Five middle school and high school students are suing the Police Department over allegations that cops and school safety officers wrongfully arrested them and used excessive force. The plaintiffs in the class-action case — who range in age from 13 to 15 years old — say that "inadequately trained and poorly supervised police personnel engage in aggressive behavior toward students when no criminal activity is taking place and when there is no threat to health and safety," and often "confront and arrest students over minor disciplinary infractions such as talking back, being late for class or having a cell phone in school."
Attorneys from the American and New York Civil Liberties Unions claim a 13-year-old who was waiting in front of school for her mother was wrongfully arrested after a confrontation with two strangers who threatened her last October. When the eighth-grader refused to follow an officer's orders to accompany the strangers into school, the officer allegedly pinned her on the ground and handcuffed her to a desk until her mother found her. After the incident, the teen required medical attention. In another instance, an 11-year-old was allegedly cuffed and "perp-walked" into a police precinct after being caught drawing on a desk in erasable ink. "It's a sad day when you need to resort to a lawsuit to keep an 11-year-old from being arrested for drawing on her desk, but in this case it is clear there is no alternative," said an attorney.
The lawsuit seeks to put school administrators — not school safety officers — in charge of disciplinary decisions. It also calls for mandatory training for school security officers "relating to arrests, searches, and the use of force," and the establishment of a mechanism for students and parents to file complaints against school safety officers. According to 1010WINS, the city's law department had not seen the lawsuit and could not offer an immediate comment. Last fall, a teen settled a case against a school safety officer who left him bloodied after kicking open a bathroom stall door.
