25 Investigates: Data on policing in MA schools is spotty as mental health needs rise

Kerry Kavanaugh,Marina Villeneuve

September 7, 2023 at 12:12 PM·22 min read

In Massachusetts, no one knows how often schools call the police — even as schools face mounting calls to address mental health and behavioral issues exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

25 Investigates found the state doesn’t track how often schools call 911 across Massachusetts.

Experts worried about the growing mental health crisis among students say that schools still too often lack the resources to handle behavioral issues that may not require a call to law enforcement.

“Before the pandemic, we had a mental health crisis in this country where more and more students are experiencing mental health issues earlier in their lives,” said Bob Bardwell, Executive Director of School Counseling Services at Boston Public Schools. “So there was an issue of having enough support staff to provide them what they need in schools. You add the pandemic on top of all of the existing challenges, which didn’t go away. If anything, they got worse because people weren’t able to go see a therapist or talk to a medical professional.”

Researchers from Boston University and UMass Lowell uncovered about 12,000 911 calls from 102 Boston public schools from 2014 to 2018.

That averaged out to about 16.8 calls a day: for everything from emotional disturbances to assaults, to calls for EMS.

UMass Lowell School of Criminology and Justice Studies professor Melissa Morabito said she was surprised by the frequency of calls from elementary schools, which tend to lack social workers.

“Ideally, it would be great to identify kids before these things happen, before we get to these critical incidents,” Morabito told Investigative Reporter and Anchor Kerry Kavanaugh. “It would be great to not have to rely on the police.”

And what happens once the police are called?

In a study released in July, Morabito and her fellow researchers looked at 882 police reports from 57 Boston Public schools in the 2017-2018 school year.

Researchers found most reports were for sexual offenses, physical assaults, dysregulated behavior, and threats. Most often, parents and guardians were contacted or schools took action.

Still, researchers counted 47 arrests of Boston students.

State and local governments in Massachusetts have taken some steps in recent years to reform the use of police in schools: a 2020 state law mandated 350 extra training hours for school police and other law enforcement officers.

“If there are behavioral issues, it’s really important not to criminalize it and actually get the help,” Meri Viano, Associate Director of Westborough-based Parent/Professional Advocacy League. The peer-run group connects families with resources for students.

“We can’t ask the police to become social workers,” Viano told Kavanaugh. “That’s not the training that they receive. It’s not the job that they signed up for.”

Boston Public Schools removed school police officers before the 2021-2022 year and now rely on uniformed safety staff who can’t make arrests.

Some parents whose children have been hurt by other students have told 25 Investigates that they’re worried Boston Public Schools isn’t taking enough steps to protect their kids either.

Tanya Ezekiel’s then seventh-grade son was hit over the head with a Chromebook computer while in a class at Boston Latin Academy in Roxbury in 2022.

“There’s been zero communication on anything,” Ezekiel said at the time. “There’s been no safety plan put in place, there’s been no follow up with us as to what their disciplinary action was with that student.”

Boston Schools Superintendent Marry Skipper’s spokesperson said she is continuing to work on a years-in-the-making agreement with police to clarify when exactly schools should contact law enforcement.

FEW SCHOOLS REPORT ARRESTS

It’s unknown how often students get arrested in Massachusetts statewide – even though a 2018 state law required such reporting.

Just one out of every 10 public and charter school districts across Massachusetts reported a school-based arrest in the 2021-2022 school year.

That’s according to 25 Investigates’ analysis of disciplinary data submitted by schools to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

School leaders failed to report any arrests in some of Massachusetts’ largest districts: including Fall River, Framingham, Taunton, Revere, and Everett.

Lowell Public Schools district reported one arrest to the state — for physical battery.

But a spokesperson for Lowell Public Schools told 25 Investigates that the district had 6 school-based arrests in the 2020-2021 school year.

That includes arrests of 3 students for possession of BB guns, two assault arrests, and another arrest for assault on a police officer.

And Boston Public Schools appears to have a much larger gap between its reported and actual number of arrests.

25 Investigates found Boston Public Schools reported 10 arrests for the 2021-2022 school year to the state.

But Leon Smith, of the Boston-based advocacy group Center for Juvenile Justice, said the group’s public records requests found 111 arrests for the 2021-2022 school year.

“When you’re looking at a mental health crisis amongst young people — which is really what we’re dealing with right now — you simply can’t have law enforcement as the frontline of addressing that,” Smith said. “You cannot police and arrest your way through a mental health crisis.”

Smith said that many schools are also failing to follow a state law requiring them to disclose the amount of money spent on mental and behavioral health versus the money spent on policing.

Districts reported 93 arrests in the 2021-2022 school year, up 79% from 52 arrests in the 2018-2019 school year.

Experts say because such little data is being reported, it’s impossible to conclude whether arrests are actually on the rise.

