hi CITY OF PHILADELPHIA CITY COUNCIL rsa Fano soa May 17, 2016 Marjorie Neff, Chair, School Reform Commission William Hite, Superintendent School District of Philadelphia AMON. Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19130 Dear Chairwoman Neff and Superintendent Hite We are writing to raise questions and concerns about the School District's policies regarding school police officers” (SPOs) use of force and physical restraint against Distit students Recently, a troubling video - which appears to involve an SPO using extreme physical restraint against a student at Benjamin Franklin High School ~ has thrust these issues back into public attention. We call on the Schoo! Distict of Philadelphia to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident at Benjamin Franklin and publicly communicate its findings. As elected officials, we "unequivocally oppose the use of force against students, especially on school grounds. We approach this situation with the utmost seriousness. In addition to an investigation ofthis specific incident, we write to inquire futher into the School Districts policies regarding the training of school police offices who are Distiet employees; we also write to request information on the Schoo! Districts policies regarding the use of physical restraints against students. ‘This isnot the first time the use of force against Philadelphia students has elicited significant public concer, Several years ago, media reports showed that officers at Benjamin Franklin High baad deployed pepper spray against students." At the time, there was very litte accounting ofthe incident, but concerns were raised back then about officer training, especially the need for the District to implement around restorative justice and conflict de-escalation strategies, Since 2014, the School Police Diversion Program has prepared police who are employees of the Philadelphia Police Department to interact with students and use trauma-informed strategies that de-escalate conflict and work toward restorative practices. This program is already showing, notable reductions in the prevalence of school-based arrests. * Public Schoo Notebook. “A eal for on investigntion ito reprted use of pepper say by plc in school bra” ee. 21, 2013 itp Mheneebook oricie/2013 272 -calhsalavetiation nt eported-se-oF poppe spray polcesnschool-breHowever, its our understanding that SPOs, such asthe Distict employee involved ia the recent Benjamin Franklin incident, are not provided with the same level of traning and preparation as City police officers who work with students. Indeed, we know of no District or State mandate that limits or contains the use of foree and physical restraint for SPOs interacting with students. ‘This is cause for great concern. We believe that there must be an extremely high standard to permit the use of physical restraint and/or foree on students. Given the opacity of current policies regarding the use of physical restraint and foree by SPOs, ‘we request that the Disriet do the following 1. Publicly condemn unnecessary andlor excessive physical force agains students, especially on school grounds, 2. Publicly release on its website all School Police Directives and standards for SPOs, as ell as how the District accounts for and trains officers t responsibly eary out their postions within schools. 3. If the District has no such standards or guidelines, we call on the Distriet to develop formal policies that follow national bstpractces 4. Establish a complaint procedure through which students and parents ean raise concems about the operation of security staff in schools. Oakland Unified Schoo! Distict has adopted such a process.” ‘Thank you for your stention to this eritcl ianuc, and we would appreciate a reply tothe ‘concerns raised above, Molar Poors oS Kear eee eee ences ra nae Grit ccuponmesian ape lbmenm Chai, Council Committee Disabled & Persons with Special Needs Councilwoman, 7" * haut ousdogfensiOT/CAOI0O1176ICearicky/SharedOUSD Police Camplin Proce pt