immediate physical harm to an individual within the school community.
B. A school administrator or designee shall be consulted before LASPD, or another law enforcement entity,
conducts a search on a student’s person, possessions, or locker, pursuant to the probable cause standard articulated
above.
C. LAPSD, or another law enforcement entity, shall not request that school officials conduct a search of a student’s
person, possessions, or locker in order to evade the probable cause standard articulated above.
D. Questioning of a student by law enforcement requires that students are informed of their Miranda rights and
provided a meaningful opportunity to exercise their legal rights. Questioning by law enforcement shall be reserved
only for conduct that constitutes a serious and immediate threat of physical harm within the school community.
Notice of such questioning shall be given to a principal or designee. If the student to be questioned is under the age
of 18, the student’s parent or guardian must be notified prior to questioning.
E. Strip searches of students by law enforcement or school officials are prohibited.
F. Any law enforcement contact with LAUSD students with disabilities shall be in accordance with the student’s
individualized education program (IEP), any behavior intervention plan, 504 Plan, and District policy.
G. Immigration officials shall not be permitted on school campus at any time, and student information shall not be
shared with immigration officials.

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SECTION THREE - INTERVENTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES TO SCHOOL POLICE
CITATIONS AND ARRESTS
1. School-Based Interventions and Alternative Responses to LASPD Citations, Probation Referrals and
Potential Arrests Pursuant to Existing LAUSD Policies and Procedures
A. There are a number of existing district policies that apply to the types of incidents described in (a) – (l) within
Section Two of this Plan, that do not involve the use of law enforcement. Wherever practicable, and absent an
immediate and serious threat of physical harm to a student, teacher, or other member of the school community,
school administrators shall refrain from referring students to law enforcement.
B. When student conduct occurs at school, school administrators shall ensure that an assessment takes place
regarding the circumstances of the incident that includes consideration of the relevant factors described below. The
purpose of such an assessment shall be to:
a. Determine appropriate interventions and consequences for student behavior;
b. Implement interventions that minimize the use of law enforcement;
c. Emphasize responses that provide students an opportunity to learn from their mistakes and that maintain
student and family engagement in the learning community.
C. When choosing interventions, supports and consequences, teachers, administrators, and staff must balance the
goals of providing corrective feedback and addressing the impacts on the school environment, with maximizing
student instruction time and refraining from the use of exclusionary discipline.
Prior to disciplining students, school administrators shall complete an assessment that includes consideration of
the following factors:
a. Health and disability or special education status of the student;
b. Age of the student;
c. Underlying factors and circumstances related to the student behavior, for example, the quality of teacherstudent relations, the student’s understanding of the problem and whether there are any unique circumstances
present that effect the student’s overall well-being, including but not limited to the presence of learning and
social-emotional stressors, foster care placement, homelessness, mental health or trauma, etc;
d. History and effectiveness of previous attempts at corrective action, including but not limited to whether
previous alternatives to exclusionary discipline have been documented; and
f. The impact of the incident on the overall school community and capacity for restorative repair.
D. School administrators and staff shall furthermore develop restorative justice programs and practices on-site, that
are intended to improve school climate and respond to individual incidents in such a manner where all individuals
who are impacted by a behavior conflict shall collectively identify the harm done, develop solutions for how
the harm will be addressed, and identify the needs and obligations of all involved in order to heal and repair the
situation as fully as possible without excluding students from the learning community.

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E. In lieu of law enforcement involvement (citations, probation or juvenile court referrals and potential arrests) and
in addition to preventive and positive discipline and restorative justice programs, administrative responses shall
be implemented pursuant to existing policies and procedures consistent with this Plan. All interventions should
balance the needs of the student, the needs of those directly affected by the behavior, and the needs of the overall
school community.
F. The following is a list of existing positive and preventive administrative responses5 that shall be implemented
in lieu of formal law enforcement intervention6 and in addition to the ongoing development of restorative justice
programs for student conduct delineated in (a) – (l).
Administrative Responses
(Alternatives to Citations, Probation or Juvenile Court Referrals and
Potential Arrests)
- restorative justice circles
-implementation of preventive plans that reinforce behavioral expectations and
identify resources at school, local district and in the community
-with the student, develop a contract with explicit
expectations for behavior and consequences
-parent/caregiver outreach and participation
-re-teach group expectations
-use systematic positive reinforcement
-use mentoring strategies
-daily report cards involving parents and staff
-peer tutoring/counseling
-determine the function of the student’s behavior and teach replacement behavior

Administrative Responses
(Alternatives to Citations, Probation or Juvenile Court Referrals and
Potential Arrests)
- restorative justice circles
-prevention plans for collaborating with parents, coordinating services and
accessing school, local district, District and community resources
-involve students in development of individual behavior support plan
-enlist parent participation in a consistent response plan
-clean up
-convene a Student Success Team
-parent/caregiver conference
-use debriefing forms to address misconduct
-refer to community agencies
-assign campus responsibilities
-provide conflict resolution, peer mediation, anger management
-encourage enrichment activities
-assign alternatives to suspension

Level A Student Behaviors
Classroom disruption
Occasional tardiness
Poor team work/incomplete work
Harassing other students
Inappropriate clothing for school
Non-compliance with rules

Level B Students Behaviors
Fighting
Excessive tardiness/ongoing defiance
Engaging in habitual profanity/vulgarity
Being under the influence of alcohol or
drugs
Vandalism/graffiti/theft
Bullying
Harassment
Sexual harassment
Truancy

5
LAUSD BUL 3638.0, Attachment 1, LAUSD Consequences/School Response Reference Guide.
6
Refer to Appendix B for a list of the criminal offenses that have resulted in citations, referrals to probation and/or potential arrests
for the same Level A and Level B student behaviors with corresponding administrative responses set forth in BUL 3638.0, Attachment 1.

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SECTION FOUR – STAFF TRAINING
A. LASPD officers shall receive ongoing and mandatory training on specific issues related to their unique role
working in educational settings with youth and adolescents, including but not limited to, the guidelines contained
within this Plan, district policies and procedures on student discipline, the role and responsibilities of school
administrators and alternatives to exclusionary and punitive disciplinary practices (e.g., school-wide positive
behavior supports and interventions, restorative justice, etc.).
B. School administrators and staff shall receive training on the role and responsibilities of LASPD officers, including
but not limited to the guidelines contained within this Plan.
C. The District, in collaboration with the Board of Education, shall review and oversee all training requirements of
LASPD officers.

SECTION FIVE – RESOURCES
For a comprehensive list of district and community-based supports see LAUSD School Mental Health, Student
Health & Human Service, Resource Guide of Agencies and Social Services (2011-2012).

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www.communityrightscampaign.org