Beyond Bad Apples

A measured appraisal of police presence in public schools and advice for educators who teach in these systems

In Beyond Bad Apples, Hannah Carson Baggett addresses the widespread presence of police in K–12 schools in the United States and provides essential guidance for educators who teach in policed environments. Baggett’s work helps fill in a glaring gap in teacher education, offering preservice and practicing teachers and administrators a set of skills, strategies, and practices that can help them navigate police-staffed schools to advocate for their students.

Applying a critical eye to what is now a billion-dollar industry, Baggett gives a historical overview of policing in schools, deftly underscoring the systemic issues and policies that have invited police and school resource officers into public schools, all in the name of student safety. Calling on student and teacher voices, she demonstrates how in-school policing is harmful, including racial injustice, youth criminalization, and police violence as well as a culture of surveillance and deficit thinking. In a carceral society, she argues, police involvement shapes the school-prison nexus.

An advocate for abolition, Baggett calls for police-free schools. This urgently necessary work invites readers to reimagine school safety. In support of this mindset shift, each chapter features prompts to encourage educators to reflect on their own experiences, reevaluate disciplinary policies and procedure, and explore other forms of accountability and safety without policing.