Our current issue of TCLA calls attention to two competing ideas about “school safety.” Our theme, “Safe AND Democratic Schools,” offers a peaceful and hopeful alternative to the common idea of “Safe OR Democratic Schools.” The “Safe OR democratic” folks argue that we should give up some of our rights to participate and organize in order to feel more secure. This issue of TCLA argues that “security” becomes the exclusive concern when we start believing that the only way to eliminate “danger” is to concentrate “authority” in the hands of those we pay to “protect” us.

In our 9-11 world we have become used to arguments that employ the language of security, danger, authority, and paying for protection. The alternative is schools that are “Safe AND Democratic.” Then security is the result of organizing, collective participation, involvement, and shared leadership.

This issue of TCLA features interviews, articles, and reports that address the relationship between safety and democracy. 99th Street Elementary Teachers, Kim Min and Laurence Tan, write about their students’ peaceful boycott of the sale of toy guns to address the proliferation of real guns in their South Los Angeles neighborhood. Sean Leys describes how the explosion of a World War II artillery shell at Jordan High School has ignited an "explosion of student organizing" for student safety and youth power.

Students and parents want safe and democratic schools—and they recognize that we cannot have one without the other. That is why South Gate Middle School parents worry that school officials have created a hostile and undemocratic environment by prohibiting students from sharing their concerns about war and peace. "How do we develop leaders," a parent asks, "if students cannot express their opinion?"