By Amisha Padnani
The Staten Island Advance (New York)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Kids as young as 5 years old have been hauled off to the police station and the New York Civil Liberties Union said it’s got to stop.
After collecting data showing that hundreds of children under the age of 16 have been cuffed - including 22 on Staten Island - the group sent a letter to NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly asking the illegal arrests to stop, representatives said yesterday.
Udi Ofer, advocacy director for the NYCLU, said educators have handed the issue of discipline over to police officers and that it’s turning schools into jails.
“A walk to the principal’s office has now become a walk to your local precinct,” Ofer said. “It’s a traumatic experience.”
The group, in conjunction with the ACLU, said they obtained information from the NYPD and the Department of Education showing that about 300 illegal arrests have taken place in schools across the city from 2005 to 2007. Twenty-two of those arrests were on Staten Island and typically involved minor incidents such as trespassing and disorderly conduct. The students ranged in age from 12 to 15.
For misdemeanors and felonies, some students could be locked up while waiting an arraignment, sometimes for as long as 72 hours if the student is arrested on a Friday.
“They’re treated like criminals,” Ofer said. “Meanwhile, our argument is the way to deal with discipline in the schools is through a nurturing environment.”
In August, a bill called the Student Safety Act was introduced before the City Council. If passed, the bill would mandate that the NYPD and DOE submit quarterly reports on student safety practices in schools. The bill would make information more accessible, rather than the year-long waits the group has faced in requesting details from city agencies.
“The important first step is to find out what’s been going on in our schools,” Ofer said.
The NYCLU is also hoping to have school safety officers included in those reports since they have the power to frisk, search and even arrest students. Though school safety officers are considered police officers, they are left out of many key statistics, Ofer said.
Copyright 2008 Advance Publications, Inc.