The ACLU of Iowa has found that Black and disabled students were more likely than their peers to be referred to police and to be arrested for school discipline issues.
In Iowa, police officers were installed in schools with the aim of shielding students from violence, yet a recent report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa indicates that the issue they most often confront is illicit vaping.
The ACLU of Iowa examined the impact of the growing presence of school resource officers (SROs) across Iowa’s school districts through public records requests and federal data. The report highlights cases where SROs were used for disciplinary matters that many see as unnecessary for police involvement: beyond addressing tobacco and THC vapes, Iowa SROs were summoned to intervene when a 7-year-old boy ran through a hallway and a disruptive 6-year-old, and they were also used to scrutinize students for behavior described as being “disrespectful” in class or “drama with a group of girls.”
Nationally, the number of police officers in schools has surged in recent years, increasing by about 23 percent across high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools between 2018 and 2021, largely under the justification of preventing mass shootings and managing violent incidents.
The ACLU of Iowa’s report did not find evidence that police presence made schools safer; rather, it showed that Black and disabled students were disproportionately subjected to police referrals and arrests, and that the mere presence of SROs tended to escalate minor rule violations.
“Without question, nothing could be more important than keeping kids safe, but unfortunately there’s no evidence that SROs make schools safer,” said Rita Bettis Austen, the legal director of the ACLU of Iowa, at a press conference. “In fact, research shows it creates harm for many students. It does this by taking incidents that have traditionally been treated less harshly and instead refers kids to police. This can funnel kids into the juvenile delinquency and adult court systems.”
Organizations such as the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) contend that carefully chosen, well-trained officers function as a filter and help reduce arrests by building strong relationships with staff and students within the school.
Civil liberties groups and disability advocates have long argued that growing numbers of school police and zero-tolerance policies for minor disturbances contribute to the “school-to-prison” pipeline and result in disproportionate enforcement against minorities and students with disabilities. These concerns have been amplified by widely shared news stories of police arresting and assaulting schoolchildren.
After the killing of George Floyd in 2020 and the nationwide push for police reform, several large school districts nationwide ended their SRO programs, including Des Moines and Ames, Iowa, in 2021.
Nevertheless, a school shooting in Perry, Iowa, in 2024 led state lawmakers to enact legislation intended to expand armed guards or law enforcement presence in schools.
The ACLU of Iowa’s survey found that 130 SROs were employed across 78 school districts in the state, with roughly a quarter of Iowa’s districts employing at least one SRO.
The report’s authors cited disparities in enforcement as the most troubling finding. The study noted that although Black students comprise about 7 percent of Iowa’s population, they accounted for 13 percent of referrals and 21 percent of arrests, “even though national studies indicate that Black students do not actually misbehave or commit crimes in schools at a higher rate.”
Similarly, 13 percent of Iowa’s students are documented as having a disability, yet they accounted for 27 percent of SRO referrals and 26 percent of arrests.
Jacob Sarasin, an ACLU of Iowa legal fellow, expressed surprise that 80 percent of school districts had no meaningful policy governing SRO training requirements.
The report concluded that many districts and law enforcement agencies lacked robust training requirements for SROs, failed to regularly evaluate SRO programs, and did not have clear policies for notifying parents when their child is detained or questioned by SROs, despite state law mandating such notices. Most districts also lacked processes for parents and students to file complaints about SRO misconduct.
The study found that the most common trigger for SRO involvement was students being caught vaping THC or nicotine.
“Vaping does not require an armed police officer to address,” the report stated.
Other studies have reported similar patterns. A 2020 study found that after Florida more than doubled the number of SROs in its schools in 2018, arrests in schools—previously in decline—began to rise again, accompanied by a sharp uptick in the use of physical restraint against students.
A 2021 working paper from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University—positioned as the broadest and most rigorous school-level assessment of how SROs affect student outcomes—found that while SROs “do effectively reduce some forms of violence in schools,” they did not prevent school shootings or gun-related incidents.
Another study by researchers at the University of Maryland and the firm Westat, which examined several dozen middle and high schools in California, determined that increasing the number of SROs led to both immediate and persistent rises in drug and weapon offenses, as well as suspensions and expulsions of students.
