By Jessica Kwong
San Francisco Examiner
SAN FRANCISCO — Offenses by students in San Francisco and elsewhere that used to lead to a trip to the principal’s office now get a call to the police, according to the nation’s largest pro bono law firm for youth and families. “You see a steady rise of arrests on campuses,” said Laura Faer, the Public Counsel firm’s statewide education rights director. “A lot of that came after the Columbine [High School massacre] with an increase in police being stationed on campus.”
A memorandum of understanding between the Police Department and the San Francisco Unified School District aims to put a strict limit on law enforcement involvement in student discipline that can be handled by campus administrators. School board members today will consider adopting the agreement to reduce arrests on campus and close the racial gap in the arrests.
The effort grew out of a public-records request on San Francisco school arrests and referrals to law enforcement filed in April 2012 by Public Counsel and Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth.
Full Story: SFUSD to consider agreement with police to limit arrests in disciplinary cases