News & Events

Body cam footage reveals that officers don’t always follow department guidelines or training.

Lisa Thurau, executive director of Strategies for Youth in Cambridge says “When POST certifies school resource officers, it is telling parents, students and school administrators that officers have met the legal standards for selection, completed training provided by the Municipal Police Training Committee, and understand their obligations pursuant to the state’s memorandum of understanding between law enforcement agencies and schools, which delimits school resource officer’s roles”.

Advocates for youth on Tuesday criticized new regulations proposed by the state’s Peace Officer Standards & Training Commission, saying they don’t do enough to ensure that students aren’t unfairly criminalized by school police.

School has been back in session for more than a month and Juvenile Probation Officers, whose job includes going into the schools, are in classrooms, hallways, and offices of schools across the state.

How do rates of exposure to police violence that is perceived to be motivated by racism vary across the gender, ethnicity, and birthplace of young Black and Latinx people living in the United States?

Researchers in the Boston College School of Social Work have received a two-year, $395,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Evidence for Action program to find out.

“More than 300 Maine teachers, principals, superintendents, and school resource officers met in Windham on Wednesday for day two of the three-day-long Maine School Safety Summit that was prepared by the Maine Department of Education.”

“To protect and to serve does not mean to preserve those in power. It does not mean to attack the innocent, nor does it mean to ambush the voiceless.” hose wise words were not written by a seasoned public official or community advocate. They appeared in an essay written by 16-year old student…

The video shows a Lower Swatara Township police officer firing a stun gun at a skinny boy in a blue jacket in a crowded school cafeteria. The boy drops to the floor. Kids scream. Some curse. Some express utter shock and disbelief.

TASERs are frequently being used by police on children and youth who are in distress or emotional crisis and, as a result, are exacerbating their trauma, according to the latest report from Strategies for Youth (SFY), a national nonprofit policy and training organization dedicated to improving police/youth interactions and reducing disproportionate minority contact.

David Walker with Strategies for Youth says right now is a great time to start a conversation with your child about social media.