What Obama’s New Military-Equipment Rules Mean for K-12 School Police
Last week, President Obama issued an executive order to regulate the use of military equipment within local police departments, as part of an ongoing effort to address police violence in communities of color. Images of officers rolling through the streets of Ferguson – and, more recently, Baltimore – in armored tanks pushed the issue of police militarization into the national spotlight. But it’s not just police departments that have been outfitted with military weapons. Through the Department of Defense’s 1033 program, created in 1997, K-12 school districts across the country have received equipment like mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles, grenade launchers, assault rifles and an outfitted SWAT team. One district in Utah alone received a dozen AR-15s, the weapon notoriously used in the Sandy Hook school shooting.
The president’s new rules restrict how law enforcement agencies can acquire certain equipment. However, the rules specify that departments “solely serving schools ranging from kindergarten through grade 12” are now excluded – they can no longer receive military-grade equipment through the 1033 program. Advocates say this change marks an important, if incomplete, shift in school policing.
“I definitely think it’s a step in the right direction,” Janel George, senior education policy council at the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund tells Rolling Stone. “It does show that the administration, particularly the local law enforcement equipment working group, heard our concerns.”
The Legal Defense Fund, along with Texas Appleseed, a social and economic justice advocacy group, wrote a letter last September to the Defense Logistics Agency, urging the Department of Defense to end the 1033 program’s relationship with K-12 schools. In the letter, the groups note that Texas and California top the list of states in which school districts are known to have received weapons, with 10 districts in Texas having received a total of 82 M-16 and M-14 rifles, 25 automatic pistols and 45,000 rounds of ammunition, and the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) receiving 61 M-16 rifles, three grenade launchers and an MRAP. Amid criticism last fall, the LAUSD returned its grenade launchers but initially kept its MRAP, which it then returned two months later.
Obama’s executive order will affect school districts differently depending on how the schools are policed. Those with a dedicated K-12 school police department, like Los Angeles, are now excluded from acquiring materials on the “controlled equipment list,” which includes things like armored vehicles and certain riot gear. But there’s no language in the executive order about schools that don’t have their own police departments. “The vast majority of schools in Texas and nationally are served not by departments under school district control, but rather through [contracts] with local law enforcement,” Texas Appleseed Executive Director Deborah Fowler tells Rolling Stone. “While we are certainly happy to see this [new restriction] included, it is not clear that this will ultimately affect most of the school police programs in place in Texas and elsewhere.”