
Beyond Bad Apples
Teacher Education for Police-Free Schools
Hannah Carson Baggett(Author)
Harvard Educational Publishing Group
Published on 3. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
979-8-89557-039-5 (ISBN)
Description
A measured appraisal of police presence in public schools and advice for educators who teach in these systems
In Beyond Bad Apples, Hannah Carson Baggett addresses the widespread presence of police in K-12 schools in the United States and provides essential guidance for educators who teach in policed environments. Baggett's work helps fill in a glaring gap in teacher education, offering preservice and practicing teachers and administrators a set of skills, strategies, and practices that can help them navigate police-staffed schools to advocate for their students.
Applying a critical eye to what is now a billion-dollar industry, Baggett gives a historical overview of policing in schools, deftly underscoring the systemic issues and policies that have invited police and school resource officers into public schools, all in the name of student safety. Calling on student and teacher voices, she demonstrates how in-school policing is harmful, including racial injustice, youth criminalization, and police violence as well as a culture of surveillance and deficit thinking. In a carceral society, she argues, police involvement shapes the school-prison nexus.
An advocate for abolition, Baggett calls for police-free schools. This urgently necessary work invites readers to reimagine school safety. In support of this mindset shift, each chapter features prompts to encourage educators to reflect on their own experiences, reevaluate disciplinary policies and procedure, and explore other forms of accountability and safety without policing.
In Beyond Bad Apples, Hannah Carson Baggett addresses the widespread presence of police in K-12 schools in the United States and provides essential guidance for educators who teach in policed environments. Baggett's work helps fill in a glaring gap in teacher education, offering preservice and practicing teachers and administrators a set of skills, strategies, and practices that can help them navigate police-staffed schools to advocate for their students.
Applying a critical eye to what is now a billion-dollar industry, Baggett gives a historical overview of policing in schools, deftly underscoring the systemic issues and policies that have invited police and school resource officers into public schools, all in the name of student safety. Calling on student and teacher voices, she demonstrates how in-school policing is harmful, including racial injustice, youth criminalization, and police violence as well as a culture of surveillance and deficit thinking. In a carceral society, she argues, police involvement shapes the school-prison nexus.
An advocate for abolition, Baggett calls for police-free schools. This urgently necessary work invites readers to reimagine school safety. In support of this mindset shift, each chapter features prompts to encourage educators to reflect on their own experiences, reevaluate disciplinary policies and procedure, and explore other forms of accountability and safety without policing.
Reviews / Votes
"Bold, urgent, and brilliantly practical,?Beyond Bad Apples?is the must-read manifesto for creating police-free schools, but more critically for building safer and more beautiful lives. A roadmap for justice-rooted education, it's exactly the guide we need to create safe, affirming communities beyond carceral thinking. Deep gratitude to?Hannah Carson Baggett for this necessary abolitionist invitation to praxis." - Erica R. MeinersMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
6
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-89557-039-5 (9798895570395)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
01/2026
Harvard Education Press
€27.49
Available for download
Persons
Hannah Carson Baggett is associate professor of educational research at Auburn University. She is the coauthor of The Grammar of School Discipline: Removal, Resistance, and Reform in Alabama Schools and her scholarship has appeared in journals like the American Educational Research Journal, Urban Education, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Teaching and Teacher Education.