Community Response to House Bill 8310

As parents, youth, and community members deeply concerned for our children’s safety, we are deeply troubled by House Bill 8310, which calls for “​​two (2) school resource officers [to be] placed at every public school in the State of Rhode Island.” This bill denies the years of research showing that SROs not only fail to keep our students safe, but actively harm and endanger them. This bill is especially problematic in the wake of the tragic shooting at Uvalde, which is only the most recent example of how police in schools fail to prevent school shootings. Uvalde had its own school district police department; the district spent $435,270 this year on security and monitoring services alone. Over 140 police officers arrived at the scene and stood idly for over an hour, despite the sound of gunshots being fired. This, while upsetting, is also unsurprising, given recent studies showing that “more people die in school shootings where an armed officer is present than when there isn’t.” Criminal justice professor Jillian Peterson points out that the presence of an officer “was actually the number one predictor of the increase in casualties after the presence of an assault rifle.”

School shootings aside, school resource officers put our youth at significant risk on a day-to-day basis. The evidence shows that police, both in Providence and the U.S. widely, disproportionately criminalize Black, Indigenous,  Latinx and students of color, as well as differently abled students. In Providence schools alone, there were over 230 arrests between the 2016-17 and 2019-20 school years, 65% of whom were boys of color. Meanwhile, Black students were targeted in 30% of all student arrests, while only making up 16% of the student population. There is no evidence that SROs improve student safety. Instead research shows that the majority of students feel unsafe with SROs. At the worst extreme, the police are known to physically traumatize students – in the US, there have been 152 documented assaults on students of color by police officers between 2007-2021.

Of course, we want to acknowledge that the proponents of this bill are acting from a very real and valid fear. Given the recent mass shooting in Uvalde, we, too, are heartbroken and terrified for our children. Despite our differences, we share a common goal: keeping our children safe. We recognize and affirm your labor, which is rooted in the same love and yearning for justice as ours; we have faith in our shared vision of schools as sites of safety, belonging, and learning, rather than places that our students are scared to enter and parents are afraid to send them to in the mornings. 

It is precisely this commonality that gives us hope, for it’s clear that the argument is not so much about what is right, but rather how to achieve it – and if we’ve agreed on the former, then we can surely turn to evidence, research, and history for the latter. And what the research shows is that police in schools do not keep students safe. 


In the spirit of shared love, goals, and dreams for our children, we invite you to work with us in implementing evidence-based solutions that actually work. The Providence Alliance for Student Safety has put together a 70-page proposal for restorative justice practices, which you can view here, complete with explanations for what it is, how it works, and what budgetary changes are needed to execute this shift. Unlike traditional disciplinary systems, restorative justice doesn’t take a punitive approach to school discipline, but rather a preventative approach that provides strategies for addressing the root causes of harm. When properly implemented, restorative justice has been shown to significantly reduce incidents of “misbehavior,” create a safer classroom environment, and reduce racial disparities in school discipline. 


Signed,

  • Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE)

  • The Alliance for Educational Justice and the National Campaign for Police Free Schools

  • American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island (ACLU)

  • A Sweet Creation (ASC)

  • Black Organizing Project (BOP)

  • Center for Youth & Community Leadership in Education (CYCLE)

  • Coalition for a Multilingual Rhode Island

  • College Visions (CV)

  • Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE)

  • Equity Institute (EI)

  • Latino Policy Institute (LPI)

  • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

  • Olneyville Neighborhood Association (ONA)

  • Parents Leading for Educational Equity (PLEE)

  • Providence Student Union (PSU)

  • Providence Teachers Union- Racial Justice Committee

  • Providence Teachers Union

  • Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM)

  • Rhode Island Center for Justice (CFJ)

  • Rhode Island KIDS COUNT

  • Rhode Island Urban Debate League (RIUDL)

  • SISTA Fire

  • Stop The Wait RI 

  • Young Voices (YV)

  • Youth in Action (YIA)

  • Youth Pride, Inc.