{"id":109478,"date":"2015-12-16T10:32:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T17:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=109478"},"modified":"2015-12-16T10:32:32","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T17:32:32","slug":"in-calif-community-an-epidemic-of-questionable-arrests-by-school-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2015\/12\/in-calif-community-an-epidemic-of-questionable-arrests-by-school-police\/","title":{"rendered":"In Calif. community, an epidemic of questionable arrests by school police"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_109480\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-109480\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2378-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Josue \u201cJosh\u201d Muniz, now 20, is suing the San Bernardino City Unified School District and a school police officer for excessive force and negligent training. The suit alleges that the officer grabbed Muniz, then 17, by the throat, pepper sprayed him and beat him before arresting Muniz for assault on the cop. Muniz says the officer was upset because he and girlfriend hugged after he ordered them to separate. The charge was dropped in court. \" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2378-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2378-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2378-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2378-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/IMG_2378.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Susan Ferriss \/ Center for Public Integrity<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Josue \u201cJosh\u201d Muniz, now 20, is suing the San Bernardino City Unified School District and a school police officer for excessive force and negligent training. The suit alleges that the officer grabbed Muniz, then 17, by the throat, pepper sprayed him and beat him before arresting Muniz for assault on the cop. Muniz says the officer was upset because he and girlfriend hugged after he ordered them to separate. The charge was dropped in court.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.<\/strong> \u2014 Josue \u201cJosh\u201d Muniz admits that he embraced his girlfriend during lunch, while the pair was out on the quad at Arroyo Valley High School in this city east of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>He admits that after a school cop ordered him to step away, he did, but lightly hugged his girlfriend again, minutes later, because she was upset.<\/p>\n<p>But Muniz won\u2019t agree that he deserved what happened next.<\/p>\n<p>His girlfriend walked off, and Muniz saw the officer approaching again and directing him to go with him. The cop reached out and \u201cput his hand on my throat,\u201d Muniz said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I start freaking out. He tells me to stand up. And that\u2019s when his grip on my throat got a little stronger and when I started really panicking.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This story\u00a0is\u00a0from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Center for Public Integrity<\/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative media organization in Washington, D.C.\u00a0This story was reported in collaboration with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/ww2.kqed.org\/news\/2015\/12\/10\/an-epidemic-of-questionable-arrests-in-school-soul-searching-in-san-bernardino-county-over-campus-cops-tactics-and-attitudes\" target=\"_blank\">The California Report<\/a>, a production of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kqed.org\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\">KQED Public Radio<\/a>.\u00a0Amy Isackson of KQED public radio\u2019s \u201cThe California Report\u201d helped prepare this investigation in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity and produced a companion radio report.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Alarmed, Muniz pushed at the officer to get him \u201cjust a little bit off me,\u201d he said. They tumbled to the ground and the officer \u201cshowered\u201d the student with pepper spray, Muniz alleges in a civil lawsuit that\u2019s still pending. The cop handcuffed him, he said, dragged him into a nearby security office by the cuffs and planted a knee in between his shoulder blades while delivering \u201cmultiple blows\u201d as Muniz lay face down on a carpet.<\/p>\n<p>After it was over, the officer read the 17-year-old junior his rights and placed Muniz under arrest \u2014 for alleged misdemeanor assault on an officer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe told me that I had \u2018f\u2019d up,\u2019 \u201d Muniz said. \u201cBut I never wanted to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an initial substantive response in court, the school district claims that Muniz was \u201ccareless, reckless, and negligent,\u201d and is the one to blame for any alleged injuries he suffered during the altercation.