Where We Are

Last night the Board of Education voted to approve the new MOU with the Howard County Police Department. SRO’s will continue to be present in Howard County Schools. The vote was as follows:

In favor:

Chao Wu

Jennifer Mallo

Vicky Cutroneo

Christina Delmont-Small

Yun Lu, Ph.D.

Opposed:

Jolene Mosley

Antonia Watts

Zachary F. Koung, Student Member of the Board

Every single vote in favor is deeply disappointing to me. One in particular galls me. That’s all I’ll have to say about that right now.

I can’t tell you the intent of the people who originated the practice of school policing, because I don’t know. But at this point, with years of data for us to analyze, it doesn’t matter whether they had good intentions or not. What matters are the results.

School policing does not make schools safer. Having officers in schools has not provided significant protection in the case of school shootings. Black and Brown students, as well as students in special education programs, are consistently targeted more often by police for punitive action, and they are arrested more often.

School policing does not provide the benefits that its proponents claim it does and it has actually introduced additional harms. 

On the other hand, devoting funds to more counselors and mental health supports, along with training in restorative justice practices, produces consistent improvements in making school environments safer.

When I was in school it seemed that an ongoing theme was how the human race was continually evolving for the better. Once people created myths to explain the natural world; now science gave us a more accurate picture. The origins of political systems were crude, violent, and autocratic, but look at the great improvements of democracy. Medical practice once involved ignorant and unproven methods based on incomplete or even non-existent knowledge. But just look at what our doctors can do today!

Perhaps my education was overly hopeful. It did not include a rather important piece which would have been helpful to me in my adulthood: in every time of moving forward there will be a significant number of people who adamantly, desperately do not want to evolve.

They don’t want to admit that what they believe could be wrong. They don’t want to understand new ideas or adapt to new practices. The personal comfort they derive from staying the way they are far outweighs the possibility that things could get better. And that is where we are this morning in Howard County, Maryland. 

So, what do we do? We keep working. Students are depending on us to do what is right.