A community forum will be held Tuesday to discuss ways in which policies on school resource officers' actions can be reshaped to provide better outcomes for students.
This dialogue is being held in light of a an altercation caught on video last October between a school resource officer and a student at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina. It was organized last fall by Professor Kara Brown and will be hosted by the University of South Carolina School of Law and College of Education on Tuesday in the USC Law School from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
"Professor Brown contacted me in October after the well-publicized incident of a school resource officer tackling and arresting a student at a nearby high school," Assistant Law Professor Josh Gupta-Kagan said. "That incident provided a vivid illustration of an issue that arises around the country — what the U.S. Department of Justice has called the school-to-prison pipeline. At tomorrow's event, professors at the education and law schools will discuss this issue and how it plays out in South Carolina and elsewhere."
The event will feature four professors including Gupta-Kagan; Christine Christle, professor of educational studies; Daniella Ann Cook, professor of instruction and teacher education; and Seth Stoughton, assistant law professor, all of whom will share their research and speak on the subject.
"We can expect to see a robust, informed discussion that offers different perspectives on an important and controversial area: the intersection of education and criminal justice," Stoughton said. "Most of the time, those two topics are treated as completely separate. But that's not always the right approach. We can't think about systemic solutions if we don't realize that the criminal justice and education systems, while separate in many ways, overlap in a way that can have deep and lasting effects on the lives of young people. What excites me about this event is the opportunity to learn more about how familiar problems are being explored and addressed by subject-matter experts in unfamiliar areas."
Following the presentations, those in attendance will be invited to ask questions and offer their own perspectives.