<\/p>\n<p>Muniz\u2019s arrest in November 2012 sounds extreme, but it was hardly isolated.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, he was one of tens of thousands of juveniles arrested by school police in San Bernardino County over the last decade. The arrests were so numerous in this high-desert region known as the Inland Empire that they surpassed arrests of juveniles by municipal police in some of California\u2019s biggest cities.<\/p>\n<p>The San Bernardino City Unified School District, where Muniz was a student, has its own police department, with 28 sworn officers, eight support staff and more than 50 campus security officers trained in handcuffing and baton use.<\/p>\n<p>The department made more than 30,000 arrests of minors between 2005 and 2014. The area has a reputation for youth-gang crime, but only about 9 percent of those arrests were for alleged felonies. Instead, the vast majority of arrests were for minors violating a variety of city ordinances \u2014 such as graffiti violations or daytime curfews \u2014 and for nearly 9,900 allegations of disturbing the peace. That\u2019s a frequently-used catchall that raises questions among critics about whether most of these arrests were necessary for public safety.<\/p>\n<p>The bulk of the minors arrested or referred to school police represent some of the most academically vulnerable demographics in the state: low-income Latino and black kids, as well as kids with disabilities, in disproportionate numbers, according to California arrest statistics and national education data examined by the Center for Public Integrity.<\/p>\n<p>Based on 2011-2012 data collected from U.S. schools by the U.S. Department of Education, the latest available, Muniz\u2019s Arroyo Valley High referred students to law enforcement at a rate of 65 for every 1,000 students. That was more than 10 times the national and California state rate of 6 per 1,000.<\/p>\n<p>Those kinds of statistics raise red flags for critics who charge that school officers in some districts, especially those with substantial minority and special-needs populations, are turning what should be minor disciplinary indiscretions into criminal justice matters that put kids on a road to bigger problems \u2014 the so-called \u2018school-to-prison pipeline.\u201d In San Bernardino, cops, school officials, parents and community groups have started wrestling with how to balance demands for order \u2014 and security \u2014 without criminalizing kids.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no state rule to define the role of school police, but some California districts have already taken steps to do that by imposing formal limits on police powers in school, and detailing what situations should require police involvement and what should be handled exclusively by educators.<\/p>\n<h3>The roots of a trend<\/h3>\n<p>The ranks of school cops have grown nationally since the 1999 massacre of students and faculty at Columbine High School outside Denver. Some inner-city school districts have developed significant police agencies of their own and deployed them on campuses. The fear of terrorism and mass shootings like the rampage in San Bernardino this month all but guarantee that schools will continue to seek out ways to put police officers on campuses.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>But teens and officers don\u2019t always understand each other, and kids can pay a price when cops\u2019 own conduct gets aggressive.<\/p>\n<p>In October, students in South Carolina precipitated a federal civil-rights investigation with videos they surreptitiously shot of a school cop violently arresting a high school girl who\u2019d been using her cell phone, tipping over her desk and dragging her across the floor.<\/p>\n<p>Last April, in the San Bernardino city district, an 8th grader was allegedly ordered to remove clothing and unhook her bra and shake her breasts to see if she was hiding marijuana, according to her mother, Anita Wilson-Pringle.<\/p>\n<p>A female vice principal led the search, Wilson-Pringle said, which the district defended as a routine \u201cpat down.\u201d But Wilson-Pringle alleges that a male campus security officer who works for district police allegedly stood nearby. The district police chief denied that but was unwilling to release an internal review the chief said had been done \u2014 not even to Wilson-Pringle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wonder how many other kids have been violated,\u201d Wilson-Pringle said. State law prohibits strip searches by school employees.<\/p>\n<p>Muniz\u2019s lawsuit alleges that the San Bernardino city school district failed to properly train and supervise the officer who confronted him, Mark Clark. Clark coaches wrestling in the district and this past summer was promoted to sergeant.