(Photo by Bob Hennelly) (Photo by Bob Hennelly)

NEW YORK, NY November 10, 2009 —More than a hundred students, parents and activists rallied on the steps of City Hall to support a pending Student Safety Act. Boosters of the proposed legislation say it will bring increased transparency to the way the NYPD and the Department of Education police the city's public schools. The law would require the quarterly reporting on incidents involving the arrest, expulsion or suspension of students. The data would include the race, sex and disability status of the students.

The legislation is backed by a coalition of two dozen community and legal advocacy groups led by the New York Civil Liberties Union. The NYCLU says there are at least 1,200 complaints filed annually over alleged misconduct by the police in the city's public schools.

The Bloomberg Administration has consistently maintained that the NYPD's approach to school safety has produced record crime reductions in the schools.