Defund Police In North Carolina Schools Says ACLU

The Left's controversial vision for public schools

By: Sloan Rachmuth

• ACLU wants to remove School Resource Officers (SROs) from North Carolina schools.

• Dramatic increases in weapon possession, drug possession, and serious fights reported in schools.

• ACLU believes referring black students to law enforcement is automatically considered racist.

ACLU wants to defund schools' police, despite alarming increases in weapon possession, drug use, and violence.

A few examples of recent incidents where school resource officers (SRO) intervened to stop possible school shootings:

October 11th - An SRO at Stanly County High School arrested a student with a gun after receiving a report that someone with a firearm was on campus.

October 17 - After receiving a tip, a Cumberland County SRO officer arrested a student for bringing a loaded Taurus pistol in his backpack. The SRO found an extended magazine, marijuana, and drug scales in the student's car.

October 20 - Yadkin County Schools received an anonymous tip about a gun in a student's backpack through the "Say Something App". The SRO took immediate action and arrested a student who was carrying a concealed loaded gun at Starmount High School.

The ACLU calls for social workers to replace SROs despite dangerous school conditions. The group claims that SROs have a negative impact on students and school environments because they criminalize typical adolescent behavior.

In a newly published report, the ACLU shows that schools refer black and disabled students to law enforcement more than twice as often as white students.

Using federal data, the report examines cases in North Carolina where school staff and school resource officers (SROs) filed disorderly conduct charges against Black students over the past 5 years.

According to state law, students can be charged with disorderly conduct for the following actions:

• Fighting or conduct that creates the imminent threat of violence

• Inciting violence or fighting with gestures, utterances, displays, or abusive language

• Disturbing or interfering with education in a public or private institution

• Disturbing the peace, order, or discipline on a public school bus

Now the ACLU wants these offenses decriminalized and SROs removed from schools.

According to the ACLU, 66% of North Carolina's school districts unfairly criminalize black students under the disorderly conduct law.

The group identified 8 counties that referred black students at 3 times the rate of their white counterparts since 2017. Washington, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Forsyth, Nash, Durham, Chatham, and Tyrell counties.

The ACLU harps exclusively on skin color while ignoring the nature and total volume of crimes occurring in these schools.

According to a report from North Carolina's Department of Education, weapon possessions are up 60%, and explosive possession is up 30% since COVID school closures. Teachers and counselors are not trained in disarming or confiscating weapons. School staff are also victims of crimes.

There were 1,374 assaults on school personnel in the 2021-22 school year.

Here are the crimes reported to the NC Department of Public Instruction since the 2017-18 school year:

NC School Discipline Report

In 2021, ACLU challenged South Carolina's disorderly conduct law and won. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that students can no longer be arrested and charged with disorderly conduct while at school. However, some argue that the court's decision has led to more chaos in school hallways. Students are no longer held accountable for their actions leading to more disruptions in the classroom.

Schools everywhere are a microcosm of America's violent society. Schools have seen an increase in violence over the past decade, driven by a combination of factors, such as an increase in the number of students with mental health issues, a decrease in parental involvement, and greater access to guns.

This increase in violence has caused schools to become targets for criminal activity, and the SRO's quick action in case after case is an example of how schools are working to prevent such crimes.