Cops in North Carolina schools

 ACLU - In North Carolina, school districts continue to devote millions of dollars to the placement of armed law enforcement officers in schools, despite clear evidence of its negative impact on students and learning environments. Prioritizing funds for law enforcement in schools over counselors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and community-based support is a policy choice that continues to have severe consequences for children in the state, particularly Black students and students with disabilities.

It is well-established that Black students are not generally more likely to misbehave than other students, even after accounting for different socioeconomic backgrounds. Yet school officials punish Black students more frequently than their white peers. Our new report, “The Consequences of Cops in North Carolina Schools,” found that between 2021 and 2023, law enforcement and school staff filed complaints of disorderly conduct against Black students at over five times the rate of their white counterparts. This results in Black students and students with disabilities being over-criminalized, physically and mentally harmed, and funneled into the school-to-prison pipeline every year.