Senior Staff Attorney Stacey Eunnae testified on behalf of Advocates for Justice and Education (AJE) to report on the experience of hundreds of families navigating D.C educational agencies in a Public Hearing on School Security in District of Columbia Public and Charter Schools. This testimony was in an effort to create a safer and more just world for students in D.C who have been affected by the consequences of an increased police presence both directly and indirectly in their educational journeys. AJE supports the D.C Police Free Schools Coalition efforts for D.C.’s educational agencies to shift their focus away from contracts the Metropolitan Police Department. Instead, DC schools should begin investing in mental health professionals and counselor specialists who are trained to de-escalate situations rather than worsen them. 

Ms. Eunnae testified that through her experience working with D.C families, an increased police presence at schools does not equate to increased safety as many have claimed. In fact, the opposite is often true. There have been several reports of parents with disabled children who came home from different DCPS schools seriously injured and without adequate explanation or documentation. Even though there are cameras and student behavior trackers in every school building—parents are actively blocked from accessing incident reports and  security footage, even in situations where a child has broken bones or has reported  sexual assault.  All of these incidents have led to a class-action lawsuit against DCPS by parents whose disabled children have experienced the aforementioned unreported and unsettling incidents. 

Ms. Eunnae showed through her testimony that D.C’S educational institutions have an urgent need for change in their communication and engagement with parents and the overall community. It is clear that the current educational system places the burden on families and small non-profit organizations like AJE to inform DCPS and OSSE about each child’s situation, which is both unfair and inefficient.  As both AJE and the overall D.C community have experienced these systemic inadequacies and inefficiencies in meeting children’s and families needs, it is our recommendation that these conditions begin to be addressed through DCPS investments in restorative practices through community and student involvement. 

 Several organizations like Black Swan, the Children’s Law Center, and EmpowerED  testified in this hearing similarly to AJE that students have made it clear of their preference for more trauma-informed and mental health professionals in their schools rather than a police force that often criminalizes youth,  AJE recommends to the Council that the current issues the school are facing can only be truly addressed through centering the conversation around the needs and voices of students first and foremost.