<\/p>\n<p>In their defense, the district and Clark allege in court documents that Muniz \u201cobstructed\u201d a police officer, and that Muniz resisted arrest, causing Clark \u201cto use only such force as was reasonably necessary \u2026 to overcome plaintiff\u2019s resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dennis Popka, lawyer for Clark and the district, declined to comment on the case while it\u2019s pending.<\/p>\n<p>Muniz, now 20, recalled his Mexican immigrant mother arriving at his school to find out how and why he\u2019d been arrested and attempt to figure out what would happen next. Clark decided to write up his citation and release the boy to his mother pending his court date rather than put him in juvenile detention.<\/p>\n<p>Muniz\u2019s mother signed papers in English she didn\u2019t fully understand and burst into tears when she was allowed to see her son, and noticed his abrasions and swollen eyes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI explained to her that I was hugging my girlfriend,\u201d Muniz said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t make sense to her. How could a situation have escalated so quickly?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Similar complaints of excessive school police intervention in other parts of the Golden State have pushed some prominent school districts to more narrowly define the role of school police on campuses and institute more oversight.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2013\/11\/27\/13813\/nations-largest-school-police-force-la-will-stop-ticketing-kids-12-and-younger\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2014\/01\/27\/14171\/san-francisco-takes-lead-defining-role-school-police-sets-limits-interrogations\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco school districts<\/a>\u00a0now have agreements forged in 2013 and 2014, respectively, defining discipline as the responsibility of educators, not police, and instituting limits on officer interrogations, arrests and tickets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTechnically, a young person may commit a crime\u201d by making threats, or getting into a physical fight, said Donna Groman, supervising judge of the delinquency division of Los Angeles County Juvenile Court. \u201cIt could be viewed as criminal conduct, but it might not be the type of conduct that really benefits a young person to be arrested and injected to the juvenile justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police arrests should be selective \u2014 reserved for the most serious incidents \u2014 because any exposure to the juvenile justice system is harmful to minors, Groman said.<\/p>\n<p>Groman arrived at her view from her experience as a judge. She also points to research finding that an arrest, a court appearance, and even brief detention, especially for minor infractions, actually increase a minor\u2019s risk of dropping out and getting into more serious crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether it stops with just an arrest or a citation,\u201d she said, \u201cthat doesn\u2019t matter. The harm has already been done and it\u2019s difficult to undo that harm. It\u2019s the beginning of a young person becoming disengaged from school, which is one thing you\u2019re trying to avoid.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<div class=\"body-copy-inner\">\n<h3>Alarming stats<\/h3>\n<p>In San Bernardino County overall, where political support for law enforcement traditionally runs strong, data show that 37 percent of minors funneled into the criminal justice system for misdemeanors were put there by just two school police departments \u2014 San Bernardino\u2019s and the Fontana Unified School District police. San Bernardino is the largest county in the nation, encompassing over 20,000 square miles and containing more than 20 distinct cities, vast swaths of unincorporated areas and 2.1 million people.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last 10 years, municipal cops in the city of San Bernardino have arrested just 6,923 minors in all, compared to the 30,000-plus arrests by school district police in the city. School cops do engage in enforcement off campus. But their primary turf is a district of about 54,000 students. City cops patrol a city of 215,000 residents.<\/p>\n<p>The state data also detail how few arrests by school police were for felonies.<\/p>\n<p>More than 27,000 of the 30,000-plus arrests of minors by San Bernardino school cops were for misdemeanor charges. About 36 percent of those were for disturbing the peace \u2014 a charge that can range from disruptive, loud behavior to physical fights.<\/p>\n<p>The data show that the department\u2019s arrests did decline, from 4,043 in 2005 to 1,078 last year.<\/p>\n<p>But last year, based on state records, San Bernardino school cops still arrested more kids than municipal cops in Sacramento, Oakland or San Francisco. They even arrested more kids than police who patrol the nation\u2019s second largest school district \u2014 Los Angeles Unified \u2014 which has a student body that\u2019s more than 10 times larger than San Bernardino\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"field-item odd\">\n<div class=\"body-copy-inner\">\n<p>\u201cThat level of arrests is an alarm,\u201d said attorney Ruth Cusick of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.publiccounsel.org\/about_us?id=0005\" target=\"_blank\">Public Counsel<\/a>, an L.A.