From [HERE] NEW YORK — Leaders in the Latino community and victims of racial violence testified today in New York about police brutality and the “school-to-prison pipeline,” one day after the Census Bureau reported that one in six people in the United States is Hispanic.

Access to education has systemic barriers that are disproportionate to Latino and other minority communities, Larry Schwartzel, a staff attorney at the Racial Justice Program of the American Civil Liberties Union, told the American Bar Association Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities. “It is impossible to not observe the very obvious disparity,” he said.

“The force which polices the public school system is the fifth largest in the country, surpassing the forces of major cities of Boston and Washington, D.C.,” he said. “The increased presence of the NYPD and use of aggressive street policing tactics within schools has created the feeling of treating students as criminals for typical student behavior.” Security for the New York public schools is a division of the New York Police Department.

Schwartzel said that practices such as using force on students for issues like writing their names on their desks, or patrolling school halls as if they were city streets, are among the barriers to education. He also cited problems such as over-categorizing students as learning disabled, and zero-tolerance policies within schools.