South Hunterdon For Police-Free Schools

South Hunterdon for Police-Free Schools is a community organization advocating for the removal of police officers from South Hunterdon schools. The South Hunterdon Board of Education recently voted to continue deploying multiple armed police officers in our schools at a cost of $120,000 per year, despite sustained community opposition to the program.

We demand police-free schools in South Hunterdon. We recognize that police do not make our children safer, and the presence of the police has been shown to have a disproportionately negative impact on students of color and disabled students. We believe that all students in our schools deserve to feel safe and supported.

We demand that the $120,000 currently spent each year on school police salaries be reallocated to support our students by expanding resources for transportation for after- school programing, mental health services, and peer support programs.

Did You Know?

There is no data-backed evidence of police making schools safer;
Students of color and disabled students have disproportionately higher rates of arrest in schools, feeding into the school-to-prison pipeline;
Police presence is shown to have negative effects on the emotional wellbeing of students of color;
The use of police in schools has its roots in the fear and animus of desegregation;
Students with disabilities were nearly three times more likely to be arrested than students without disabilities, and the risk is multiplied at schools with police.

Source: ACLU “Cops and No Counselors” https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/cops-and-no-counselors
See also: Vitale, A., The End of Policing, Ch. 3, The School to Prison Pipeline. Free Ebook: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2426-the-end-of-policing

Join us! Use this link to sign on to this petition and to subscribe to the South Hunterdon for Police-Free Schools email list!

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/south-hunterdon-for-police-free-schools