Texas' School-To-Prison Pipeline
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Texas’ School-to-Prison Pipeline Ticketing, Arrest & Use of Force in Schools How the Myth of the “Blackboard Jungle” Reshaped School Disciplinary Policy Texas’ School-to-Prison Pipeline Ticketing, Arrest & Use of Force in Schools How the Myth of the “Blackboard Jungle” Reshaped School Disciplinary Policy TEXAS APPLESEED 1609 Shoal Creek, Suite 201 Austin, TX 78701 512-473-2800 www.texasappleseed.net December 2010 Texas Appleseed Report Team Deborah Fowler, Legal Director Primary author Rebecca Lightsey, Executive Director Janis Monger, Communications Director Elyshia Aseltine, Data Analyst Texas Appleseed Mission Texas Appleseed’s mission is to promote justice for all Texans by using the volunteer skills of lawyers and other professionals to find practical solutions to broad-based problems. This report is the third in a series examining the intersection of school discipline and gateways to the juvenile justice system. It focuses on Class C misdemeanor ticketing and arrest of students and on use of force (including pepper spray and Tasers) by school police officers. Texas Appleseed Executive Committee J. Chrys Dougherty, Chair Emeritus, Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody,* austin Mark Wawro, Chair, Susman Godfrey L.L.P.,* houston Allene D. Evans, Secretary-Treasurer, Allene Evans Law Firm,* austin Ronald C. Lewis, Immediate Past Chair, Marshall & Lewis LLP,* houston R. James George, George & Brothers, LLP,* austin Gregory Huffman, Thompson & Knight LLP,* dallas Charles Kelley, Mayer Brown LLP,* houston Michael Lowenberg, Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP,* dallas Carrin F. Patman, Bracewell & Giuliani, LLP,* houston Allan Van Fleet, Greenberg Traurig, LLP,* houston *Affiliations listed for identification purposes only. Book Design: Vivify Creative Communications First Edition Copyright 2010, Texas Appleseed. All rights are reserved, except as follows: Free copies of this report may be made for personal use. Reproduction of more than five (5) copies for personal use and reproduction for commercial use are prohibited without the written permission of the copyright owner. The work may be accessed for reproduction pursuant to these restrictions at www.texasappleseed.net. Acknowledgements This report would not have been possible without the generous support of Houston Endowment; Harold Simmons Foundation; Rockwell Fund, Inc.; The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation; The Simmons Foundation;and The Brown Foundation. Texas Appleseed is deeply grateful to its pro bono partners Vinson & Elkins, LLP (Houston), with assistance from Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP (Dallas), for conducting the qualitative field research for this report. Our pro bono partners interviewed counselors, juvenile probation officers, and juvenile judges as well as students, parents and teachers about the impact of school-based policing. Texas Appleseed also would also like thank the following people for sharing their expertise and insights in the development of this report: Steve Elliot Dustin Rynders Attorney Attorney Advocacy, Inc. Advocacy, Inc. austin, tx houston, tx Tony Fabelo, Ph.D. Jodie Smith, MPP Director of Research Public Policy Director Council of State Governments Justice Center Texans Care for Children austin, tx austin, tx Lynda E. Frost, J.D., Ph.D. Patricia Soung Director of Planning and Programs Staff Attorney Assoc. Clinical Professor of National Center for Youth Law Education Policy and Planning oakland, ca Hogg Foundation for Mental Health The University of Texas at Austin Lisa H. Thurau Esq. austin, tx Director Strategies for Youth Will Harrell boston, ma Public Policy Director for Louisiana and Mississippi Southern Poverty Law Center Johanna Wald Director of Strategic Planning and Development new orleans, la Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, Harvard Law School Laura Meutzner Policy Research Intern cambridge ma Texas Criminal Justice Coalition austin, tx Visit the Texas Appleseed website at www.texasappleseed.net to review this report along with the following data tables used to create this analysis: Comparison of Youth Homicide with Top Causes of Death for Youth Ages 5-19 in the U.S., 2005 Percentage Growth in School District Police Department Staffing, Between 2001-02 and 2006-07 Annual Budget for Sample of Texas ISD Police Departments Class C Misdemeanor Referrals to Texas Juvenile System, 2008 Growth in School District Police Department Staff & Increase/Decrease in Ticketing During Same Period Juvenile Justice Continuum, Fiscal Year 2009 Class C Misdemeanor Tickets Issued in 26 School Districts and Court Jurisdictions in 2006-07 School Year Breakdown of Ticketing Offenses for 22 Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Breakdown of Disorderly Conduct Tickets for 22 Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Breakdown