News Update

Black, disabled students in Fresno have disproportionate police interactions, records show

Less than a year after Fresno Unified restored its school police officers, new data shows that Black and disabled students had disproportionately high rates of police interactions, The Fresno Bee reported.

Black students made up about 17% of police interactions over a six-month period from August 2022 to March, even though only about 8% of the district student population is Black. Students with disabilities also represented 17% of police interactions, while making up only 11% of the student body.

The district board voted in June to reinstate its contract with the Fresno Police Department to provide five school resource officers, a year after allowing the previous contract to expire amid a debate over defunding the police in the wake of the George Floyd murder. Several other school districts around California also agreed to reduce or eliminate resource officers during the same time period, and have also brought back police as a way to curb escalating on-campus violence.

The Fresno data was released as part of the district’s new contract with the Fresno Police Department.

“There still seems to be some inequity with some of our students of color,” board trustee Veva Islas said during a board workshop on safety, The Bee reported. “That’s concerning, and I want to make sure that we’re interacting in ways that … are mitigating that.”

Police officers responded that their involvement in disciplinary matters is usually at the request of teachers and other school staff, and that discipline is only one part of their role on campuses, Fresno police told The Bee.

“The last thing our men and women in the schools want is to take enforcement action,” Capt. Tom Rowe said. “Now, we have to provide for the safety of the school, and there’s certain behaviors that are going to require that. Weapons on campus — you can’t really look the other way right now on that one. … (School resource officers) want to serve (as) that positive role model that bridge between the school, the staff and law enforcement. And I think that gets overlooked.”