Former Stoneleigh Fellow and Board Member Kevin Bethel spoke to CBS News about the Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program and the city’s significant drop in school arrests since the program began.
Many protesters demanding police reform have also drawn attention to the relationship between police and schools. More than 40% of public schools in 2016 had a school resource officer, who is a sworn law enforcement officer.
When 6-year-old Kaia Rolle threw a tantrum in class last year, she was arrested by Orlando police. A video from New Mexico shows a police officer tasing a special education student last year.
And a sheriff’s office in North Carolina fired a school resource officer last December who was seen on surveillance video body-slamming an 11-year-old student, a boy who weighed just 70 pounds.
