School Resource Officers are supposed to keep students safe — but like most police in this country, they are actually trained to view the very people they are supposed to protect as the enemy.

At North Pitt High School in Greenville, NC, a School Resource Officer cussed at, maced, and then violently shoved a teenage girl across the room, giving her a concussion. 

Emancipate NC is committed to supporting the people of Greenville, North Carolina, and the fight across North Carolina for a more holistic and demilitarized option to keeping children safe and thriving in schools. This MLK day Emancipate NC Organizer Dedan Waciuri will be leading community efforts to work with local elementary schools around adopting alternatives to SROs to prevent the myriad of harms they cause. 

Stay tuned for more information about Emancipate NC’s continued efforts in the struggle to free schools from the violence, trauma, and long-term impacts, such as the school-to-prison pipeline, exacerbated by SROs in our public schools.