NYC students protest NYPD misconduct in schools

November 24, 11:51 AMNY Schools ExaminerKathleen Byrne

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NYC students protesting aggressive policing at public schools yesterday.

I read a subway ad yesterday touting that major crime was down 34 percent in NYC schools since 2003, a date coinciding with the mayor’s taking control of the Department of Education and the NYPD’s taking control of public school safety. At the same time I was pondering this statistic, a group of NYC students was rallying on the steps of City Hall in 30-degree cold. The city council is moving too slowly to protect high schools from police harassment, sexual abuse, and assault, according to the Urban Youth Collaborative and the Student Safety Coalition.

The protest came after a school safety agent kicked in a bathroom stall for no reason and caused a large forehead gash that required medical attention and stitches for 11th grader Stephen Cruz. The agent, Daniel O’Connell, dubbed “Robocop” for his aggressive policing at Robert F. Kennedy High School in Flushing, Queens, was known for routinely kicking in bathroom stalls without provocation.

“That’s life,” Agent O’Connell purportedly told Stephen Cruz. “It will stop bleeding.”

The incident is the most recent in a series of high-profile missteps by the NYPD in schools: School safety agents handcuffed a five-year-old special education student for a temper tantrum; Principal Mark Federman was arrested for intervening when school safety agents harassed and humiliated his student; A 13-year old student was arrested for writing okay on her desk.

This over-policing of our schools is detrimental to education. When students are treated as criminals and school safety agents act as prison guards, public schools are no longer places of learning but places of detention. Being forced into routine humiliation and aggressive searches is not what parents have in mind when they send their children to school.

Now, the backlash has begun. I hope the DoE has the sense to pull back and address students’ grievances before the pendulum swings too far the other way and student safety gains are lost.

If you were outraged by this post, you'll be outraged by "Children in Handcuffs: NYPD's books to bars pipeline."