Op Eds and Opinion Pieces by Strategies for Youth

Legislators, reformer communities, government agencies and parents ask Strategies for Youth for guidelines, research and model policies. You can explore some of those questions by flipping the blue boxes and then reading our opinion pieces on those topics.

Officer Training

Should officers receive special training to work with youth?
SFY's Opinion »

School Resource Officers (SROs)

What should parents ask about the SROs in their children's school?
SFY's Opinion »

Use of Force

Should policies regarding use of force be different for youth than for adults?
SFY's Opinion »

Public Health

How can policing affect the mental health of a community?
SFY's Opinion »

How Structural Racism Works

Want to understand how structural racism works? How race robs Black youth of the American dream? If so, then The Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth by Kristin Henning is necessary reading.

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Citizens for Juvenile Justice: Juvenile Justice News

Last year’s police reform law created standards regarding the use of deadly force, no-knock warrants, dogs, tear gas, and pellet guns by law enforcement, requiring that the training of law enforcement officers and guidance on use of force include “developmentally appropriate de-escalation and disengagement tactics, techniques and procedures and other alternatives to the use of force for minor children.”

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The Mental Health Risks of Secondhand Exposure to Police Violence

In 1986, the Surgeon General released a report entitled The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, concluding that secondhand smoke was a major health risk to nonsmokers. We are now learning something similar about the long-term mental health risks of secondhand exposure to police violence, especially for children of color.

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Nine ‘Urgent’ Steps to Improving Youth-Police Relations

When it comes to police reform, the kids are not all right. That is apparent from videos and news accounts that assault us almost daily. Over and over again, we see instances of children?some as young as six years old?and teenagers being needlessly traumatized at the hands of law enforcement.

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9-year-old girl’s brutal treatment at hands of police shows dangerous lapse in policy

While she cried for her father, police pepper-sprayed and forced her into a patrol car. This girl isn’t alone, and states need procedures to protect them. A mom called police saying her 9-year-old daughter was suicidal and threatening her in Rochester, New York. The first officer to respond to the incident, which happened last week, called dispatch for backup, and six cars rushed to the scene. Officers gave the girl little time to calm down, while dragging her in the snow, cuffing her and shoving her in a patrol car. When she refused to put her feet into the vehicle, and continually cried out for her father, officers pepper-sprayed her into submission.

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‘We’re not excessive’: The case for training and oversight for school police

As if on cue, the same day that Strategies for Youth released its survey of state legislatures’ training requirements for police in schools — commonly referred to as school resource officers, or SROs — a video of a school resource officer slamming an 11-year-old girl’s head into a concrete wall went viral. The clip of a clearly traumatized child pleading for a male adult police officer to “get off of me” as he screams at her, while a school official meekly protested the treatment, vividly illustrates the report’s central premise: that the SRO program, as it exists in most states, desperately needs training and oversight.

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The School Safety and Security Specialist

It is frequently noted that middle ground is increasingly hard to find these days. This is particularly true in the emo­tionally charged debates about how to keep schools safe. On one side are those who argue that school police-or School Resource Offi­cers (SROs)-are necessary to keep students and staff safe, particularly from the horrific shootings that have become altogether too commonplace.

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