Police Free Schools: What does school safety really mean?

Into the Mix

Ben & Jerry's and Vox Creative

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 537 Ratings

🗓️ 30 August 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most kids in the U.S. go to a school that’s patrolled by police officers. They’re supposed to keep students safe, but after decades of increased surveillance, in-school arrests have skyrocketed for kids of all ages. And most of the kids arrested at school are students of color. A group of students in Des Moines, Iowa didn’t need data to know that police in their school district were harmful, so they set out to do something about it. Here’s how they worked with their community to build a greater movement to protect students, and especially students of color. Learn more about the Advancement Project’s Opportunity to Learn campaign here, the effectiveness of restorative justice in schools (5:09), how Des Moines Public Schools have updated their policies (16:53), and how Endi, Lyric and Kai made change in Des Moines. Into The Mix has been nominated in the Signal Awards for Best Public Service & Activism podcast! Vote for us below to help support the show. Voting closes on October 5. https://bit.ly/itmsignal

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ashley C. Ford, and this is Into the Mix, a Ben and Jerry's podcast about joy and justice, produced with Vox Creative.
0:19.7	Just before we get started, a gentle heads up that we discuss police brutality in today's
0:25.6	episode.
0:26.6	There is a lot of hope and joy here as well.
0:29.6	But please, take care.
0:32.6	Things I'm sure of.
0:38.3	Here's Kai Brown.
0:41.3	Black boys look blue in the moonlight,
0:44.3	lips ashy, neck wrong, gasping,
0:48.3	blue hands touch them like God,
0:50.3	and I'm sure blood is red, red like danger, like sticky and promising, because I've seen
0:57.5	it spill, even after I was told it was blue before it touched oxygen. Even after I looked at my blue
1:04.6	veins, I was still sure it was red. And the blood is blue. Maybe that's why cops spill it.
1:12.4	And I'm sure black boys look blue in the moonlight.
1:16.3	And I'm sure I want to tuck them in every night at dusk and make sure they make it to dawn.
1:25.0	Kai, who pinned and performed that poem you just heard called Things I'm Sure of, grew up in Des Moines, Iowa.
1:36.5	Des Moines is a place that is dominated by whiteness. Over 70% of the population is white.
1:44.2	Everywhere you look at family wealth, home ownership, education, the racial disparities are staggering.
1:53.1	And nowhere are those disparities more striking than in Iowa's prisons, where black people
1:59.1	represent 25% of prisoners, despite making up just 4% of the
2:05.5	state's population.
2:07.4	And it starts early, elementary school early.
	...

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