Last month, I spent the day at a high school on the West side of Chicago. I was there with my friend the talented Debbie Southorn. Our goal was to document how this particular urban school manages student safety. Debbie is a filmmaker and an organizer. We are both keenly interested in how to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. After the Newtown massacre, both of us were concerned that the response might be to add more cops to our schools.

Immediately after President Obama unveiled his gun reform proposals in January, I got to work organizing against more police in schools. With several other people, I launched the Yes To Counselors, No To Cops Campaign. In just a few short weeks, our loose coalition of individuals and groups hosted two community meetings, created a website, launched a petition, letter and postcard campaign, organized a call-in day to our Senators, and more. As part of this work, we also wanted to demonstrate that there are urban schools serving black and brown youth that do not rely on harsh disciplinary policies or law enforcement to achieve their goal of ensuring a safe educational environment. I enlisted Debbie to help and the result is the short film that you can watch below. I have also written a few words about the school as well.

Please share the video with others who might be interested in learning about how we can keep students safe without relying on law enforcement and harsh disciplinary policies. In Debbie’s words, NLCP “cultivate[s] school safety and peace culture in really transformative ways! (Spoiler alert – without cops or metal detectors, with counselors, nonviolence training and political education).”

I am indebted to Debbie for all of her hard work on this film. She filmed and edited it in record time. I think that the film is wonderful and I am grateful beyond all words. Thank you Debbie. Thanks also to our friends at Free Spirit Media for sharing some of their archival footage with us. Finally, a huge debt of gratitude to the administration, staff, teachers, and most importantly students at NLCP for welcoming us (on short notice) and letting us share your story.

In a community often besieged by violence and intractable poverty exists a school with no metal detectors or armed security guards where students are greeted by name by their teachers and staff. North Lawndale College Prep (NLCP) is a charter school which understands that the latin root of the word “discipline” means to “teach.” It’s a school where only one student has been expelled in 15 years.

NLCP, as a reflective learning community, recognizes that caring and relationship-building are the two critical components of a positive school culture. The school fosters an environment where asking questions is important and modeled by staff, teachers, and students.

John Horan, who spent years as the Dean of Students at NLCP, now serves as its President. He talks about “the peace dividend” that is gained by building a school culture focused on trust and talking rather than technology and threats. Horan wonders aloud why it’s OK for affluent and mostly white students in Winnetka to be educated in schools that do not rely on pat downs, police officers and metal detectors while his students (who are black, brown, & poor) are expected to graduate from prison prep. His answer to his own rhetorical question is simple: All students deserve to learn in a respectful community. NLCP has tried to build just such a community by investing in counselors as opposed to security guards.

“Every time you see a security guard or police officer in a school,” says Horan. “Just think that’s 45 or $50,000 right there. Put 10 guards in a school and that’s half a million dollars. Just think of what else you could do for half a million dollars around youth development.”

Walking the halls at NLCP, one is greeted by messages of peace and by college banners. When you talk to students, they seem happy to be at school. Tori Cathey is a senior who has spent all 4 years at NLCP. He has been accepted to several colleges and is still trying to decide where he will attend. Tori is a “Peace Warrior.” He talks about the personal transformation that he has undergone throughout his years at NLCP: “I started out at the bottom and I am leaving on top.” He smiles ruefully. He’s been a member of the Peace Warriors for a few years now. He is a leader who has stepped up to mediate conflicts when they arise at school. He has participated in a summer training institute about the Kingian nonviolence philosophy offered by Dr. Bernard Lafayette. He now trains his peers.

At NLCP, everyone in the school community marks time based on how many days of peace have passed. It is a way to keep track of any physical altercations between students. If a student hits another student but the other one walks away, then days of peace remain unbroken. As teacher Sonia Mathew said: “It takes courage not to respond to provocation. That too is part of keeping the peace.”

When we visited, the school was at over 100 days of peace and counting. Every month, student conflict mediators (Peace Warriors) plan incentive events for uninterrupted days of peace.

“Keeping the peace” is very important at NLCP. Deija, a senior, explains that teachers and staff have faith in students and that this makes students want to live up to the faith that has been bestowed. What comes across clearly in the students’ words is that they consider the school community to be a family. Families disagree and in the good ones, you are not cast out if you make a mistake.

Restorative justice plays an important role in NLCP’s culture. Peace circles are regular occurrences. The entire school has bought into the concept. You can hear it when students talk about getting second chances and teachers discuss the importance of keeping students in school rather than pushing them out through suspensions.

Mardia Cooper, a senior at NLCP, tells us that an emphasis on counselors is one of the main things that sets the school apart. She explains that counselors have played an important role in her academic and person success. Her counselor noticed that her grades were slipping. It turned out that Mardia was having serious conflicts with her mother. The school counselor helped them to find family counseling resources that they could afford. It made all of the difference for Mardia. She’s college-bound and grateful that she found the support to stay on track.

Mardia shares a poem that she recently performed at Louder than a Bomb, a citywide youth poetry festival and contest. She explains that the poem addresses the impacts of structural and institutional racism. This is an issue that she says she is “passionate about.” We can see that she has not only learned a lot in her years at NLCP but even more importantly she has learned how to learn. This is invaluable indeed it is the mark of a great education, an education without metal detectors and armed guards.

You can listen to Mardia’s wonderful poem below: