PASCO Coalition

04/25/2024

The United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has reached a settlement agreement with 's Pasco County Schools District – providing much needed oversight and accountability for families and students with disabilities who faced a disproportionate risk of being targeted by the district's controversial predictive policing program.

📲 Read the PASCO Coalition's statement and the agreement details: https://bit.ly/3v3aBCT

05/23/2022

5 things you need to know right now. Join us to end the Sheriff’s targeted harassment of students, their friends, and families, and to end the violation of families’ civil rights and privacy rights.

04/12/2022

"Tests by the National Institute for Standards and Technology and researchers like Joy Buolamwini demonstrate that software from many companies selling facial recognition has a history of misidentifying young girls with dark skin...Studies show facial recognition systems are also less accurate at recognizing other groups, including people of Asian descent or those who do not conform to gender norms."

Robert Williams, Michael Oliver, and Nijeer Parks were misidentified by facial recognition software. The impact cast a long shadow.

03/23/2022

“Ultimately, Heydari says, police shouldn’t be charged with deciding on their own what technology to use. Regulators and communities should, he said.”

Emerging technologies are helping police officers do more with less, but concerns about privacy and discrimination are complicating matters.

03/18/2022

The ACLU is honing in on how the lack of school mental health staff is harming students across the nation, including Pasco County. Read more at:
https://www.aclu.org/issues/juvenile-justice/school-prison-pipeline/cops-and-no-counselors

Spanish Translation:
Con policías, pero sin consejeros - como la falta de personal de salud mental en las escuelas está perjudicando a los estudiantes
1,7 millones de estudiantes están en escuelas con policías, pero sin consejeros
Los estándares profesionales recomiendan al menos 1 consejero y 1 trabajador social por cada 250 alumnos y por lo menos 1 enfermera y 1 psicólogo por cada 750 alumnos
El 90 por ciento de los estudiantes están en escuelas públicas que no cumplen estas normas.
Hasta el 80% de los menores que necesitan servicios de salud mental no los reciben en sus comunidades porque los servicios existentes son inadecuados.
No hay datos que indiquen que la presencia de la policía en las escuelas mejore la seguridad de los estudiantes, ni sus resultados académicos o su salud mental.
Consecuencias de la presencia de la policía y la ausencia de consejeros - Lea para saber más acerca de la ACLU

03/10/2022

We stand with the Advancement Project when they call for in schools.

03/07/2022

Another Pasco County resident is suing Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco after she said deputies enforcing the agency’s controversial Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) program violated her constitutional rights.

She's not the first Pasco resident to sue over the controversial practice. She's not the first Pasco resident to sue over the controversial practice.

03/04/2022

As black history month comes to a close, the Pasco Coalition stays recognizing and celebrating year round. The fight for social justice continues during this time of the and wide spread injustice.

03/03/2022

Despite what’s happening in County with the sheriff’s predictive policing program, more money is being awarded to law enforcement.

Through the new U.S. Department of Justice initiative, state governments will have access to up-to-date criminal…

02/28/2022

“Dirty data makes for bad predictions.”

Critics say it merely techwashes injustice

02/24/2022

We're highlighting 5 things you need to know about what's going on with the !

02/22/2022

On May 4, 2021 we put forth seven demands that the District must take to protect student privacy and to meaningfully advance racial equity for Pasco County students and families:

1. Immediately end all data-sharing agreements with the Pasco Sheriff's Office.

2. Permanently erase any database or list currently or previously used to identify or label students at-risk by the Pasco Sheriff's Office.

3. Do not renew any School Resource Officer ("SRO") funding agreement with the Pasco Sheriff's Office that requires the disclosure of legally protected student records or permits "intelligence led" police surveillance of Pasco County schoolchildren.

4. Affirmatively notify every parent/guardian, in writing, if their student(s) has ever been identified as "at-risk", "off-track", "on- track", "critical" or any other similar designation by the District or the Pasco Sheriff's Office. The District must be transparent and provide families with all necessary information to determine and/or challenge their students' "risk scores".

5. Enact policy reforms that explicitly ban predictive policing technologies and unlawful data sharing practices with law enforcement.

6. Cease all retaliation against students, parent/guardians and District employees.

7. Ensure that Pasco County School District administrators and educators undergo regular student privacy training.