-based pro bono law group that has collaborated with Groman on school police reforms. Those who think it\u2019s natural for police in schools to arrest more kids than regular cops, she said, are denying the harm it does to kids and to relationships with police.<\/p>\n<p>A steady stream of arrests, she said, \u201cbasically communicate[s] to students, \u2018You\u2019re not part of the community.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Changing the MO<\/h3>\n<p>San Bernardino school police Chief Joe Paulino agreed to meet at Arroyo Valley High, where Josue Muniz was arrested in 2012, to discuss the historically high volume of arrests \u2014 and reforms he agrees are needed and that he says are underway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe we\u2019re emerging from that history,\u201d Paulino said, \u201cto this new place where we no longer believe that we have to attack these things [minor infractions] to be able to keep our youth safe. And we\u2019re looking at it from not a zero tolerance to more of a tolerance to these behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The district in November started talks to identify circumstances that don\u2019t merit police intervention, Paulino said. Officers are already mindful to follow a new \u201cmatrix\u201d calling for students to get an opportunity to correct misbehavior \u2014 like a first-time fight \u2014 before they face arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Paulino also said officers are now handing out \u201cpositive tickets\u201d and prizes to students identified as having done good deeds. The practice is part of a \u201cdifferent mindset,\u201d he said, that police are developing.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s still a maxim posted on the department\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sbcusd.com\/index.aspx?NID=2400\" target=\"_blank\">website<\/a>\u00a0that says the purpose of citations \u2014 the real ones that put kids into the justice system for alleged crimes \u2014 \u201cis not to punish them but to help them change bad behavior patterns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t believe that anybody should be handcuffed because they\u2019re kissing,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, it if turns into where I request that you go to class and it becomes violent, then again, we as police officers have the right to be able to defend ourselves as well as others we believe may be injured by another\u2019s action.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Trouble in Fontana<\/h3>\n<p>Elsewhere in San Bernardino County, there are other signs of problematic school policing.<\/p>\n<p>Officers with the 40,000-student Fontana Unified School District, not far from the city of San Bernardino, arrested 10,741 juveniles over the last decade, a volume that also surpassed the 7,474 arrests of minors by Fontana city police.<\/p>\n<p>Fontana school cops run the Fontana Leadership Intervention Program, a counseling and boot-camp program for students identified at school or in court as \u201cat-risk.\u201d In 2012, an officer who coordinated the FLIP program, which took kids on trips to colleges and prisons, was fired because he had allegedly boasted of having sex with mothers of kids in the program, according to documents in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicintegrity.org\/2015\/12\/10\/18950\/one-cops-telling-tale-who-will-police-school-police\" target=\"_blank\">lawsuits filed by school staff<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the community of Chino, the case of a student with Down syndrome who was arrested at his high school exemplifies concerns at the legal-defense group Disability Rights California that special-needs kids are getting criminalized at school.<\/p>\n<p>Krystine Roldan, the guardian and sister of the student with Down syndrome, was shocked when she received word that her brother Christian had been arrested in 2013 at Ayala High School in the Chino Valley Unified School District. He was charged with resisting a peace officer. Roldan said she found her 16-year-old brother \u201ccrumpled up\u201d and hogtied, inside the back of a sheriff\u2019s vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis hands are behind his back and his feet are tied together with handcuffs and they\u2019re connected and he\u2019s sweating. He\u2019s crying,\u201d Roldan recalled. \u201cI kept saying you guys have to let him go. He has breathing issues.\u201d The deputies said Christian had made threats. Roldan pointed out that Christian can only respond to questions with one- or two-word answers.