Letter to New York City Council, Mayor de Blasio: Urging Elimination of Police in Schools

We write on behalf of Advancement Project National Office and the Alliance for Educational Justice (AEJ) to fully and enthusiastically support the call to eliminate the New York City Police Department School Safety Division and remove police from schools. If we have learned anything from this historic moment spurred by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, it is that police cannot be trusted to keep us safe. Years of NYC DOE data reflecting a relentless school to prison pipeline indicate disparate criminalization of students of color by the police. The DOE has a duty to protect students from a police department whose culture allows for the brutal and violent use of force against peaceful protestors. Officers that roam school hallways are no different from the officers on the streets of New York City and thus, a new vision for safety must emerge from this crisis. Over the past few weeks, school boards in Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Oakland, Portland, and West Contra Costa, California, have all taken historic action to remove police from schools, demonstrating that a police-free schools future is both possible and necessary to protect the safety and humanity of Black and Brown children.