Encounters With Police: Keeping Youth Safe

By Dr. Aliah K. MaJon

There are things happening in the world today that require our professional attention and expertise and our ability to be compassionate and clear-headed. Many of our young people — typically our black and brown students — are being viewed with bias and mistrust, and the police are seen by some as wrongdoers.

Negative images of police violence are serving to bring harm, breed mistrust and keep us all on edge; therefore, it is time to be proactive. That should be easy for educators, because gathering information, empowering individuals and creating positive outcomes is what we are all about. So let’s support our youth and engage our police officers to learn about each other, and to join forces to discover what needs to be done — differently.

Having police in our lives is meant to be a good thing. This important group of public servants has the special job of keeping order, and the majority of police officers fulfill this responsibility with integrity and care, serving as heroes and friends to young people. However, there are some with different stripes.

Unfortunately, small numbers of law enforcement professionals who are making serious mistakes in judgment have us concerned for the safety of our youth. This article offers a way to bring educators and police together to address this, by teaching students and police officers how they can have a beneficial and respectful relationship.

Since the Trayvon Martin case received extensive media coverage in 2012, the questions of racial profiling and the excessive use of force with people of color — leading to fatal results — has been on the minds and in the hearts of tens of thousands of Americans. This is especially true for educators, who spend our lives caring about youth, guiding them to bright futures and preparing them to be leaders so they can better our world.

The news reports that have been airing with far too much regularity these days about unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings and uncalled for rough treatment are inspiring educational professionals to not only take notice, but to want to do something to stop it.

The educational process is typically seen as a two-pronged system – one that delivers academics and plays a key role in equipping young people to live a good life and achieve success. This double responsibility, which is appropriate for a 21st century paradigm, came about because the equipping side of this equation makes good sense due to the circumstances of students’ lives, and because it is a proactive and future-building thing to do.

In California, teachers and school administrators recognize that equipping young people to be successful allows schools to play a critical role in ensuring their futures and sustaining our communities. I would like to propose that teaching students how to thoughtfully interact with the police and build relationships with police officers will safeguard our students’ lives and promote a healthy society for all.

This article will outline some ideas and activities that can lead to educators being natural partners in addressing the important issues of true justice, legitimate policing and the building of community trust, as we help to keep our young people safe.

The material that I share here is meant to serve as inspiration to help teaching professionals to create learning experiences. The information may loosely reflect curriculum goals as well, but the primary focus is life skills training.

The activities and assignments can be adapted to students that are from a range of grade levels and across a variety of ages and abilities. Since I am not a classroom teacher, I will not be outlining specific recommendations, only certain ideas and concepts. However, I do work in schools and districts, and I often help educational professionals accomplish their goals in academics as well as life skills support.

My premise is a simple one, captured in these three powerful points:

1. Students, especially youth of color, need to learn how to be in relationships with the police in a conscious and safer manner, and assist in the process of growing mutual respect.
2. The police, and all law enforcement professionals, need to recognize that they are being held accountable by students, but also that students need them to be good role models.
3. Harmful perceptions must be uncovered in both police and in our students, particularly targeting explicit/implicit bias, fear, mistrust and other behaviors that must be replaced.

Communication skills: Exercises
Exercise #1: Non-inflammatory interaction role-play and practice
(Use entire class period. Also, this exercise can be repeated in future classes.)

• Inform your students that they will be engaging in a “role play.”
• Have the class suggest an “encounter with police” scenario they’d like to work with.
• Vote to select one or two scenarios. (Each group will do their own version of a scenario.)
• Allow the class to break up into small groups to practice the role-play.
• Some members of each group will act out the scene.
• Other members in each group will provide feedback about “inflammatory” elements.
• Review the best examples of not inciting violence or creating an inflammatory situation.

Students should be encouraged to act as leaders and serve as wise mentors to each other as they engage in this exercise. Please tell your students that their ideas and efforts can greatly improve the outcomes they have heard about.

I highly recommend that you keep the examples of how to avoid creating an inflammatory situation when interacting with the police displayed permanently in your classroom. And, if you do this exercise more than once, please keep adding to the list of things that students should avoid. You might also wish to review the list of things to avoid with your students from time to time to keep them fresh in their minds.

Bonus activity: Let the students know that you support them to take ownership of this list, and that they will be allowed to work on the important tips they are compiling in the future if they have new suggestions or wish to talk about anything related to the list.