<\/p>\n<p>Ayala\u2019s school resource office \u2014 a county sheriff\u2019s deputy on contract \u2014 wrote up a report about an incident that led to Christian\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n<p>Christian left class to go to the bathroom, unsupervised, and was later found sitting in an outside area on two airsoft guns, replica firearms that shoot plastic pellets. Roldan said she doesn\u2019t know where he got the airsoft guns. The school officer doesn\u2019t speculate in her report. A teacher picked up the prohibited replica guns, and Christian walked with him to the police office.<\/p>\n<p>The officer was told he had Down syndrome. She began questioning the teen about the guns. She wrote that he appeared agitated, \u201chad his hands clenched in fists\u201d and \u201cwould not cooperate with my commands.\u201d She wanted to search him for any other weapons. He \u201cmouthed\u201d a profanity. She called for more deputies, and they \u201cescorted him to the floor to gain control of his arms and body.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Christian was restrained, searched and taken to a patrol vehicle. \u201cNo additional contraband was found on his person,\u201d the resource officer wrote. Yet he was arrested.<\/p>\n<p>After sitting in a jail cell with his sister, Christian was released to his sister that day, but out of school for months. Therapists said it was too traumatic for him to return to the school, but the district said it couldn\u2019t find another suitable placement for him, until after Roldan contacted Disability Rights for help, she said. She also had to take Christian to juvenile court two times to answer to his criminal charge before a judge was satisfied he had Downs Syndrome and dismissed the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought they were there to protect him,\u201d Roldan said of educators and police. He\u2019s still terrified of police, she said, and she\u2019s worried he won\u2019t ask for help when he needs it.<\/p>\n<p>National data show that the Chino Valley district referred students to law enforcement at rate of 21 for every 1,000 pupils during the 2011-2012 year \u2014 more than three times the national rate of 6 per 1,000. Disabled students were referred at a rate of 61 students per 1,000 kids, compared to a national rate of 14 per 1,000.<\/p>\n<p>Chino Valley schools\u2019 risk and safety manager Dan Mellon spoke for the district.<\/p>\n<p>Confidentiality laws, he said, bar him from addressing Christian\u2019s arrest. But he explained that the district contracts with local police agencies for school resource officers and those officers decide if a student should be arrested in connection with incident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not going to interfere with a sworn officer\u2019s duties,\u201d he said. And if the school didn\u2019t file a charge, administrators have no influence to get it dropped, he said.<\/p>\n<p>In the San Bernardino district, Ray Culberson, director of the Youth Services program, is trying to ensure that changes occur in both disciplinary procedures and decisions to arrest kids. He grew up in tough circumstances here and feels that kids got more breaks back then than they do now.<\/p>\n<p>Culberson is pushing for school leaders, campus by campus, to institute \u201crestorative justice\u201d circles, where students and staff air grievances about incidents and amends can be made.<\/p>\n<p>With the backing of the district attorney\u2019s office in San Bernardino County, he also recently started an informal district \u201cyouth court\u201d that he\u2019s urging both principals and police to make use of; they can send kids to this mock court rather than expelling them or sending them into real court. Juries of peers will try kids \u2014 if they admit\u00a0 to misconduct \u2014 and impose consequences such as an essay of apology, a visit to a hospital or a ride with police on patrol. If they fail, then they face the official system.<\/p>\n<p>In October, a homeless boy, 13, facing possible expulsion, was tried for bringing a lighter to school and smoking cigarettes. He was told to write an essay, among other amends.<\/p>\n<p>Culberson said he knows not everyone in the district is sold on reforms that include having to train in new ways to resolve conflict, like restorative justice, which take time that teachers often say they don\u2019t have. Adults habitually say they want to do \u201cwhat\u2019s in the best interest of kids,\u201d he said. \u201cDo we do that? We don\u2019t do that with 100 percent fidelity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At a downtown San Bernardino County office, juvenile probation officers, some of whom are also posted right on campuses, said they approve of a lot of the new ideas. They also said they think schools have already been working hard to get students plenty of support before they end up arrested.