Another World Is Possible!

Join students and young people across the country who are organizing for and winning #PoliceFreeSchools.

The Campaign

The fight for #PoliceFreeSchools sits in a continuum of radical youth and community organizing. Black youth, students of color, students with disabilities, immigrant and LGBTQIA+ youth organizing to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline are part of a long legacy of young people fighting to end the policing of their schools and communities.

History and Formation

We recognize that safety does not exist when Black and Brown young people are forced to interact with a system of policing that views them as a threat and not as students. And we are putting forth a liberatory vision for education that reflects a society where young people are loved, and communities can determine and control the thriving schools they deserve.
In 2015, after the violent #AssaultAtSpringValley, young people in the Alliance for Educational Justice vowed to build a national campaign to fight for the removal of police from schools, grounded in the years of organizing led by local grassroots organizations. In 2017, AEJ and the Advancement Project National Office convened 10 organizations to form the National Campaign for Police Free Schools, and the Campaign continues to grow today.
Definition of Police Free Schools
Dismantling school policing infrastructure, culture, and practice; ending school militarization and surveillance; and building a new liberatory education system.

Strategies

Grounded in the belief that removing police from our schools is the seed to removing police from our communities, the campaign centers the leadership of young people and organizers who are using a series of strategies, the “6 D’s,” to advance abolitionist fights from Oakland to New York:

Decriminalize
Deprioritize
Divest | Invest
Demilitarize | Disarm
Delegitimize
Dismantle

Our Stories

May 22, 2021
Featured Organizer: Indigo of Black Organizing Project in Oakland, California
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May 21, 2021
Featured Organizer: Ceon of Black Swan Academy in Washington, DC
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Timeline

This timeline helps us understand how the movement for education justice has developed over the last 80 years, explores the intricate relationship between police and schools, and connects our organizing to other movements.

#ASSAULTAT MAP

School policing places students of color at a significant risk of being attacked, harassed, and assaulted by the same police officers who have oppressed Black and Latinx communities for centuries. This #AssaultAt map chronicles acts of school police violence against students of color.

Partner Organizations

Advancement Project National Office
Washington, D.C. (National)
Alliance for Educational Justice
Washington, D.C. (National)
Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education
Providence, Rhode Island
Baltimore Algebra Project
Baltimore, Maryland
Black Lives Matter Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Black Organizing Project
Oakland, California
Black Swan Academy
Washington, D.C.
Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Chicago, Illinois
Coleman Advocates for Children & Youth
San Francisco, California
CT Black and Brown Student Union
Connecticut
Education Justice Alliance
Raleigh, North Carolina
EveryBlackGirl
Columbia, South Carolina
Freedom Inc.
Madison, Wisconsin
Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network
Oakland, California
Girls for Gender Equity
Brooklyn, New York
Juntos
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Labor Community Strategy Center
Los Angeles, California
Make the Road New York
Brooklyn, New York
See All Partners