Only 2 Percent of Students Arrested at NYC Schools First Quarter Were White

Just nine of 436 students arrested during school in the first quarter of 2016 were white. That's 2 percent. The other 98 percent of students were students of color.

This jarring statistic in new data released by the NYPD this week highlights the fact that students of color are apprehended way more often than white students in New York City's public schools.

"We now know that racial disparities in our criminal justice system start in public school," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, in response to the data.

The majority of apprehensions and arrests were of students of color and appeared to occur in schools mostly located in Brooklyn or the Bronx. From January to March 2016, 436 students were arrested. The schools with more than five arrests within that time period were Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, Bronx Studio School for Writers and Artists, Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, Grand Street Campus High School in Brooklyn, High School for Environmental Studies in Manhattan, Manhattan Alternate Learning Center Boys Club, New Dorp High School in Staten Island, and Richmond Hill High School in Queens.

There were 637 restraints during the first quarter of 2016, and 93 percent of them were used on black or Hispanic students. Just 2 percent of the restraints were performed on white students, according to the data.

But the NYPD didn't release the data to underscore racial disparities. It released the data to underline the decline in arrests in the city's schools over the past few years. There were 1,555 students arrested in schools in the 2014-2015 school year, a huge decline from 3,133 arrests in schools in the 2010-2011 school year. The data also say crime in schools has been reduced over 50 percent since 2004.

A team of experts and officials convened by Mayor Bill de Blasio released a set of recommendations this week for schools to help reduce the number of arrests, summons and suspensions of students. The recommendations included training superintendents to deal with punishment of students, increase support for schools with a lot of students with mental health issues, decreasing suspension lengths, improving support for students when they come back from their suspensions and when they come back to school from jail, and ending suspensions of children in kindergarten to second grade.

"Rather than mere punishment, proactive approaches to discipline can ensure safe schools and develop in students greater independence and ownership of behavior," said Mayor de Blasio in a statement. "Ultimately, safer learning environments will drive student achievement inside and outside the classroom."

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