Thomas Breen Photo
Board of Education student member Lihame Arouna at Friday’s Black Lives Matter protest.
The Board of Education aims to have an answer by August on whether school resource officers will continue to walk the hallways of New Haven schools.
The question is in response to recent youth-led protests against police brutality. The Citywide Youth Coalition has settled on eight demands, one of which is to remove school resource officers from New Haven Public Schools and invest instead in school counselors.
Board student representative and protest leader Lihame Arouna spearheaded the discussion at Monday evening’s board meeting.
“We are too used to policing black and brown children. I think that norm is very dangerous,” Arouna said. “When we talk about SROs being in schools that need more help, what other ways can we get that help to them?”
Arouna said that the school system has nine SROs. They are members of the New Haven Police Department and serve in the schools without contributions from the district’s budget. They are distinct from school security officers, Arouna explained.
Board President Yesenia Rivera followed up on Arouna’s proposal later in the meeting and asked the other board members what their next step should be.
“This has been on my mind,” Rivera said.
She said that the SRO question was not on the agenda, so members of the community did not have a chance to weigh in yet. She asked board members whether they would rather form a task force or send it straight to the board’s policy-focused Governance Committee.
Chris Volpe Photo @NEWHAVEN365
Friday’s protest.
Board member Darnell Goldson argued that the board should vote to remove the officers immediately from the schools, since Arouna brought the proposal to the board and 5,000 protesters supported the demand on Friday.
Other board members wanted more New Haven-specific information and input.
Edward Joyner said that he remembers when the SRO program began, in response to the murder of a teacher. He argued that the majority of parents would want SROs in their schools and said that many of the officers are athletic coaches with close ties to the community.
“I would like to add, if there’s sufficient evidence in this community that the SROs are detrimental to student safety, I would be the first person to say to remove them,” Joyner said.
Newly appointed superintendent Iline Tracey agreed that the officers she has worked with are important precisely because of their positive relationships with students. She said that they have helped her family engagement office find the students that teachers have not heard back from during the pandemic.
Tracey said that the SROs are stationed only at the district’s largest schools, where the normal security officers are unable to handle big fights on their own. She emphasized that their role is not to punish students.
“I don’t see them as there to arrest students. I do on the other hand see, from a race consciousness perspective, what they may mean and have meant to students,” Tracey said.
Zoom
Board member Tamiko Jackson-McArthur speaks at Monday’s Zoom meeting.
Board members Tamiko Jackson-McArthur and Matthew Wilcox indicated that they are both in favor of a committee process and would like to move away from the SRO program.
“I’m against resources officers in the schools. While they may have good relationships, they bring about trauma for students,” Jackson-McArthur said. “We have to be very careful in understanding what these children have seen.”
Eventually, all the board members settled on forming a work group of community stakeholders that Arouna would help choose. The Board’s Governance Committee, led by Jackson-McArthur, would be responsible for making sure the work group produced an answer by August.
“Ms. Arouna, you blow me away with your reasoning and your thoughts. I almost burst into tears,” Jackson-McArthur said.
Tracey pointed out that Arouna, a product of New Haven Public Schools, was not afraid to help lead a protest of thousands.
“I am so proud of you. You are not only our future leader — you are our present leader,” Tracey said.
The major question from the general public should be, Has there ever been a problem with the police officers assigned to work in any of our schools?
The second question must be, Do the parents want them to remain?
The third, Do most students want to remove the police presence? Do students feel uncomfortable with police in their schools?
Reforming policing in America is an issue worthy of consideration, but haste always makes waste. There are obvious problems that need to be addressed with haste. Some matters call for thoughtful deliberation.
In the midst of national protests against police abuses of authority, police violence, & police murders, & the calls for reforming policing, there has also been controversial calls for defunding the police & even abolishing the police. Prior to this period of protests, concerns about a police presence in our schools has not been an issue of controversy or debate. In fact, there has been talk of the need for more security in our schools.
Let's not let emotions & passions displace common sense. Racism is wrong and must be uprooted from our police forces, but the police perform valuable services to our communities. We must not let bad police ever convince us that all police officers are evil, or the the police are not a necessity in civil society.
We have had a national problem with school shootings. We all want a safe and orderly environment in our schools. This talk of removing police from our schools does not have public support.
If the BOE decided to remove the police from the schools, and some unfortunate incident of violence took place in one of our schools, there would be an immediate PUBLIC DEMAND to restore a police presence!
It is better to be safe with a police presence in our schools, than sorry without it.
Many police in our schools develop good relationships with students, provide guidance and direction to kids, know the kids and are able to diffuse situations like no one else can. Some of them have even saved lives!