Defunding / abolishing school police (consolidated thread)

Tacoma teachers union wants uniformed police officers removed from schools starting in fall

The Tacoma Education Association passed a resolution Tuesday night asking Tacoma Public Schools’ Board of Directors to remove school resource officers (SROs) starting this fall. Tacoma Public Schools currently contracts with the Tacoma Police Department for full-time, on-duty officers, at all five comprehensive high schools. The teachers union brought forward the resolution at a meeting Tuesday after some members shared stories of students not being comfortable around the officers. They also had a conversation about the death of Manuel Ellis in Tacoma, whodied while being arrested by police on March 3. “That led us to the discussion that having police ...

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https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article243427501.html

 

Tacoma teachers union wants uniformed police officers removed from schools starting in fall

The Tacoma Education Association passed a resolution Tuesday night asking Tacoma Public Schools’ Board of Directors to remove school resource officers (SROs) starting this fall. Tacoma Public Schools currently contracts with the Tacoma Police Department for full-time, on-duty officers, at all five comprehensive high schools. The teachers union brought forward the resolution at a meeting Tuesday after some members shared stories of students not being comfortable around the officers. They also had a conversation about the death of Manuel Ellis in Tacoma, who died while being arrested by police on March 3. “That led us to the discussion that having ...

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https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/ta...ols-starting-fall/DHGZT2UKFVH6ZMEXLP32X6U26Q/

 

Oakland district moves closer to eliminating school police

Oakland's school superintendent is backing a proposal to eliminate the school police force, which critics have long argued contributes to the criminalization of young black people.

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https://www.omaha.com/news/national/oakland-district-moves-closer-to-eliminating-school-police/article_a391ab4e-90d2-5833-83cf-6208ab1b3c54.html

 

Defund police in schools? How the movement got momentum after George Floyd's death

After the Columbine shooting, police in schools seemed a fixture. Now, activists have momentum to defund them. Some say that's the wrong approach.

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https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/06/11/defund-police-school-george-floyd-death-protests/5338940002/

 

Juvenile defenders call for removal of school resource officers from Prince George’s County public schools

The Maryland Office of the Public Defender called for the Prince George’s County Board of Education to remove school resource officers from public schools on Thursday — ahead of the board’s resolution to consider ending the contract. According to a press release, the agency said the presence of school resource officers contributes to the negative impact on black students. “As we see every day in our work, the presence of SROs directly impact the school to prison pipeline, easily funneling black students into the criminal justice system,” the agency stated. “(T)he reality we hear from our clients is that the ...

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https://www.baltimoresun.com/educat...0200611-7tfippui3vc2ldaktb577aw47a-story.html

 

Movement for police-free schools reaches Philadelphia

In the wake of George Floyd’s killing and subsequent law enforcement clashes with protesters, the move for “police-free schools” is gaining support around the country. And now the Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) is circulating a petition on Change.org asking for the School District to remove all police and school resource officers from schools and replace them with community members trained in de-escalation and other skills that support restorative justice. PSU is also calling for an end to the District’s legal agreement with the Philadelphia Police Department that details under what circumstances city police can be called into schools. The petition ...

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https://whyy.org/articles/movement-for-police-free-schools-reaches-philadelphia/

 

Protests Are Galvanizing Demands to Take Cops Out of Schools

When Minneapolis students go back to school in the fall, they’ll find the hallways free of police. The local school board announced on June 2 that it would cancel its contract with the Minneapolis Police Department. In doing so, officials satisfied a long-standing demand of the local teachers union and other local activists. “Kind of overnight, people woke up,” said Greta Callahan, the president-elect of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, Local 59. “We don’t need to punish anyone for not coming along in the past, because we’re here right now,” she added. The path to police-free schools is an arduous ...

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https://nymag.com/intelligencer/202...e-cops-out-of-school-is-picking-up-steam.html

 

Defund police in schools? How the movement got momentum after George Floyd's death

Three summers ago, about 50 students and activists gathered outside the Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters to demand the school board end a contract ...

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https://www.pjstar.com/zz/news/20200612/defund-police-in-schools-how-movement-got-momentum-after-george-floyds-death

 

Defund police in schools? How the movement got momentum after George Floyd's death

Three summers ago, about 50 students and activists gathered outside the Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters to demand the school board end a contract ...

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https://www.amestrib.com/zz/news/20200612/defund-police-in-schools-how-movement-got-momentum-after-george-floyds-death

 

Defund police in schools? How the movement got momentum after George Floyd's death

Three summers ago, about 50 students and activists gathered outside the Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters to demand the school board end a contract ...

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https://www.dispatch.com/zz/news/20200612/defund-police-in-schools-how-movement-got-momentum-after-george-floyds-death

 

RPS to discuss ending relationship with RPD for school resource officers at Monday board meeting

Two members of the Richmond School Board are driving a discussion about the school system’s relationship with the Richmond Police Department, with one calling for the eventual removal of school resource officers, a step taken by the Charlottesville School Board on Thursday and by the Minneapolis School Board earlier this month. The full Richmond School Board will discuss the divisive issue during Monday’s meeting. The conversation started in Richmond during a School Board meeting on June 1, the same night the city’s police department deployed tear gas on nonviolent protesters 23 minutes before the 8 p.m. curfew set in place ...

