By Darius Spearman (africanelements)

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A federal settlement in Moreno Valley, California, has exposed the painful intersection of race, disability, and school policing (theievoice.com). The case involved a ten-year-old Black student with disabilities who was restrained and arrested by school police in 2019 (disabilityrightsca.org). Instead of receiving legally required support, he was met with force (blackvoicenews.com). This incident is not just a headline; it is a reflection of deep historical issues in American education and law enforcement. The resulting agreement forces significant policy changes on the school district (cbsnews.com). Moreover, advocates believe it serves as a critical warning to schools nationwide that choose handcuffs over help.

The agreement is a federal settlement, which is a legally binding resolution to a lawsuit that avoids a trial (disabilityrightsca.org). These settlements often require major policy reforms and can include financial compensation for the affected parties (disabilityrightsca.org). For the Moreno Valley Unified School District, this means a court-enforced mandate to change its approach to student discipline and special education. This case highlights a national struggle over the role of police in schools. It asks whether they create safety or simply funnel marginalized children into the justice system (theievoice.com).

The lawsuit, C.B. v. Moreno Valley Unified School District et al., was filed in February 2021 (disabilityrightsca.org). The term "et al." is a Latin abbreviation for "and others," indicating more parties were sued than just the school district (disabilityrightsca.org). The lawsuit was brought by powerful advocacy groups, including Disability Rights California, the law firm Barajas & Rivera APC, and the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (disabilityrightsca.org). They represented a ten-year-old Black student with disabilities, identified as C.B., who was just four feet, eight inches tall and weighed 70 pounds (theievoice.com).

According to the lawsuit, C.B. was tackled, handcuffed, and arrested by school police on four separate occasions within four months (theievoice.com). These incidents happened at Landmark Middle School in 2019 for what were described as disability-related behaviors (theievoice.com). Such behaviors can include emotional outbursts or difficulty following directions that stem from a student's disability (disabilityrightsca.org). A federal judge found the district's security program violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (theievoice.com). Furthermore, the district was sanctioned with a $25,000 penalty for intentionally hiding and destroying evidence related to the case (hadsellstormer.com). The court also issued an adverse inference instruction, allowing a jury to assume the hidden evidence was damaging to the district's defense (hadsellstormer.com).

The presence of police in schools has a complicated history. The first School Resource Officer (SRO) program began in 1953 in Flint, Michigan (kappanonline.org). Its stated goal was improving relationships between youth and police (kappanonline.org). However, the origins of school policing have more troubling, racist underpinnings (theievoice.com). For example, the Los Angeles School Police Department was formed in 1948 specifically to patrol newly desegregated neighborhoods (kappanonline.org). Following desegregation, racial tensions and white flight created a climate of fear (kappanonline.org). The police force was established based on a perceived need to control Black students, who were often viewed through a lens of racial bias (kappanonline.org).

The number of SROs exploded in the 1990s. This expansion was fueled by federal funding and high-profile school shootings like Columbine (theievoice.com). The federal "COPS in Schools" grant program injected millions of dollars into hiring more school police (ojp.gov). COPS stands for Community Oriented Policing Services, an office within the Department of Justice (ojp.gov). This era was also influenced by the "get tough on drugs and crime" mentality of the 1980s, which prioritized harsh punishment over rehabilitation (eji.org). Consequently, schools adopted "zero-tolerance" policies, which mandated severe consequences for even minor infractions. These policies helped create the school-to-prison pipeline, a national trend of criminalizing children instead of educating them (theievoice.com).

Racial disparities in school discipline are a persistent issue. Data collection on this began in 1974 when the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) started its Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) (ed.gov). Since the 1990s, Black students have consistently faced discipline rates two to three times higher than their white peers (theievoice.com). This is not because they misbehave more. Instead, it is the result of implicit and explicit biases from educators and officials (nih.gov). Implicit biases are unconscious stereotypes, while explicit biases are conscious, discriminatory beliefs (nih.gov).

