The End of Police in Schools
As demonstrations over the death of George Floyd spread across the country, school districts are reevaluating the use of resource officers.
DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS became the third school district in two weeks to sever a million-dollar contract with its city's police department to remove officers from schools – a move that at least a dozen other school districts are considering following the death of George Floyd in police custody and the subsequent chorus of ongoing country-wide protests over police violence against black people.
"This topic is not new or knee jerk," said Jennifer Bacon, vice president of Denver's Board of Education. "People have been calling for it to end for a long time."
"It took eight minutes and 46 seconds to say we are going to do these things," she said referencing the amount of time the police officer knelt on Floyd's neck according to videos.
In Denver, as in most other school districts that partner with police departments to provide security, black and Hispanic students face disproportionately high rates of discipline and referrals to the juvenile justice system.
During the 2018-19 school year, for example, 29% of referrals to law enforcement were for black students, despite black students accounting for only 13% of the district's student population, according to the Advancement Project. And from 2014 through 2019, there were 4,540 police tickets and arrests of students within Denver schools – 87% of them students of color.
Denver is just the latest in a series of districts to make this decision.
Minneapolis Public Schools ended its decades-long partnership with the city's police department last week – a unanimous vote from the school board following the death of Floyd CONTINUE READING: Schools Districts End Contracts With Police Amid Ongoing Protests | The Report | US News
