On March 13, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson issued Executive Order 19-04 establishing the Missouri School Safety Task Force. It is charged with conducting a statewide analysis of school safety and developing comprehensive, coordinated, and effective recommendations for school safety.
In order for the task force to do such, its makeup should also be comprehensive and inclusive of the African-American community and the school districts where our children attend. In order for it to draft effective statewide recommendations, the task force also will need statewide representation.
The task force was given the charge to “identify gaps, shortfalls, or suggested policy changes.” It should start with its own internal gap – such as the lack of representation from urban minority school districts. Diversity, both racially and geographically, is important because school issues are as widely varied as the schools that have them. Schools have fundamental differences in physical plant issues, school practices, and student and staff behaviors.
Active shooters are not the principal danger to school safety; the biggest threat to school safety might be the lack of strategies to address more pervasive problems. While efforts to reduce risk, prevent loss, and prepare for emergencies are warranted, unfortunately a preoccupation with school shootings has caused other threats to be overlooked. Having a plan to deal with the threat of gun violence is imperative, but so is preparing schools to address more common dangers such as cyberbullying, social isolation, and sexual exploitation. A recent study of New York City schools reported that students felt safer in their classrooms and hallways if they rarely saw fights, bullying, drugs or gangs.
The governor’s executive order also referenced President Donald J. Trump’s federal Commission on School Safety to provide meaningful and actionable recommendations to keep students safe at school. According to the executive order, the commission’s report and findings included recommendations based upon policies already working in many states and local communities.
Now that’s a scary proposition. The recommendations from the president’s commission called for rescinding critical federal civil rights guidance on school discipline, provided a blueprint for how to arm school staff, and encouraged the entrenchment of the school-to-prison pipeline through militarizing schools with military personnel, police, metal detectors, and surveillance equipment.
The governor’s task force is charged with reviewing and developing policies. The president’s commission developed polices and recommendations that are a precursor to a further entrenchment of racial- and gender-based discrimination in school discipline. They will ultimately deny students an opportunity to learn and the freedom to thrive.
We can only pray that the governor’s task force does not see safety as more police, metal detectors and armed teachers in schools. It should strive to get to the root causes of student misbehavior. To do that, it will need to be more diverse than its initial all-white group of outstate appointees, and it will need to listen to all of the communities that it and the governor are supposed to represent.
Adolphus Pruitt is president of the St. Louis NAACP.