The statistics are alarming. Data from the 2013-2014 CRDC showed Black students were 3.8 times more likely to be suspended than white students (ed.gov). In 2020-2021, Black boys were just 8% of students but accounted for 18% of out-of-school suspensions and expulsions (edtrust.org). Black girls also face extreme disparities. During the 2017-2018 school year, they had a 4.19 times higher risk of out-of-school suspension and a 3.66 times higher risk of arrest compared to white girls (georgetown.edu). The presence of SROs has been linked to an increase in arrests for minor offenses like "disorderly conduct," which can include anything from yelling to using profanity (juvjustice.org). One study in Los Angeles found a 402.3% increase in such arrests over a five-year period (eji.org).

Black students are disproportionately suspended and referred to law enforcement compared to white students. Source: U.S. Department of Education, Civil Rights Data Collection.

Historically, children with disabilities were often shut out of public schools (educationrightsattorney.com). This changed with landmark laws like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), first passed in 1975 (educationrightsattorney.com). IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act mandate that schools provide a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities (educationrightsattorney.com). These laws also require schools to consider a student's disability during discipline. A key protection is the "manifestation determination" meeting (educationrightsattorney.com). This process determines if a behavior was a direct result of the student's disability (studentdisciplinedefense.com). If it was, the student generally cannot be removed from their placement (studentdisciplinedefense.com).

Despite these legal safeguards, students with disabilities are arrested at much higher rates than their non-disabled peers (theievoice.com). The intersection of race and disability creates an even more dangerous reality. Shockingly, data has shown that Black girls without disabilities sometimes face higher arrest rates than white girls who do have disabilities (theievoice.com). This demonstrates how race can be a more significant factor in disciplinary outcomes than disability status. In 37 states, high schools are more likely to have a police officer than a social worker, showing a preference for punitive responses over supportive ones (route-fifty.com).

Nearly four out of five students who are restrained or secluded in U.S. schools have disabilities. Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights.

Physical restraint and seclusion are extreme measures used in schools. Restraint means immobilizing a student, while seclusion is involuntarily confining them alone (theievoice.com). These practices are only supposed to be used when a student poses an imminent danger (theievoice.com). However, federal data shows over 100,000 students are restrained or secluded annually (ed.gov). The numbers reveal a disturbing pattern of discrimination against students of color and those with disabilities (ed.gov).

Data from California's 2021-2022 school year, which is likely underreported, is particularly shocking (propublica.org). Black students made up just 5.1% of the student body but accounted for 17.5% of students physically restrained (propublica.org). They also comprised 24% of those secluded and an astonishing 39.1% of those subjected to mechanical restraint (propublica.org). Mechanical restraint involves using devices like cuffs or straps to restrict movement (ed.gov). At the same time, students with disabilities, about 14% of the student population, represented 88.8% of those physically restrained (propublica.org). The Moreno Valley case, involving the handcuffing of a small child, is a direct example of this disproportionate reality (theievoice.com).

Black students represent 5.1% of California's students but a much larger percentage of those restrained or secluded. Source: California Department of Education Data.

The settlement in Moreno Valley is considered groundbreaking (theievoice.com). It explicitly links systemic discrimination against Black students with the policing of students with disabilities (disabilityrightsca.org). The ruling sets a powerful precedent. Specifically, it establishes that school districts can be held legally responsible under civil rights laws for the discriminatory actions of their police departments (disabilityrightsca.org). This forces districts to address the root causes of student behavior instead of resorting to punishment (disabilityrightsca.org).

The court-ordered policy changes provide a potential blueprint for other districts (disabilityrightsca.org). These reforms include implementing a progressive discipline matrix that prioritizes alternatives to arrest, such as restorative justice (disabilityrightsca.org). The district must also provide mandatory annual training for all staff on de-escalation, implicit bias, and positive behavior interventions (disabilityrightsca.org). Finally, the settlement requires the district to collect and analyze detailed data on all student-police interactions to identify and address disparities (disabilityrightsca.org). This outcome sends a clear message. Schools must invest in supportive services and move away from punitive models to become true places of learning for all children (theievoice.com).

Darius Spearman is a professor of Black Studies at San Diego City College, where he has been teaching for over 20 years. He is the founder of African Elements, a media platform dedicated to providing educational resources on the history and culture of the African diaspora. Through his work, Spearman aims to empower and educate by bringing historical context to contemporary issues affecting the Black community.