of Ticketing Offenses, Austin ISD (2006-07) Breakdown of Ticketing Offenses, Corpus Christi ISD (2006-07) Breakdown of Ticketing Offenses, Dallas ISD (2006-07) Breakdown of Ticketing Offenses, El Paso ISD (2006-07) Breakdown of Ticketing Offenses, Houston ISD (2006-07) Breakdown of Ticketing Offenses, United ISD (2006-07) Overrepresentation of African American Students in Class C Misdemeanor Ticketing in Reporting Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Breakdown of Tickets by School Level for 15 Texas School Districts, 2006-07 School Districts Issuing Tickets to Children Under 10 Years Old, 2001-07 School Districts Issuing Tickets to Elementary School Students, 2001-07 Growth in School District Police Department Staff & Increase/Decrease in Number of Students Arrested During Same Period Increase in School-Based Arrests as a Percentage of Juvenile Justice Referrals, 2001-07 School-Based Arrests and Arrest Rates for 17 Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Arrest Offenses by Category for 11 Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Violent or Weapons-Related Offenses by Type for 11 Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Property Offenses by Type for 11 Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Representation of African American Students in School-Based Arrests in Seven Texas Districts, 2006-07 Texas Juvenile Arrest and Referral Rates by Race/Ethnicity, 2006 (per 1,000 juvenile population) Counties Reporting a Significant Overrepresentation of Special Education Students in Referrals to the Juvenile System, 2007 School-based Arrests by School Level for Nine Reporting Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Number of Elementary School Students Arrested in Six Texas School Districts, 2006-07 Arrests of 10- to 12-Year-Olds in El Paso ISD by Type of Offense, 2001-05 Spectrum of Use of Force Options in Texas School Districts Texas’ School-to-Prison Pipeline: Ticketing, Arrest & Use of Force in Schools How the Myth of the “Blackboard Jungle” Reshaped School Disciplinary Policy table of contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 17 School Crime Data—Separating Fact from Fiction 23 The Growth in School-Based Law Enforcement 37 The Need for Specialized Training of School Police Officers 53 Class C Misdemeanor Ticketing of Students and the “Criminalization” of Misbehavior in Schools 67 Arrest of Students at School 99 Use of Force, Interrogation and Searches by School Police Officers 119 The End of the Pipeline: Juvenile Detention, TYC and Beyond 143 Policy Recommendations 155 APPENDIX Methodology—Data Collection & Analysis 165 The Genesis of the Myth of the Blackboard Jungle 173 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 In a little over two decades, a paradigm shift has occurred in the Lone Star State. The misdeeds of children—acts that in the near recent past resulted in trips to the principal’s office, corporal punishment, or extra laps under the supervision of a middle school or high school coach, now result in criminal prosecution, criminal records, and untold millions of dollars in punitive fines and hefty court costs being imposed against children ages 10 through 16. –Ryan Kellus Turner & Mark Goodner Passing the Paddle: Nondisclosure of Children’s Criminal Cases (2010) Schools in Texas have historically been safe places for teachers to teach and students to learn—even in high crime neighborhoods, yet student discipline is increasingly moving from the schoolhouse to the courthouse. Disrupting class, using profanity, misbehaving on a school bus, student fights, and truancy once meant a trip to the principal’s office. Today, such misbehavior results in a Class C misdemeanor ticket and a trip to court for thousands of Texas students and their families each year. It is conservatively estimated that more than 275,000 non-traffic tickets are issued to juveniles in Texas each year based on information from the Texas Office of Court Administration (TOCA). Low reporting of juvenile case data by Justice of the Peace courts to TOCA suggests that the number of non-traffic tickets issued to students may very well grossly exceed that number. While it is impossible to pinpoint how many of these tickets are issued by campus police, the vast majority of these tickets are issued for offenses most commonly linked to school-related misbehavior—disruption of class, disorderly conduct, disruption of transportation, truancy, and simple assaults related to student fights. “Criminalization” of student misbehavior extends to even the youngest students. In Texas, students as young as six have been ticketed at school in the past five years, and it is not uncommon for elementary-school students to be ticketed by school-based law enforcement. School-based arrest of students is not as common, but does occur—and often without prior notice to parents or a lawyer being present during initial questioning of the student. The increase in ticketing