Sociologists use a term to describe the way Black and Latinx children are disproportionally criminalized in schools. The school-to-prison pipeline is driven by myriad factors and encounters with police from metal detectors and bars on the doors to zero-tolerance policies for drugs and violence on campus to mistreatment of students by police officers stationed in schools. Recently, body cam footage was released that shows two officers from the Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) in Maryland berating and threatening a 5-year-old Black boy for almost an hour. His mother who arrived and is shown being encouraged to beat her son by the two police officers has filed suit against Montgomery County, the two police officers, and the county’s board of education. In this week’s lecture spark, we explore the devastating and lasting effects of structural violence on children through the lens of sociology.
Download the PowerPoint Lecture Spark for Police Threaten 5-Year-Old Boy
Learning Objectives
LO1: Discuss how frequent negative interactions with police in school can contribute to students defining school as a place of punishment as opposed to possibilities.
LO2: Debate the pros and cons of the existence of police on school campuses.
LO3: Explain the limits of police interaction with children and how police need to be trained to interact with children.
Videos
Outrage In Maryland Over Video Of Police Handcuffing 5-Year-Old | NBC Nightly News
In newly released body camera footage from January of last year, two police officers in Montgomery County, Maryland are seen berating and handcuffing a 5-year-old child. The officers were responding to a call to bring back the child, who left school after allegedly breaking a computer. The child’s mother has filed a lawsuit against the police department.
Bodycam shows officers berating 5-year-old boy
A police department in Maryland has released body camera video that captured two of its officers berating a 5-year-old boy who had walked away from his elementary school, calling him a “little beast” and threatening him with a beating.
RAW VIDEO: 5-year-old detained by Montgomery County cops
A controversial body-worn camera video that shows Montgomery County Police officers detaining a 5-year-old boy in January 2020 has been released by the department.
Discussion Questions
What should the role of police be on a school campus? Why are schools militarizing their police departments? How should police officers be able to talk with children? What should the limits of punishment be for children from police? Why do some schools rely on police to implement their punishments on children?
How should police officers be trained to serve children on a school campus? What should their uniform and gear be? How can the sight of a police officer with a gun at school be unsettling for some children? Why are schools investing more in creating relationships with police departments than they are in creating alternative approaches to handling violent outbursts on campus?
What is an effective threshold of punishment for a 5-year-old boy? How should the police officers in the video be sanctioned? What should be the consequences for the school system that allowed these police officers to be on their campus? What needs to be done to prevent this from happening to another child in any school in the United States?
How can the experience of being berated by police officers as a child leave traumatic scars that can last into adulthood? What is a more effective way to correct misbehaving children? What is wrong with the way that behavior is determined to be deviant? How does race of a student influence the expectation of deviance from staff, faculty, and administrators in schools?
How is this story an example of the school-to-prison pipeline? How can the experienced of being criminalized in school lead to eventual criminal behavior? How does going to a school that resembles a prison outfit a child with the mindset that they are a criminal…even when they are not? What are ways community members can contribute to changing this trend?
Articles
- US police bodycam video shows officers berating child aged five
- Video shows Maryland police handcuffing, berating 5-year-old boy
- Maryland police video shows officers threatening, screaming at crying child
- Body camera video shows officers berating 5-year-old boy in Maryland
- Body Camera Footage Shows Montgomery County Police Officers Screaming At, Threatening A 5-Year-Old Black Boy
- Montgomery County Police Release Video Showing Officers Handcuffing 5-Year-Old Boy
- Lawsuit alleges officers harassed and assaulted 5-year-old kindergartner
Assessment
From a _______ perspective, structural violence is embedded in social institutions and prevents people from accessing their basic needs and other scarce resources like healthcare, education, and employment.
a. Conflict
b. Functionalist
c. Interactionist
d. Rational-Choice
From a _______ perspective, zero-tolerance violence policies on campuses are intended to dissuade students from fighting and other forms of violence to maintain stability in the school.
a. Conflict
b. Functionalist
c. Interactionist
d. Rational-Choice
From a _______ perspective, individuals who are targeted by police and criminalized in schools are at risk of developing an identity of a criminal through the constant reinforcement that this is what is expected of them by members of authority.
a. Conflict
b. Functionalist
c. Interactionist
d. Rational-Choice
Photo credit: iStockphoto.com/SDIProductions