# Reimagining/Decolonizing School Safety x Inner City Struggle

- Link: https://latinxparenting.org/reimagining-decolonizing-school-safety-x-inner-city-struggle/
- Published: 2023-10-27T16:29:37-07:00
- Author: manager@peanut.media

**Written by: Fernando Deveras **

![InnerCityStruggle 1](https://latinxparenting.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/InnerCityStruggle_1-
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One of the most powerful gifts we can offer our familias is space to reflect. When
we are given room to examine the oppressive narratives and paradigms that we’ve 
been taught, we can begin the work of detaching ourselves from those narratives/
paradigms that we have internalized from generation to generation. For many of our
families, this space has always been out of reach; a luxury for those with more 
resources and support. And some of us make the mistake of believing that our people
are too set in their ways to see things differently. We mistakenly fall into the
deficit mindset where we tell ourselves that terms like “nonviolence” and “decolonization”
will just go over their heads. But in reality, we are ALL capable of understanding
the framework of nonviolence and decolonization when we are given space to reflect.

Earlier this month, we hosted a workshop for a group of powerful señoras, organized
by the beautiful team at Inner City Struggle from East Los Angeles. ICS is doing
the incredible work of helping families to reflect on the punitive and carceral 
models of school safety that we commonly see (police on campus, suspensions, tickets
and citations for students, etc.). The goal is to help families reach the space 
where they can reimagine what a school actually needs in order to create a safe 
environment for students to learn and grow. It’s an important mission and something
that our communities desperately need to talk about.

We know that many families in the Latino community worry about school safety. They
see the kind of violence that happens on school campuses; fights breaking out and
videos of the fights being shared on social media. They hear about kids bringing
weapons to school, kids using drugs in the restrooms, school shootings in America
becoming more and more common. They see all this, and naturally they reach out for
whatever they think will help make their kids safer. Unfortunately, what we see 
is that too many parents have a limited idea of what safety can look like. They 
tend to call for things like more police officers and security on campus to stop
fights, metal detectors at the entrance to check for weapons, random drug tests 
for students, etc. These all sound like very practical solutions to the problems,
but what these proposed solutions don’t do is get to the root cause of these problems.

![InnerCityStruggle 2](https://latinxparenting.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/InnerCityStruggle_2-
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Instead of sending police in to break up fights, let’s figure out why our kids are
fighting in the first place and teach them how to resolve conflicts without violence.
Instead of metal detectors to catch the weapons, ask ourselves what kind of culture
we’re creating on campus that makes our students feel so threatened that they feel
the need to arm themselves. Instead of random drug tests, let’s support the mental
health of our students so they don’t resort to self medicating to deal with their
stresses and traumas. Better yet, let’s work to reduce or completely eliminate the
stresses and traumas.

If we’re serious about addressing safety for our students, then we need to get to
the root of the problem. We need to build a culture of connection, care, and community
where kids feel welcome and supported. School staff and parents need to be supported
so that they can work to build that culture. And resources, tools, trainings need
to be made available to everyone involved so that we can develop a shared vocabulary
and practice of connection, care, and community.

But all of that begins with giving our people space for reflection so we can set
a new intention to build towards that vision of a better world for our familias.