By: Andrea Shipton
In Shreveport, Louisiana, the implementation of a volunteer patrol group has quickly transformed the environment of a once-violent public school. In September of this year, an uptick in school fights triggered the arrest of twenty-three Southwood High School students over the course of three days. Concerned by this violence, a group of fathers decided to do something about it, establishing a program called “Dads on Duty.” This volunteer group allows about forty fathers to take shifts patrolling the school, greeting students and helping maintain a positive learning environment. Students report feeling much safer and happier now, with zero violent incidents reported in the month since the program’s implementation. This program’s success in the short-term speaks to the power of individuals to rapidly transform the character of a place through community-based solutions.
Dads on Duty has re-founded Southwood High School by establishing a new sense of place on campus— one that feels a lot more like Iris Marion Young’s conception of home. The fathers add powerful senses of kinship through their “preservation” of the school as a home-like environment for its students. Just as homemaking is typically gendered, men are the ones leading this preservation, presumably since young boys are more often involved in school fights than girls. Fathers may be able to better connect with these boys to enhance feelings of safety, security, and belonging while deterring violent tendencies. While no one has altered the school physically, the addition of fathers has re-founded the place through a transformation of a violent environment to a more peaceful and welcoming one.
Dads on Duty also speaks to the importance of community-based solutions to solve local issues, especially in public spaces. Rather than increasing police presence in schools, which would likely increase fear and apprehension among students, the program conversely soothes these anxieties. Though these fathers have no formal training as school counsellors or patrol officers, they do have experience being dads, which allows for loving yet stern bonds between fathers and students. Since volunteers run the program, it is also completely free for the school and the community. Considering that property taxes fund this school and that 53% of students are economically disadvantaged, Dads on Duty does not put further stress on a school budget that is likely already strained.
Members’ identity as not just fathers but Black fathers also enhances their ability to connect to students. Black students comprise about 74% of the student body, which is likely due to some combination of zoning laws, redlining, racial covenants, and other forms of discrimination that have formed a racialized geography— and thus racialized school districts— throughout the United States (Ford 234). The presence of positive role models that the majority of students feel they can identify with certainly aids the program’s effectiveness. In addition, these men also push back against negative stereotypes of Black men that the American public is constantly overwhelmed with. In that sense, Dads on Duty acts as a counter-hegemonic force that seeks to inspire and empower young Black students.
Every young American has the right to an education in a safe learning environment— one free of environmental harms and other threats to their physical and mental wellbeing. This community-based solution to in-school violence suggests that simple, costless programs that draw on the existing skills and expertise of citizens can not only obtain overwhelming support but effectively solve community issues. Furthermore, Dads on Duty emphasizes the significant, positive impact that a group of people— specifically Black fathers— can have on a place. Without physically altering Southwood High School, or increasing police presence, Dads on Duty has re-founded the place through the transformation of a violent environment to a welcoming, safe, secure, and pro-learning one. The dads are hopeful their success will continue in the long-term— not only in Southwood High, but in public high schools across the nation,
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References:
Richard Thompson Ford, “The Color of Territory: How Law and Borders Keep America Segregated,” in Clarissa Rile Hayward and Todd Swanstrom, eds., Justice and the American Metropolis, pp.223-236
Iris Marion Young, “House and Home: Feminist Variations on a Theme,” in Young, Intersecting Voices: Dilemmas of Gender, Political Philosophy, and Policy, pp. 134-164
https://www.insider.com/louisiana-dads-started-patrol-group-high-school-prevent-fights-2021-10
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dads-louisiana-high-school-student-violence/
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/southwood-high-school-profile
