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Police killing of George Floyd amplifies calls to remove school resource officers from Chicago public schools: ‘We don’t need more cops.’

Outrage over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis is fueling a local push to get police officers out of Chicago Public Schools buildings.

Since Floyd’s death, the Minneapolis Board of Education has ended its contract with the local police department. Pressure is mounting for school districts nationwide to follow suit, a movement that was already underway in Chicago.

Among the demands heard at protests this week, particularly among CPS students, is for the district to nullify the $33 million contract it entered into with the Chicago Police Department in August for school resource officers in CPS buildings.

The only board member to vote against it was Elizabeth Todd-Breland, who cited research showing that having police in schools often contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects students of color.

High school senior Diego Garcia, who lives in Brighton Park, cited the same concern when he spoke out against school resource officers.

“The city of Chicago should be investing that money … in our communities. They should be investing that money in after-school programs and mental health resources,” said Garcia, 18. “We don’t need more cops. At the end of the day we are just being set up for the school-to-prison pipeline.”

Friday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot threw cold water on the idea of defunding police in schools.

“Yeah, we’re not gonna do that,” she said during a news conference in response to a question.

Lightfoot said she understands the concern about police in schools, but thinks the city has struck the right balance.

“Unfortunately, we need security in our schools,” Lightfoot said. “We spent a lot of time a year ago working through challenges that we’d seen with police officers in schools. I think we’ve got a very good track record this school year making sure that CPS is in control, that officers are there for a limited purpose, but CPS personnel will deal with front-facing issues regarding students.”

Yet outside the closed Zenos Colman Elementary School on the South Side Thursday evening, a few hundred people gathered to call for the removal of Chicago police from public schools.

Protesters held signs with messages like “Counselors Not Cops” and “No more CPD in CPS.” Organizers walked around with hand sanitizer and water bottles. The crowd cheered “Books, not cops” as students shared stories about the possibilities of what the cost of the police contract could instead fund.

Michelle Yisrael, a nearby resident, said she came to the gathering because most of the men in her life, including her adult sons, have had problems with police. “And also I am an educator, and I never thought it was OK for the Chicago Police Department to be in the high schools. That’s never been OK with me.

The Police Department is currently reviewing its policies for school resource officers, who are assigned to 77% of CPS-run high schools, according to the district. The contract already includes several reforms to the way police are trained and involved with schools, a shift from reactive enforcement to proactive intervention.

Also new this school year, the district empowered elected local school councils to choose whether they want school resource officers and to have principals help choose them.

District-hired security officers are supposed to be the first point of contact in most cases, and police are only supposed to get involved when a crime has been committed or if there’s a serious, imminent safety threat — not for ordinary disciplinary matters.

Lane Tech computer science teacher Charity Freeman recently asked her students if the presence of police in their school made them feel safe or anxious. Though the majority of students said the police made them feel anxious, the ratio was much higher among students of color.

During one class discussion, an African American student asked: “What are they keeping us safe from? Are they protecting us from ourselves?”

“From an African American male who lives in an over-policed community, that makes a whole bunch of sense,” Freeman said.

But Drake Booker, who was president of Bogan High School’s LSC for four years until last spring, said school-based officers can build rapport with students and are equipped to handle situations like fights in ways teachers can’t. If a student indicated feeling less safe with an officer in a school, he would ask why and take their comment into consideration. Maybe a particular officer isn’t a good fit for the school, but police presence can safeguard students, Booker said.

“I believe the officers in each facility should reflect the communities they serve,” he said. “Not from a standpoint that all white officers or non-black or brown officers are racist, but there is a degree to not being able to relate. … They know how to interact with that population of students. They’re not afraid.”

Regardless, he said the most important thing is for the officer to show compassion and empathy to their students’ situations rather than just being an enforcer.

Booker said he’s still in touch with one of the CPD officers who was assigned to Simeon High School when he was a student there. “He was very instrumental in my becoming a man, just the relationship that he formed with students.”.”

A social studies teacher at Kenwood Academy, Dave Stieber, said the discussion around police in schools should focus on research, not anecdotes.

Growing up, Stieber, who is white, always thought police were there to keep everyone safe. But his first week teaching at a South Side school nearly 13 years ago, a student started opening up to him about his experience with police.

“It opened my eyes a little bit,” Stieber said. “Learning history, teaching history, having students share their own experiences and stories, made me think about policing in general and why we have police in our schools.”

In a recent editorial in the Chicago Reporter, Stieber wrote that it feels disingenuous to him when educators get upset when police kill a black person, but are OK with police in schools.

“We need to internalize the research that police in schools harm kids instead of internalizing racism,” he wrote.

The district’s chief of safety and security, Jadine Chou, said feedback from students, families and others has been valuable.

“We remain committed to continued engagement and dialogue about the role of School Resource Officers,” Chou said in a statement. “Last summer, the district empowered Local School Councils to determine if SROs would be assigned to their schools because we firmly believe that elected local leaders are best suited to make these decisions for their own communities.”

When the matter came before the Benito Juarez Community Academy council in August, members present unanimously approved keeping officers in the Pilsen high school. The vote was also unanimous at Morgan Park High School, in the far southern neighborhood it’s named after.

But at some schools, the votes were mixed.

At Back of the Yards College Prep, teacher and LSC member Hallie Trauger abstained during her council’s vote. As a representative, she tries to reflect the views of other teachers, and though many were in favor, some — herself included — had serious concerns.

“I think more systemically, what our schools need are counselors, mental health supports, resources that can help young people deal with conflict and trauma in a healthy way,” Trauger said.

Two white officers are assigned to the majority-Latino school, a fact that she said has come up before.

Officers assigned to CPS schools lacked proper training and faced little accountability, according to a 2017 report by the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. Between 2012 and 2016, CPS paid more than $2 million in misconduct settlements for police assigned to schools, according to the report.

Concerns about police in schools were also raised in the 2017 U.S. Department of Justice report on the Chicago Police Department, and addressed in the ensuing consent decree.

District officials said they’re continuing to solicit feedback, including a survey this spring sent to students, staff, administrators and LSC members. CPD is also starting a working group to review this feedback on its policy and make a recommendation for changes.

The controversy isn’t likely to die down anytime soon. The Chicago Teachers Union planned a caravan protest Saturday “to demand that CPS change its distorted priorities and fund student needs instead of cops in our schools.”

The Chicago Tribune’s Jessica Villagomez contributed.

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