The Children are the Losers in Cops in School Fiasci

The Children are the Loser in the Cops in School Fiasco

An umbrella group, Mass. Human Rights, of which I am a member, is reviewing the City’s policy of full time police officers in the schools. Some in the group think that the police have not helped in terms of safety or education, and the police have actually caused harm.

M.G.L. Chapter 71 Section 37 P requires that a School System have in place a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Police Department.

“The superintendent and the chief of police shall enter into a written memorandum of understanding to clearly define the role and duties of the school resource officer which shall be placed on file in the office of the school superintendent.”

Because of the political hysteria, based to some extent on racism, some in the City Council and the School Committee of Worcester ordered cops into the school without a MOU and any understanding of the cops' duties or restrictions. This action was not well thought out and now the City is out of compliance with the statutes. Being out of compliance might mean that all of the students arrested were done so unlawfully at school with right of private legal action.

Police Chief Gary Gemme has stated to the local press that he feels that the vast majority of people supports cops in the schools.  Unfortunately for us Chief Gemme is spinning as he offers no evidence of this assertion. The Mass. Human Rights group is collecting signatures for a petition on the issue with over 100 signatures at last count.

Police Gemme has made another spinning assertion in that he says the cops in the schools are doing good. Without a MOU it is not clear what the cops are doing. There is no evidence that the cops are improving safety or education. There are several reports, including an ACLU reports, that shows cops in the schools are a source of students leaving school and then going into the “school to prison pipeline” Many of these students are from poor and minority neighborhoods.

On the issue of the MOU Chief Gemme asserts that he does not want the cops to become school disciplinarians. The facts show that the cops are already the school disciplinarians. According to the Public Safety Liaison Officer for the Public Schools, Robert Pezella, most of the arrests of students was for disruption and disorderly. Disruption is not a crime anywhere and should have handled administratively per Chapter 222. Disorderly is vaguely defined and subjective. The actions of the students should likely have also been adjudicated under Chapt. 222.

The cat was let out of the bag when Mr. Pezzella stated to the local press that the MOU would likely not be approved until after a safety audit was completed.  The question Mr. Pezella has unintentionally pointed out is why cops were put into the school BEFORE the Safety Audit.

To a certain extent this fiasco of putting cops into the school is being covered up. Mr. Pezzella has not mentioned how parents, students, teachers, principals, and advocates will have input into the so called Safety Audit or the MOU. 

This following statement from Mr. Pezzella is also troubling.

“There’s a fine line between disciplinary and public safety and in some cases, student unrest could lead to a possible arrest of a student,”

Like his misstatement about disruptions, student unrest is not a crime either. For teenager it is normalcy. The question arises about a possible bias on the part of Mr. Pezella’s thinking about students. The use of the phrase “fine line” is curious as the statute makes it clear that cops are not authorized to enforce school policy, only law enforcement and security. Everything else should be administratively adjudicated.

''School resource officer'', a duly sworn municipal police officer with all necessary training, up-to-date certificates or a special officer appointed by the chief of police charged with providing law enforcement and security services to elementary and secondary public schools.

There were at least two arrests at the middle school level. I find it hard to believe that at this age children had to be arrested at school and that there was no other means to solve problems.There should be a City policy against arrest children at middle or elementary schools.

At least 19 students were arrests at Worcester Public schools between September and November 2015. It is clear that the arrests of children are on the rise, but as can be inferred from Mr. Pezella’s statements, most of those arrests could have handled in house.

The losers in all of this are the children in Worcester Public schools who are compelled to go into an environment in which they can be arrested on the most frivolous or subjective of reasons without recourse to their rights found in Chapter 222. The environment is filled with police officers who do not know for certain what they can or cannot do because there is no MOU. An environment created by the racist rants of some City officials.