Exercise #2: Interviewing your local police officers

Have your students interview a police officer or law enforcement professional to obtain information about how they conduct themselves on the job, and how they react during encounters with suspects in their line of work. This can be done by inviting a police officer to your classroom, by organizing a panel discussion with several officers and law enforcement professionals, or by going on a field trip to your local police department to interview officers. The goal is to get answers to useful questions and build relationships. Here are some sample questions:

1. What are you trained to do when suspects run away and/or try to resist arrest?
2. What have you learned about racial profiling and unconscious bias? How are you using what you’ve learned on your job?
3. What are some of the things a suspect might be doing that cause you to react with force in an encounter with them? Please be specific.
4. What can you suggest to young people (and others) to help them to avoid inflammatory situations with the police? Please give us a list of at least three things to avoid doing.
5. What would you like youth to know about how to grow mutual respect and build shared trust?
6. Do you have children? If so, what do you teach your children about interacting with the police?
7. If you were a mentor to a young person, what things would you make sure that they know to avoid, or definitely not do, when they are engaged in an encounter with law enforcement?

The implications of the above activities and exercises are far-reaching regarding the reduction of violence and helping stop the heartbreaking and untimely deaths of youths that are being reported in the news. I am sharing them with you because I believe you can make a difference.

Additionally, I believe that carrying out these tasks as school-sponsored assignments will help improve the communities in which we live, because these actions will engage police departments and let them know we are paying attention and are asking them to be accountable to us.

I also believe that the police in our communities will welcome these activities. They are a way for them to reverse the suspicion and the bad press they have been getting lately, and will fit in with their initiatives to positively interact with youth and utilize community-policing protocols.

Students should undertake these activities with an understanding of why they are important; that what they learn has the potential to keep them out of trouble, to keep people of color safe, and to help everyone stay out of harm’s way in encounters they have with the police.

It is equally significant that the information obtained about how policing is happening in your town or school district will enhance a young person’s education about municipal matters, and contribute to the life skills that are critical to their success.

Students from every race, culture and economic strata deserve our support in California; that’s why there is a concerted move toward educational equity. However, equity in education is not only about academics. It’s also about supporting youth in their life circumstances. It is an imperative that schools respond to this challenge.

Finally, I would like to share a vision — a vision of hope, possibility and promise. What if this work really catches on, and becomes a model that can be taken everywhere? What would be the result of these timely efforts to bring about the change that is desperately needed?

I believe the result would not only be to reduce the occurrences of violence involving youth and people of color that have inspired us to take action, but also that we would see a new level of healing that would help groom our youth to expect and live real justice and equality. That is my vision, my hope and the promise that I invite you all to step up to help realize.

The future is in our hands. The young people you and I work with every day, preparing them to be good citizens, productive adults and genuine leaders, are the key to that future. Let’s not forget how much power we all have to accomplish this — together.

Founder of the Next 50 Years Project, Rev. Dr. Aliah K. MaJon is a consummate professional who empowers both youth and adults to determine their own destiny and confidently step into leadership roles. She specializes in demystifying human improvement, and proudly holds a trademark for a 7-step process that outlines what it takes to turn one’s life around. A product of inner-city Detroit and a mother who lost her only child to suicide, Dr. Aliah enthusiastically teaches that self-examination and constantly updating your vision for the future must go hand-in-hand.

In the Los Angeles area, Dr. Aliah is currently a partner to the LAPD’s Community Relationship Division, and has worked extensively with Days of Dialogue, the Martin Luther King Legacy Association (Youth Leadership Academy), and designed innovative projects for Youth Opportunities Unlimited’s after-school programs in partnership with the Intel Corp. In the Bay Area, she has been a principal consultant for VCUSD’s Youth Justice Programs, trained high schools students to run Youth Court, and served as a principal for PROJECT RESTORE and the Positive Youth Justice Initiative, which was supported by the Sierra Health Foundation.

In Dr. Aliah’s work with the LAPD’s Community Relationship Division, she supports youth leaders — and adults — to create solutions for police-involved violence. Her approach is based on the “Brain Trust” model, where those who shape society engage the “thinking” and insights from experts regarding the problem — and in the case of the loss of life that is happening around policing, she feels that BOTH citizens and law enforcement are the needed experts!