Administrators Leveraging School Counseling Supports to Address Disparities in School Discipline

Introduction

Monica (pseudonym) is one of the thousands of school counselors in the state of California who are tasked with the critical role of supporting the academic, career, and socio-emotional development of students (California Association for School Counselors [CASC], 2019). In her own words, presented in the epigraph of this chapter, she shares a commonly disturbing practice that many administrators and school districts use by over-relying on law enforcement officers (LEOs) and school resource officers (SROs) to address issues of school discipline in schools that serve predominantly racially minoritized youth (Annamma, 2018; Hernandez & Espinoza, 2021; Shedd, 2015; Whitaker et al., 2019). Like Monica, she makes note of how a combination of school police, school resource officers, and probation officers outnumber the number of school counselors at her institution. Not surprisingly, this has direct implications on racially minoritized youth as they are surrounded by a more punitive approach to addressing student needs and fewer services directed toward academic and mental wellness supports that are often provided by school counselors (Serrano, 2020; Whitaker et al., 2019), who in many cases are the first and only mental health providers in schools (CASC, 2019). Given this case, how school counselors respond to the overpolicing of racially minoritized youth and how administrators support by funding these punitive approaches requires further investigation.

The significant presence of law enforcement officers and school resource officers on campuses has persistently shown how their excessive force contributes to the physical and psychological harm for many Black and Latinx youth (Annamma, 2018; Shedd, 2015; Whitaker et al., 2019). Recent events have continued to fuel the movement to abolish all forms of policing that harm Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Such events include the racial reckoning that occurred in 2020 across the country against police brutality over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and many others. More recently, in September 2021, Manuela (Mona) Rodriguez, an 18-year-old, Latina was shot and murdered by a Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) School Safety Officer (SSO) near the campus of Milikan High School (Black Lives Matter Long Beach [BLMLB], 2021). According to LBUSD policies, SSOs can carry and use weapons, such as guns, batons, or other weapons on combative students. As a result, this clearly shows how school district policies support and contribute to the physical and psychological harm of Black and Latinx youth (BLMLB, 2021).

In community spaces, various partners have and continue to persistently advocate towards police-free schools, as Omar Cardenas, Organizing Director for Californians for Justice in Long Beach, brings attention to the systems that perpetuate injustice, as he shared, “Mona Rodriguez should be here, holding her 5-month-old baby. For too long we’ve seen a system of ‘safety’ that harms Black and Brown youth and our communities. Only we can keep us safe. True safety starts with relationship-building, trust, and healing” (Californians for Justice, 2021). He pointed to the ongoing criminalization of communities of color and the pressing need to combat inequities by abolishing all forms of policing. Therefore, this serves as a reminder of the various moments across the nation that are calling for abolishing all forms of policing and redirecting more services towards school-based mental health professionals who can attend to the care of youth of Color (Serrano, 2020; Whitaker et al., 2019).