Still, the available data suggests that students from vulnerable backgrounds are facing arrests:

Of the 93 students reportedly arrested in the 2021-2022 school year, 81 kids were classified as “high need” – meaning they’re low income, have a disability or are a current or former English Language Learner.
43 kids were Hispanic or Latino.
14 students were arrested for “non-drug, non-violent or non-criminal-related offense,” similar to 12 students in 2018-2019.
39 kids were arrested for physical attacks or fights, up from 28 in 2018-2019
Another 13 were arrested for weapon on school premises, up from 0 reported in 2018-2019

And of the Boston schools that reported 10 arrests, three students were arrested for “non-drug, non-violent or non-criminal-related offense.” One student was arrested for “illegal substances.” Four students were arrested for “weapon on school premises,” while one was arrested for “physical attack (battery).”

“If you’re going to weigh the impact of police in schools, you have to look at who’s being arrested, who’s being stopped and searched,” Smith said.

Smith said the lack of data makes it hard to know how often children with individualized education plans – legal documents developed for students who need special education – are getting arrested.

“Young people aren’t getting the services they’re required to get on IEPs, and they end up having troublesome behaviors because they don’t have the services they need,” Smith said. “That’s really problematic if you’re arresting kids for behavior arising from a disability. But we can’t chart how often it’s happening. I know it’s happening because I’ve been tracking it in the juvenile court. We should know with certainty how often that happens so we can work to prevent that from happening.”

DISCIPLINE FOR FIGHTING ON RISE

25 Investigates also analyzed overall discipline data reported by schools, and found some striking trends when comparing the 2021-2022 school year to 2018-2019:

More students are getting punished for mutual fights: nearly 7,700 students, up 26% from about 6,100.
Out-of-school suspensions for fighting also rose 26% – to about 6,150 from 4,850. In-school suspensions were stable at roughly 1,000.
Discipline for skipping class is up 44%: about 7,950, from about 5,500.
More students are also getting disciplined for vandalizing school property: about 1,250 students, up 38% from roughly 900.
Bullying is also up: with about 1,250 students disciplined for bullying, up 19% from 1,050.
More students are getting punished for having knives: 878 students, up 61% from 547.
Discipline for knives with blades at least 2.5 inches long grew 90%: from 201 to 381.
The number of students getting punished for physical attacks and minor physical altercations was similar to pre-pandemic school years:
Discipline for battery/physical attacks rose 6% to about 6,850 students disciplined in the 2021-2022 year.
Schools reported a 5% increase in discipline for minor physical altercations like pushing and shoving: with nearly 4,700 students disciplined.
Schools reported a drop in discipline for disorderly conduct, violating school rules, insubordination, obscene language, physical and verbal threats.
Discipline for disruptive behavior dropped 8%: from about 12,400 to nearly 11,500.
Overall, the number of disciplined students reached nearly 85,000 in the 2021-2022 school year, roughly in line with pre-pandemic school years.
From the 2018-2019 to the 2021-2022 school year, schools reported a 52% increase in emergency removals – which involves a principal temporarily removing a student charged with a disciplinary offense for up to two school days.
Out-of-school suspensions rose 3%, while in-school suspensions dropped 19%.
Expulsions have dropped from 156 in the 2012-2012 school year to 39 in the 2021-2022 school year.
But expulsions are up compared to 21 students in both the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years.

Bob Bardwell, also executive director of the Massachusetts School Counselors Association, said he’s noticed an increase in behavioral issues among students.

“I’m not saying every incident is mental health related, but a lot of them are,” Bardwell said. “And when you understand the background, it makes a little make sense why the student may be acting out or doing what they’re doing. And that’s not necessarily different from years past. But what’s different is just the frequency and number of these incidents that are happening.”

Bardwell said: “The hope is that schools are getting better at identifying alternative ways to discipline or alternate ways to deal with crisis situations, some of which are mental health related.”

Years of research shows people with mental illnesses are more likely to be a victim of violent crime than a perpetrator – but they often face bias in the criminal justice system, as well as longer jail time.

Experts say that emphasizes the need to provide more mental and behavioral health resources to young people in need rather than subject them to interaction with law enforcement.

Bardwell pointed out that Massachusetts has a ratio of 362 students per school counselor – well above the American School Counselor Association’s recommended ratio of 250 to 1.

Massachusetts ranks below Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for its ratio, according to the ASCA’s 2021-2022 ranking.

Massachusetts has improved its ratio in recent years, and schools used emergency pandemic funds to hire more counselors for students.

But Bardwell is worried how Massachusetts will afford to keep paying counselors once funds dry up next year.

“What are you going to do with all these folks you hired with pandemic money that you don’t have anymore?” Bardwell said. “The state in the city or towns might be able to come up with those extra dollars.”

School counselors have found their workload grow over the years to include providing short-term counseling and crisis intervention to students.

But – Bardwell said – their pay hasn’t always caught up.

Bardwell said school counselor jobs that once attracted over 100 experienced applicants now may get a dozen or so with varied qualifications.

“The challenge is that there’s not enough counselors and social workers and schools to fill all those needs,” Bardwell said. “We’re seeing for the first-time jobs that are going unfilled, particularly in rural and urban areas or areas where they don’t pay as well.”