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https://www.richmond.com/news/local...cle_331fbf03-78da-59d6-accb-62124ba83791.html

 

RPS to discuss relationship with RPD for school resource officers at Monday board meeting

Two members of the Richmond School Board are driving a discussion about the school system’s relationship with the Richmond Police Department, with one calling for the eventual removal of school resource officers, a step taken by the Charlottesville School Board on Thursday and by the Minneapolis School Board earlier this month. The full Richmond School Board will discuss the divisive issue during Monday’s meeting. The conversation started in Richmond during a School Board meeting on June 1, the same night the city’s police department deployed tear gas on nonviolent protesters 23 minutes before the 8 p.m. curfew set in place ...

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https://www.richmond.com/news/local...cle_331fbf03-78da-59d6-accb-62124ba83791.html

 

Defund police in schools? How the movement got momentum after George Floyd's death

Three summers ago, about 50 students and activists gathered outside the Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters to demand the school board end a contract ...

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https://www.bedfordnow.com/zz/news/20200612/defund-police-in-schools-how-movement-got-momentum-after-george-floyds-death

 

Defund police in schools? How the movement got momentum after George Floyd's death

When she became principal of a troubled K-5 elementary school two decades ago, the school resource officer arrested children for fighting, disrespecting teachers and walking out of class. “Not all the ...

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https://www.wellingtondailynews.com/zz/news/20200612/defund-police-in-schools-how-movement-got-momentum-after-george-floyds-death

 

Defund police in schools? How the movement got momentum after George Floyd's death

Three summers ago, about 50 students and activists gathered outside the Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters to demand the school board end a contract ...

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https://www.waynepost.com/zz/news/20200612/defund-police-in-schools-how-movement-got-momentum-after-george-floyds-death

 

Defund police in schools? How the movement got momentum after George Floyd's death

Three summers ago, about 50 students and activists gathered outside the Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters to demand the school board end a contract ...

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https://www.bcdemocratonline.com/zz/news/20200612/defund-police-in-schools-how-movement-got-momentum-after-george-floyds-death

 

West Contra Costa school district ends police services contracts for 2020-21

The West Contra Costa Unified School District board on Wednesday unanimously approved a $377 million budget for the coming academic year that includes ending contract services with local police agencies. About $1.5 million previously budgeted for 2020-21 police services was redirected to support African-American student achievement, the district said. An earlier resolution allocated $7 million specifically for services for African-American students. “This resolution affirms our utter condemnation of the continued violence against African-American people in this country at the hands of law enforcement,” Board President Stephanie Hernandez-Jarvis said in a statement. “These votes do more than register our protest symbolically; ...

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https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06...t-ends-police-services-contracts-for-2020-21/

 

Red Clay board members want to end school police contracts, replace SROs with counselors

In the weeks since George Floyd died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, cities across the country have been scrutinizing their police policies and procedures. New York City's police commissioner announced Monday that he was disbanding the department's plainclothes teams, whose officers have been at the center of some of the city’s highest-profile police shootings. In Minneapolis, both the school district and the parks and recreation department have cut ties with city police, and in a handful of other cities, law enforcement agencies have banned the use of chokeholds and neck restraints. The push for meaningful police reform ...

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https://www.delawareonline.com/stor...racts-replace-officers-counselors/3197848001/

 

It’s Time To Take Cops Out of Schools

In September of 2019, six-year-old Kaia Rolle was arrested at Elementary Charter School in Orlando, Florida for having a tantrum. She was charged with battery and taken to a youth detention center where she was fingerprinted and her mugshot was taken. Later that day, the same cop who had arrested Rolle arrested an 8-year-old boy. The incident was newsworthy, but not unique. In 2017, a Franklin, Indiana police officer arrested a nine-year-old boy with autism for fighting with another student. The child was charged with “battery and criminal mischief.” Some tens of thousands of cops and security guards roam the ...

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/parenting/it-s-time-to-take-cops-out-of-schools/ar-BB14ZCsI

 

Spokane Public Schools vows to eliminate student arrests and enact systemic change with new racial equity resolution

When the Spokane Public Schools board of directors tasked district staff with drafting a racial equity resolution earlier this month, Nicole Jenkins-Rosenkrantz, who helped author it, wasn't sure how far to go. "I was like, 'How bold do you want to be?' Should I use 'district' language, or 'Nicole' language?" Jenkins-Rosenkrantz recalls asking district higher-ups. As a former diversion supervisor for Spokane County Juvenile Court, she'd seen what happens when students of color are arrested in school and sent through the judicial system. She knew local schools had far to go on racial equity. "I was told, 'Be bold,'" she ...

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https://www.inlander.com/spokane/sp...racial-equity-resolution/Content?oid=19786143