School leaders are under constant pressure to ensure that schools are safe and to demonstrate that student safety and discipline are priorities. In many districts, schools rely on local law enforcement, school police, or security personnel to assist with promoting and maintaining safe schools. To encourage school leaders to think critically about the role of law enforcement and security personnel in schools, we present a school-level case where a principal is arrested for intervening to stop the arrest of a student. The case is appropriate for school- and district-level leadership courses that examine social, political, and cultural contexts that shape decision making.
AyersW.DohrnB.AyersR. (Eds.). (2001). Zero tolerance: Resisting the drive for punishment in schools. New York, NY: New Press.
2.
BrownB. (2007). Understanding and assessing school police officers: A conceptual and methodological comment. Journal of Criminal Justice, 34, 591-604.
3.
CasellaR. (2003). Zero tolerance policy in schools: Rationale, consequences, and alternatives. Teachers College Record, 105, 872-893.
4.
ChenG. (2008). Communities, students, schools, and school crime: A confirmatory study of crime in U.S. high schools. Urban Education, 43, 301-318.
5.
ChristleC.JolivetteK.NelsonC. (2005). Breaking the school to prison pipeline: Identifying school risk and protective factors for youth delinquency. Exceptionality, 13, 69-88.
6.
ChristleC.NelsonC.JolivetteK. (2004). School characteristics related to the use of suspension. Education & Treatment of Children, 27(4), 509-526.
7.
DickmannE.CoonerD. (2007). Effective strategies for developing and fostering positive relationships between principals and school-based police officers. AASA Journal of Scholarship & Practice, 4(1), 14-20.
ReeseW. J. (2005). America’s public schools: From the common school to “No Child Left Behind.” Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
12.
ReyesA. (2006). Discipline, achievement, race: Is zero tolerance the answer?Lanham, MD: R&L Education.
13.
TravisL.CoonJ. (2005). The role of law enforcement in public school safety: A national survey (Final report for the National Institute of Justice). Cincinnati, OH: Center for Criminal Justice Research, University of Cincinnati.
14.
TyackD. (1974). The one best system: A history of American urban education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
