Friend –

Imagine a young student getting into a scuffle or temporarily taking someone's phone as a prank – and then facing a criminal conviction or even jail time as a consequence.

If a school has an assigned, on-premises police officer (often called a school resource officer or SRO), this can be an unintended outcome. Too often, having police officers constantly present in schools escalates student problems – feeding the school-to-prison pipeline, creating an atmosphere of fear, and disproportionately hurting students of color.

As a result, some Iowa schools have removed them. At other schools, some parents and students are pushing for removal in their district as well.

To help, the ACLU of Iowa has created a new toolkit for local communities to advocate for the removal of police from schools.

Research shows that SROs do more harm than good – especially to students of color and students with disabilities. Federal civil rights data show that Black students in Iowa are 7.7 times more likely to be arrested than white students, the third worst discrepancy rate between Black and white student arrests in the country.

The Advocating for Police-Free Schools in Iowa Toolkit includes background information, advocacy tips, sample documents, and Iowa-specific data analysis of the disparities caused by the full-time presence of police in schools. It can be used by anyone, including youth, parents and caregivers, educators, and other community members.

The toolkit is on our website.

Take a look, and please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] if you have questions or find it useful.

With appreciation,

Erica Barz
Pronouns: She, her, hers
Community Engagement Associate, ACLU of Iowa