Today, President Obama will issue his Administration’s recommendations following last month’s mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

Some groups have pushed for the Administration to include in these recommendations more police in schools, saying they will better protect our children from harm. Evidence shows this is not the case: police in schools have not been shown to make schools safer, and they negatively affect our youth by sweeping many of them unnecessarily into the justice system and interfering with the educational process.

My opinion piece elaborating on this is featured on the website of Huffington Post political columnist, Chris Weigant.

We hope that more money for school police – in the form of school resource or other law enforcement officers – is not part of the Administration’s plan. Our country can ill-afford such an expensive and counterproductive policy when there are so many proven ways to improve the safety and well-being of our children. 

If more school police are part of the President’s proposal, JPI will respond, and we will continue to follow this issue in the coming weeks and months. We hope you will join us in continuing to demand policies based on evidence, not emotion, and share our research on this issue broadly.

Read our fact sheet: Measured Responses: Why increasing law enforcement in schools is not an effective public safety response to the Newtown tragedy

Read our report: Education Under Arrest: The Case Against Police in Schools.

Read my OpEd:  Cops in Schools

JPI will be available for comment immediately following the President’s statement. Contact our Director of Communications, Zerline Hughes at[email protected] or 202.558.7974 ext. 308 or 202.320.1029.