Wake County votes to keep police in schools. Activists had wanted officers removed.
The Wake County school system is keeping police officers in schools but is promising to take a look at how officers interact with students in the aftermath of national protests over police brutality toward minorities.
The Wake County school board renewed Tuesday an agreement with the county’s law enforcement agencies about the role of school resource officers. The board also approved contracts with Raleigh, Cary, Apex and Garner to continue having officers assigned to schools in those communities.
Instead of a typical three-year renewal, the memorandum of understanding approved Tuesday is only for one year. School leaders say that extensive community feedback will be collected before a new agreement is approved next year.
“There is great concern around this SRO MOU (school resource officer memorandum of understanding) and our continued partnership with law enforcement agencies throughout the county,” said school board chairman Keith Sutton. “We too, I think, as a district are concerned with that given the recent events that have taken place in our country.”
The call to remove police from schools has intensified nationally following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died while being held down by a white police officer in Minneapolis. Several school systems across the nation have recently voted to end their school resource officer programs.
Board accused of not living up to promises
School board member Monika Johnson-Hostler was the lone no vote on Tuesday. She said the board has failed to live up to its promises over the years to look at the role of school policing and to find alternatives.
“This vote is really about the disappointment that we’ve talked a good talk and still are walking away not having invested, knowing quite frankly that we promised people we would do this,” Johnson-Hostler said.
Every Wake County high school and nearly every middle school has a school resource officer on campus. The school district pays local law enforcement agencies to provide the officers, who undergo training before being assigned to work in schools.
The contracts with police in Apex, Cary, Garner and Raleigh for school resource combined total more than $750,000. Staff approves smaller contracts with other agencies for officers.
The number of school resource officers has increased sharply over the past 20 years following mass school shootings, including at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in 2018.
Debate about role of police in schools
Supporters say the officers help make schools safer and build connections between students and law enforcement.
“As a parent of 2 WCPSS high school students, PLEASE maintain the presence of SROs on the campuses of our schools,” Gayla Putnam said in comments submitted to the school board. “It is critical for the safety of our children as well as for the safety of the faculty and staff.”
But critics say that school resource officers disproportionately target minority students and criminalize the school environment.
“I am concerned that school resource officers are funneling Black and Brown students toward the school-to-prison pipeline,” Neville Eclov, the parent of a child who will enter kindergarten in Wake, said in comments to the board. “Wake County Public Schools should follow Minneapolis in a Board of Education vote to terminate all law enforcement contracts.”
Wake has had highly publicized incidents, such as in January 2017 when a video went viral on social media showing a Rolesville High School student being slammed to the ground by an officer.
Most recently, Raleigh police are investigating allegations made in a Twitter post that the officer assigned to Enloe High School compared people who kneel during the national anthem to criminals.
Community feedback sought on school policing
Local activists have tried for years to eliminate or reduce the number of officers in Wake schools. An online petition calling for the removal of officers from Wake schools has received more than 3,700 signatures since it was created two weeks ago.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the Education Justice Alliance sent a joint letter last week asking the school board to end the SRO program.
School leaders said the board needed to act Tuesday because the memorandum of understanding was set to expire June 30. School board member Chris Heagarty said he felt the approval process was being rushed.
“I understand the need for an SRO role in the schools,” Heagarty said. “ I think there are very reasonable public questions about how we operate.”
But school leaders said the public will be involved as they seek community and police feedback by Nov. 1 on the current agreement. By March 1, feedback will be sought on the revised agreement with the school board voting by May 1.
“We expect a robust community-based discussion,” said school board member Christine Kushner. “There are folks demanding it, and we owe it to them.”
This story was originally published June 17, 2020 at 11:21 AM.