<\/p>\n<p>Kids arrested on first-time misdemeanors in this county can go to court if they want to contest a charge. But if they admit to a charge, they can get a \u201cdiversion\u201d to probation officers, a less formal procedure, and receive referrals for counseling \u2014 as well as consequences for what they did, such as mandatory community service.<\/p>\n<p>Officer Maria Barton said school cops care, and frequently consult with her before making an arrest. But there are times, she said, when cops have to \u201cdeal with the instant moment,\u201d and may have to subdue and arrest kids \u2014 and ask questions later.<\/p>\n<p>But does she think a school cop should intervene if kids are hugging, as Officer Clark allegedly did when he saw Muniz and his girlfriend? At most, that\u2019s a violation of school rules.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Barton said. \u201cAny adult who works on a school campus is entitled to anything that deals with those kids. If it\u2019s a custodian, an administrator, a teacher, a clerk, a probation officer, a police officer, when we see something inappropriate it should be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s quite a bit of inappropriate hugging on campuses, Barton said, and parents want to know that officers are keeping their kids safe.<\/p>\n<p>But did the officer go too far?<\/p>\n<p>Kimberly Epps, another probation officer, said it\u2019s difficult to judge without knowing the details. All adults on campus have to watch out for sexual harassment, she said. And she advises juveniles that when a cop gives you orders the best course of action is \u201cto cooperate in the situation and do what\u2019s being asked of you \u2014 and it doesn\u2019t go, perhaps, where it doesn\u2019t need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, Muniz said, the day he was arrested\u00a0<em>he<\/em>\u00a0was trying to stay safe. He was sitting in the vicinity of Officer Clark\u2019s office because some \u201cgangster\u201d kids had been picking on him and his mother wanted him to stay close to security while out on the quad.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d never been in trouble with police, he said, and he was startled at how angry Clark allegedly appeared to be when he came over after the second hug.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was actually a pretty big event in my life,\u201d Muniz said of the arrest. \u201cI think if it weren\u2019t for that, a lot of things would be different right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because of the seriousness of the charge, Muniz said, a vice principal he got along well with had no choice but to recommend he be expelled. But at the school-based hearing, Muniz said, \u201chis face was showing regret more than anything else.\u201d Officer Clark spoke out against Muniz at the hearing, identifying him as the aggressor, and to Muniz appeared \u201cthe only one determined to win\u201d the recommendation to expel him.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Muniz prevailed, and the school expulsion panel decided not to eject him from the district. It helped, he said, that his girlfriend had quickly used Google while he was in custody at school, and found him a lawyer. When he went to court later, he said, the fact that he was spared from expulsion seemed to help. Prosecutors decided not to pursue the case and the charge was dropped.<\/p>\n<p>By that time, though, he felt he\u2019d been stigmatized.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019d missed a lot of class time. He\u2019d been forced to transfer to a special campus for troubled kids that he didn\u2019t like. He and the girlfriend drifted apart. He ended up dropping out, his confidence shaken. He regrets it now, but at the time it seemed like nobody cared. He wants to pursue a GED diploma, but time is limited, as he needs to work and is constantly scrambling to get temporary jobs at warehouses here that are big employers.<\/p>\n<p>But Muniz also said he lost something else with his arrest. Not long before, he was at church with his mother and conversed with a police officer about his career. He began dreaming of becoming a cop. But he says now that he couldn\u2019t stand by and \u201ckeep my mouth shut\u201d if he saw a fellow cop abusing people.<\/p>\n<p>He decided to pursue his lawsuit, which is slowly moving along with pre-trial motions, because he felt that Officer Clark thought he was \u201cbasically, nobody.\u201d The legal challenge, he said, has helped him feel that\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like the only way\u201d he said, \u201cthat I feel like I have some sort of power.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The arrests by school police were so numerous in this high-desert region known as the Inland Empire that they surpassed arrests of juveniles by municipal police in some of California\u2019s biggest cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[234,125],"class_list":["post-109478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-children","tag-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}