11.28.2022 | Columbia News Service | Dawn Yuster, Director of the School Justice Project at Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), said that District 75 parents have reason to be suspicious, particularly when it comes to paraprofessionals in the classroom. 

“Every year, there are legal cases where paraprofessionals are just not adequately trained. To some extent, they are set up to fail,” she says. 

Concerns regarding District 75 schools’ handling of student crises extend past their paraprofessionals. In June 2021, Yuster’s team produced a report detailing methods of discipline and crisis intervention taking place on District 75 campuses. They found that oftentimes, these instances resulted in police calls at rates disproportionately higher than the rest of the city. 

Such calls are most often the product of “child in crisis interventions,” moments when a student exhibits distress sufficient to warrant police involvement. Interventions can take place in any New York City school, however the AFC report states that “Students in District 75 are not only dramatically over-represented in these incidents; they are also more likely than their peers to be handcuffed when removed from school.”  Read article