‘IT SCARES ME’

Black students were four times as likely to be suspended as white students in the 2021-2022 school year, according to an analysis of state data by the Center for Juvenile Justice.

That analysis found 8% of black students had at least one suspension from school, compared to 2% of white students.

And of the 39 expelled students in 2021-2022 school year: 8 were Black, five were Hispanic and 26 were white.

Black students made up 9.4% of enrolled students in 2021-2022, but 20% of expelled students, according to 25 Investigates’ analysis.

Such statistics, however, don’t shed light on how often students are coming into any contact with law enforcement.

25 Investigates spoke with ‘D,’ a Massachusetts mother who lives outside of Boston.

She said her son was targeted and suspended on multiple occasions – and that she’s received help from a lawyer to analyze how the school has addressed her son’s behavior.

“From the moment the first moment, they treated him as a criminal,” D told Investigative Reporter and Anchor Kerry Kavanaugh.

She requested to be interviewed anonymously over fear of retribution from her son’s school district in her majority white town.

D said she moved her family from southern Massachusetts in hopes of finding a safer school district for her children.

But as COVID-19 hit the community, her children’s grades began falling and they grew discouraged. Her son’s beloved grandfather grew sick with cancer, and passed away.

“It scares me,” D said. “And, you know, I saw that things were getting out of hand. And as much as I try, you know, I tried to keep him engaged. We keep him with his sports and busy. But at a certain point, it felt like nothing that I did was working.”

D said police were involved in many incidents at schools involving her son – a pattern that she believes sent him on a downward spiral.

The mother said the school’s strategy of relying on police left her terrified of her son being on a track into the criminal justice system.

“Someone in the police office, actually we had a conversation,” D said. “He was very friendly. And he says that they do that to try to scare the kid if that’s how they do it. I don’t agree with that. And I don’t think they do it to every kid because I know that most parents won’t accept that. And he was trying to convince me to accept it. And I felt let down. I felt from the first moment that they’ve been profiling those kids and they treat them different because why? Because of their skin color. That’s the only reason that I see.”

The mother said school officials failed to fully investigate an array of incidents involving multiple students: including instances where her son faced racism and aggression.

“They constantly keep him in the office, his academics were in terrible shape,” she said. “And he ended up getting kicked out of the soccer team.”

She said she counted more than 100 cases of her son receiving detention.

“Everything is escalated, like little things,” she said. “If you go through the files of the reasons that he’s got in detention, it’s absurd.”

One time, her son faced a criminal charge for alleged violence.

“Sometimes they have reasons to punish him, but everything seems inflated,” the mother said.

D said school officials should have instead found an educational way to address her son’s behavior, and evaluate whether he may have any learning diagnoses.

“At least he would feel that he’s supported in some ways,” she said.

She said her son has found a mentor in the community who’s promised to provide him guidance and support.

D said her son had a promising summer, and she’s hopeful this school year will be better.

“I send you a good kid, I send you a good family kid,” D said. “If I let you, you would be sending me back a criminal.”

DISCIPLINE FOR FIGHTING ON RISE

25 Investigates also analyzed overall discipline data reported by schools, and found some striking trends when comparing the 2021-2022 school year to 2018-2019:

More students are getting punished for mutual fights: nearly 7,700 students, up 26% from about 6,100.
Out-of-school suspensions for fighting also rose 26% – to about 6,150 from 4,850. In-school suspensions were stable at roughly 1,000.
Discipline for skipping class is up 44%: about 7,950, from about 5,500.
More students are also getting disciplined for vandalizing school property: about 1,250 students, up 38% from roughly 900.
Bullying is also up: with about 1,250 students disciplined for bullying, up 19% from 1,050.
More students are getting punished for having knives: 878 students, up 61% from 547.
Discipline for knives with blades at least 2.5 inches long grew 90%: from 201 to 381.
The number of students getting punished for physical attacks and minor physical altercations was similar to pre-pandemic school years:
Discipline for battery/physical attacks rose 6% to about 6,850 students disciplined in the 2021-2022 year.
Schools reported a 5% increase in discipline for minor physical altercations like pushing and shoving: with nearly 4,700 students disciplined.
Schools reported a drop in discipline for disorderly conduct, violating school rules, insubordination, obscene language, physical and verbal threats.
Discipline for disruptive behavior dropped 8%: from about 12,400 to nearly 11,500.
Overall, the number of disciplined students reached nearly 85,000 in the 2021-2022 school year, roughly in line with pre-pandemic school years.
From the 2018-2019 to the 2021-2022 school year, schools reported a 52% increase in emergency removals – which involves a principal temporarily removing a student charged with a disciplinary offense for up to two school days.
Out-of-school suspensions rose 3%, while in-school suspensions dropped 19%.
Expulsions have dropped from 156 in the 2012-2012 school year to 39 in the 2021-2022 school year.
But expulsions are up compared to 21 students in both the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years.