Wisconsin schools called police on students at twice the national rate [View all]

Wisconsin schools called police on students at twice the national rate — for Native students, it was the highest

School officials refer thousands of children to the police each year. In Wisconsin, children with disabilities or who are Black, Latino or Native bear the brunt of it.

By Corey Mitchell, Joe Yerardi and Susan Ferriss
Center for Public Integrity

The 2017-18 school year was difficult at Lakeland Union High School. Disciplinary problems came in waves for the Oneida County school — in February 2018, two students were arrested for making terror threats — just days after the mass shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“That was a rough year,” said Chad Gauerke, the school principal. Lakeland referred over 6% of its students to police, including the two teenagers, whose separate threats shut down the school for a day.

Lakeland wasn’t the only Wisconsin district which saw a high level of police involvement that school year. Public schools in Wisconsin referred students to police twice as often as schools nationwide in 2017-18 — nine students were referred to police for every 1,000 students enrolled compared to the national rate of 4.5, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of U.S. Department of Education data found.

Just three states — New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia — reported higher rates of referral than Wisconsin.

Much much more at:

https://www.channel3000.com/wisconsin-schools-called-police-on-students-at-twice-the-national-rate-for-native-students-it-was-the-highest/