Teacher perspectives on the presence of police officers in English secondary schools: A Critical Race Theory analysis

In the context of a racialized moral panic around serious youth violence, we have seen a resurgence of calls to increase the presence of police in English schools in recent years. As well as a lack of popular and political opposition, there is a dearth of critical academic consideration of the placement of police in schools, and even less from a Critical Race Theory perspective. Given that teachers’ perspectives are relatively absent from academic and popular debates, this paper draws upon data from semi-structured interviews with 24 secondary school teachers. In doing so, the paper argues that an increased police presence in school will impact negatively upon learning environments, create a culture of low expectations, criminalize young people, and feed a school-to-prison pipeline. Noting that racially minoritized students will be affected most harshly, the article provides empirical evidence to warn against the presence of police in schools.