Reinventing School Safety: The Philadelphia Student Union and the Police-Free Schools Movement

After hearing about police-free schools you might be wondering how the environment would improve in schools without police monitoring? Alison Fortenberry (12-2), another member of the PSU describes its purpose: “At first police free schools can sound kind of daunting, like, you might want a school where students aren’t safe. But I think the whole point of police-free schools is to reimagine safety and make schools safe in a different and better way. One thing that we hear a lot is that students feel over criminalized by police in their schools and feel like there’s an assumption of guilt on them. But the whole point of police free schools is to make students feel safe in their schools and not like criminals.”

To many students at Masterman, the Police Free Schools Movement may seem unnecessary or uncalled for. Officer Taylor has become a friendly face and a comforting figure to many students over the years, but unfortunately the positive environment created by Officer Taylor at Masterman is not always replicated in other schools within the district. “I feel like Officer Taylor is an example of someone who does the job of policing the school really well. It feels more community based and like he wants to get to know everyone and I think there’s a value in having someone to protect students from outside threats… but I just feel like he’s so abnormal from what every other school in the district has” said Alison. Officer Taylor echoed much of the same sentiments; most of his responses focused on his role in the school community and his relationship with students. “To sit here with a sour face at 7:00 in the morning… that doesn’t serve me, it doesn’t serve you, it doesn’t serve the environment. That’s just not who I am. I enjoy being here. I enjoy seeing your friendly faces and I try to start your day with a smile, or a joke, or a song; something to make your day more positive” commented Officer Taylor.

The relationships Officer Taylor has created with students in the Masterman community are impactful, but the PSU is striving for systematic change to be implemented in schools across the district in which a smile and a song may not be enough to ease negative feelings. For students experiencing feelings of criminalization witnessing a police officer patrol the hallways and being required to walk through a metal detector every morning, the police free schools movement is a gateway to a reimagined school environment. Even despite Officer Taylor’s best efforts, many students at Masterman can relate to the discontent with the current state of the school police system. “I think that [the discontent] does exist at Masterman and not every student is aware of it. The other police officer… last year she thought I had a juul in my backpack and I had a portable charger and she never really told me why she was stopping me, but she stopped me and ended up shaking out my backpack and I never really got an explanation for that,” mentioned Alison. Officer Taylor conveyed his understanding of the seriousness of the situation and spoke briefly about the training school police officers receive, but admitted that approach and implementation varies across schools: “There are classes that we take periodically in order to make school police more people-friendly. You bring your personality to the job with you, obviously; sometimes it’s forgotten that you’re dealing with people, with children, and everyone is dealt with a little bit differently. I like to think of myself as having that kind of relationship here.”

In the end, Officer Taylor did emphasize that he believes police officers are a necessary part of schools: “I really feel that the children are better served with police in schools. I think it is short sighted for anyone to think that the schools are better served with police not in school because we’ll find weapons or paraphernalia in the children’s possession that they bring into the school.” Instances like these at Masterman are rare, but not unheard of and Officer Taylor admitted that sometimes he feels he is even too easy on students. He also mentioned that his experience before arriving at Masterman taught him that working at each school requires a different attitude and demeanor to command respect from students. For Officer Taylor, being a school police officer is all about connecting with the community while actively keeping students and staff safe: “My job is to make sure that people come into a friendly environment and that people come into a safe environment. When you parents send you to school they expect you to come back as healthy as you left… I want to be able to say… ‘your child is coming back to you safe.’” If police free schools were to be implemented in the future and the job of school police officer reformatted, Officer Taylor believes his primary job would remain the same, to keep us safe, but regardless he plans to continue to perform his responsibilities fairly and equitably at Masterman.

Schools in which stricter disciplinary action is traditionally required certainly beg the question as to whether the school police system is doing more harm than good and community members trained in de-escalation and restorative justice would prove far more impactful. “I was talking to students from other schools and their elementary schools, they almost described a police state: police on every hallway and students that were ten years old, if they threw a pencil they would get handcuffed,” Alison said to emphasize the need for reform in many schools across the district. The situation Alison described is the reason for the PSU’s police free schools movement and their tireless work to achieve a remedied system of safety in the Philadelphia school district.

To access the police free schools petition go to:

https://www.change.org/p/tell-the-school-district-of-philadelphia-we-want-policefreeschools