Philly Principal to Police: Protect Our Students, Don't Harm Them

An Open up Letter from a Principal to the Police

As the school twelvemonth starts, please recall why you lot're hither: To protect our students, not harm them

Sep. 22, 2016

Dearest Police Officers,

In case you haven't taken the time to notice, our students are astonishing. Not a lilliputian astonishing either. Very astonishing. They are crawly!

I wanted to tell you that, but I am also writing out of some deep and ongoing frustrations—some from national incidents, some local—all problematic and securely concerning.

Last yr, a female officeholder put one of my 7th graders in handcuffs and put her in the dorsum of her squad motorcar. When I got the call, I was extremely concerned. When I found out information technology was because the twelve-year one-time "got smart," I was livid. To me, that is code for something with a sinister and racist history.

History and the present run together when a Blackness girl, a educatee, is told non to become uppity. When confronted, the officer said, "Tell my Helm! I don't want to work with these badass kids anyway!"

Officer, that's xc percent of the trouble. The other 10 percentage of the trouble is that your Captain sent you here anyway.

Today, constabulary officers on dirt bikes, donning helmets and sunglasses, confronted my Assistant Master of Culture considering she had the audacity to tell the police force that riding their dirt bikes on the sidewalk teeming with students was dangerous, counterproductive, and aggressive. That pissed them off. How dare she?!

Officers on dirt bikes speeding on the sidewalk, aggressively barking orders to kids who were doing naught but catching up with their friends and watching officers deed crazy, made no sense. Our school staff desire our students and the community to be safe. Yous claim to want the same thing.

When some other Assistant Main told the officers that their actions would never occur at a schoolhouse's dismissal in her affluent neighborhood, it gave them intermission (but, non for long). They knew she was right.

In both instances, the officers, in their distorted minds, had to exercise these things in order to continue our community "safe." That ways our community continues to be targeted as a hostile enemy territory to oversee, control, and intimidate. Schools are not inviolate when it comes to this sort of police force assailment.

Years ago, during my first year equally a principal at Shaw Eye Schoolhouse in southwest Philly, I left the building one evening later an exhausting day. A police force officer pulled me over. Although I knew I didn't practise annihilation, it was still unnerving. It was after 8:00 pm, in the winter. Dark, common cold, poor street lighting, and two officers on both sides of my car. Not a good (or prophylactic) situation for any Black man in America.

Asking what precipitated the finish but got the police officeholder riled up. From the cop'south perspective, I was questioning authority. Forget that he was assaulting my humanity. When he barked for me to get out of the car, I complied, showed no assailment, and continued to politely insist for answers.

Talk and interact with our students in the same manner you would want someone interacting with your own daughters and sons—regardless of if they accept "smart mouths." You're the adult. Y'all're the professional person. Have more tools in your toolkit besides weapons and assailment.

Although I would later receive a letter from Internal Affairs stating that the officer was reprimanded for my unlawful arrest, it did little to increase my confidence in the police department's collective ability to serve as problem solvers, de-escalators, or invested customs members.

Today, the scene at our students' dismissal was dangerous—and non because of annihilation our students were doing. Officers on dirt bikes speeding on the sidewalk, aggressively barking orders to kids who were doing nothing just catching upwardly with their friends and watching officers act crazy, made no sense. Our schoolhouse staff want our students and the community to be safe. You claim to want the same affair. There are means that you can partner with us, merely you demand to exist open up to feedback and a real partnership. Our students deal with enough bullies. They don't demand bullies with badges to join the fray.

I am all almost trying to detect solutions, so here are some suggestions for the police who work in the vicinity of schools (or anywhere else):

• Don't make assumptions nearly what school communities need. Information technology is not a state of war zone. We don't want "stupor and awe" anywhere, let lonely on 53rd and Media Street. Daze and awe in communities is nothing short of terrorism.
• If yous are assigned to back up school dismissals, meet with school staff to see what their dismissal deployment is and what their safety needs are. Past partnering and being open to the school's actual needs, a safe corridor can be established. Don't undermine the safe corridor with your own actions.
• Recognize that many Black youth don't trust police officers for good reasons. Instead of using that to create more hostility, work with school staff to see how you tin build relationships with students. Staff volition know. Look for ways to build bridges. Don't seek ways to enlarge the chasm.
• Be proactive in getting to know the population you were hired to serve. Exist respectful, curious, and humble. Be driven by service—non by the desire to intimidate, dominate, and overpower.
• Talk and collaborate with our students in the same way yous would want someone interacting with your own daughters and sons—regardless of if they have "smart mouths." Yous're the developed. You lot're the professional. Have more tools in your toolkit also weapons and aggression. If y'all feel underwhelmed by the training you lot take had so far, seek out help. That'due south what professionals exercise.
• Come to the job with a "protect and serve" mindset, non a mindset to threaten and intimidate.
• Lastly, people often want more than officers to await like the communities they are supposed to serve. I haven't ever institute that to be helpful. My experience has been that Black cops were oft worse—today was no exception. Too often, the Black police officer acts like the de facto Black plantation overseer. But, I am open up. Perhaps, information technology will help the relationships that our youth accept with the officers who patrol our community.

If authentic "serve and protect" police can partner with authentic "serve and educate" schoolhouse-based staff, positive things simply might happen for all of us.
In the meantime, go to know our students. They are amazing.

Sincerely,

Sharif El-Mekki

Sharif El-Mekki is the chief of Mastery Charter School–Shoemaker Campus, a neighborhood public charter school in Philadelphia that serves 750 students in grades vii-12. El-Mekki will be contributing regular columns from the schoolhouse front lines this year.

A version of this article was originally published on phillys7thward.org.

Header photo: Students exterior Mastery Shoemaker's edifice concluding week

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/open-letter-philly-principal-police/

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