NYC Council Bill Improves Student Safety Act
Changes to New York city's student safety act includes reporting of when kids are handcuffed in schools and when school safety agents are injured in scuffles with kids.
It also includes publishing data on which schools have metal detectors.
Advocates have argued that officials have gone too far toward harsh discipline, including calling in cops or ambulances to deal with unruly students, and meting out suspensions for relatively minor offenses.
They also complain that students at schools where most kids are black are required to pass through metal detectors, but the detectors are largely absent at predominantly white schools.
“Zero-tolerance policies have been proven to adversely impact our most vulnerable students and ultimately do not lead to positive behavioral changes,” said City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson (D-Bronx), the bill sponsor.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the amendments would plug the loopholes in the law.
“The New York City Department of Education was reporting that no children were ever handcuffed in schools; we knew that wasn’t true because the Police Department handcuffs everybody that they arrest and some that they don’t arrest,” she told 1010 WINS. “So there was incomplete information. It wasn’t broken down by school.”
City Councilman Mathieu Eugene said the new data-reporting rules would increase transparency.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/09/29/school-safety-act-amendment/
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