Racial Disparity Seen In Use Of Handcuffs In Schools, NYCLU Study Says

Credit Image: Lou Jones/ZUMAPRESS.com

City law requires the NYPD to report when kids are handcuffed in schools.

And as WCBS 880’s Alex Silverman reported, civil rights advocates have been looking over school safety data, and said they have found some troubling trends along racial lines.

The racial divide is especially stunning in cases where handcuffs were used to restrain a student in emotional distress. In 99 percent of those cases in 2016, the students were black and Latino.

“This is something that has got to change,” said Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

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The NYCLU study also indicated that more than 25 percent or the arrests were connected to incidents that happened off school grounds.

“There is no excuse for the NYPD barging into our schools and using our schools as a hunting ground to pick up children who believe to be involved in illegal activity outside of school,” Lieberman said.

Under the Student Safety Act passed in 2015, the NYPD is required to report data on arrests by all officers in schools and the use of handcuffs.

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