Recently, there has been an increase in the number of police officers in schools in order to deal with mischievous students. The police officers have been stationed at schools to betterregulate crime, including handling drugs, gangs, fights, and outside attacks.

However, recently, officers in schools have been overstepping their boundaries. For example, on October 26th, a white officer flipped a chair on which an African American student was sitting, forced her out of her seat, dragged her across the floor, and then handcuffed her. And for what? According to the teacher, the student was being disruptive and refused to leave the classroom when asked.

Essentially, the student was in no way harming anyone or committing a crime, so there was no need for a police officer to attack her. Although many may point to the fact that she is African American and the police officer is Caucasian, racism aside, the officer’s actions were unacceptable.

Consequently, he was fired from the South Carolina police department. In my opinion, this is when the teachers come in to fulfill a crucial role. Teachers need to learn to deal with these problems in the classroom on their own as civillyand justly as possible. They need to remain levelheaded and properly assess the dynamicsof a classroom for the sake of everyone’s safety. The way in which the law was carried out in this South Carolinian classroom proved to be ineffective, traumatizing, and detrimental to a positive learning environment.


<Sung Ho Woo>