Davidson quit this week after being a youth care worker at the Tucson shelter, Estrella del Norte, for just a few months. He decided to speak out about his experiences there in hopes of improving a system often shielded from public scrutiny. His comments in a telephone interview offer a rare look into the operation of a migrant shelter.
Davidson said he became disillusioned after the Drumpf administration’s “zero tolerance” policy began sending the shelter not only children who had crossed the border unaccompanied by adults, but also those separated from their parents.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
~Emma Lazarus~
By Nick Miroff
A Honduran father separated from his wife and child suffered a breakdown at a Texas jail and killed himself in a padded cell last month, according to Border Patrol agents and an incident report filed by sheriff’s deputies.
The death of Marco Antonio Muñoz, 39, has not been publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security, and it did not appear in any local news accounts. But according to a copy of a sheriff’s department report obtained by The Washington Post, Muñoz was found on the floor of his cell May 13 in a pool of blood with an item of clothing twisted around his neck.
Starr County sheriff’s deputies recorded the incident as a “suicide in custody.”
Muñoz’s death occurred not long after the Drumpf administration began implementing its “zero-tolerance” crackdown on illegal migration, measures that include separating parents from their children and the threat of criminal prosecution for anyone who enters the United States unlawfully.
Police are called to a school to deal with students acting out.
Some snapshots from around the country this year: In October, in Chesterfield, South Carolina, police are called because of a fight. Nine students are arrested. In May, sheriff’s deputies use pepper spray to break up a fight at a Naples, Florida, high school. Three students are arrested and 21 students need medical care. In March, New York Police Department safety agents ask a student to remove safety pins holding his glasses together. When the student refuses, the officers reportedly tackle and arrest him.
What’s going on in America’s schools that necessitate seemingly so much police involvement?
Could crime in our schools really be so rampant?
During a week when the country repeatedly watched cell phone video of a student resource officer violently manhandling a South Carolina high school student, many are asking:
What exactly is a school cop’s job and does their presence benefit teachers, administrators and students?
~~GRAPHICS SOURCE~~
Google Images
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
AP Photo/Brennan Linsley
~~GALLERY~~
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From the war on drugs to a crackdown on everything
Violent crime in schools has decreased over many years, said Annette Fuentes, who has studied the intersection of law enforcement and primary education for at least a decade and wrote “Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse.”
The path to putting law enforcement in schools was paved by President Ronald Reagan. As part of the 1980’s war against drugs campaign, his administration coined the term “zero tolerance.” That approach to school discipline was primarily intended to curb the increasing menace of gangs and narcotics threatening young people, she said.
The belief that zero tolerance could be applied to other infractions was bolstered when Bill Clinton was president and the Safe Schools Act became law.
But what began as an effort to help schools in urban areas morphed into approach that was often overly harsh, Fuentes said.
“The kids who were criminalized were overwhelmingly black and Latino students,” she said.
“What is clear is that kids who are punished disproportionately to their violation of school codes are more likely to drop out.
Kids who are suspended are more likely to because drop outs.
That means the risk of that kid growing up and falling into real criminal behavior is real.”
~Policing Schools: Why Are There Cops In Schools?~
~Published on Oct 30, 2015~
Since the ’90s, cops are working in more and more schools. But are they really keeping students safe, or pushing students into the school-to-prison pipeline?
Colleagues at a government-contracted shelter in Arizona had a specific request for Antar Davidson when three Brazilian migrant children arrived:
No hugging, no comforting each other?
America … the world is watching!! 
