Consensus: Reform, Don’t Abolish SROs

A committee formed in the wake of this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests seems to have reached a consensus: Police officers should stay in public schools, with changes to how they operate.

That consensus emerged at the most recent meeting of the Board of Education’s School Security Design Committee.

The committee plans to present a formal recommendation to the New Haven Public Schools Board of Education this month. (No report has yet been prepared or submitted.)

“Perhaps we have not asked the right question. It doesn’t appear that SROs [school resource officers] are a problem. We need something else. We’re not addressing some student need,” said school social worker Maciel Filpo.

The Reform Approach

The committee met virtually on the Tuesday before Christmas to discuss the research it has gathered so far.

The members — high school principals, social workers, police representatives, academics, students and youth activists — have shared their experiences with SROs and looked at arrest data on school property.

They have heard from student activists and parents who spoke publicly about African-American and Latino students being disproportionately disciplined and arrested. Speakers echoed the original call from youth protesters, who responded to the killing of George Floyd by a police officer by asking New Haven to disinvest in police and invest in school mental health instead.

At the Dec. 22 meeting, the committee looked at the results of a survey of roughly 1,600 students, parents and school employees. The majority of respondents both thought SROs were important and should remain in schools. A minority had experienced a situation where an SRO was needed.

“The data is consistent. The feeling is that people want to keep them,” said District School Climate Coordinator Carolyn Ross-Lee, who handled the surveys.

After looking at the responses, most committee members present said they would not recommend booting SROs from schools. The members who have pushed hardest for a lower police presence in schools, New Haven Citywide Youth Coalition Executive Director Addys Castillo and Board of Education Student Representative Lihame Arouna, were not at the meeting on Tuesday.

Instead, committee members brainstormed a variety of reforms to the SRO program. The school district would need to write a new memorandum of understanding with the New Haven Police Department, because the old one has become defunct with recent changes to state law. The new memorandum could clearly outline what SRO roles should be and mandate the multi-day crisis intervention training that most officers currently get.

Principals could join the committee that selects school resource officers and determine whether they had the right friendly approach for their school. And schools and the police department could try to set up a more accurate log of moments when SROs intervened and the outcomes of that interaction, plus regular debriefing to check whether the program is keeping schools safe, reducing arrests and providing mentorship to students.

One of the central arguments of activists focused on disinvesting in police is that that money could go towards youth programs and other school resources like guidance counselors and social workers.

Committee members pointed out that police officers and social workers are paid from different budgets. Pulling police officers out of schools and reducing the police budget just means each police officer has less time to handle a case and comes in after the student fight has escalated, rather than preventing it, according to Assistant Police Chief Karl Jacobson.

“If we get rid of SROs, does that mean I get more security guards? We have six security guards and 85 exterior doors,” said Wilbur Cross High School Principal Edith Johnson.

“Whatever recommendation we give, I’m not all of a sudden going to get five extra social workers or $100,000 to put programming in place. That’s what we need to bring to the alders.”

Johnson said that the question of how to prevent student conflict is different than whether or not to keep SROs. She said that she has seen programs successfully do that, but it takes money.

While Wilbur Cross had the state Commissioner’s Network grant, intended to help low-performing schools turn around, the high school had five mental health clinicians and two counselors. It particularly helped the school with students who do not have clear behavioral patterns or a history of trauma but are upset in class.

“Even if it was five to ten minutes, that prevented a fight and prevented that student getting completely kicked out of class. When we had that program, all our numbers in terms of [problem] behaviors went down,” Johnson said.

“For some students, SROs are not an issue. Other students — no matter how small a group — don’t feel safe. How do we affirm and honor that while respecting the larger number of students who don’t see it as an issue?” New Haven Policy Assistant Omena McCoy summarized.

Abolition Approach

Citywide Youth Coalition Executive Director Addys Castillo said that the committee has always felt tilted towards police officers and adults who call in SROs, and not the youths asking for change.

“I said from very first meeting that this meeting feels like a farce, and I’ve seen nothing to indicate otherwise,” Castillo said.

Castillo said that the committee should have made their decision based on the overwhelming response at the public forum. Turning to a survey was just a way of looking for the outcome they wanted, and the survey questions biased the results, she said.

Committee members like Castillo had an opportunity to shape the survey questions. However, Castillo said that she has felt exhausted as one of the only ones advocating against SROs and that she wasn’t being listened to, so she has stopped participating as much. She does plan to attend the next meeting.

“This is an issue that young people marched for in June. Over 5,000 people showed up with them — and the demands were put out beforehand,” Castillo said. ​“I’m waiting for the adults to prioritize the needs of children and not the desires of adults.”

Police and school social workers do come from the same budget — the city budget and city taxes, she said. She said that the committee could have focused more on alternatives to school resource officers that have worked elsewhere.

Citywide Youth Coalition is focusing now on changes at the state and federal level to get police out of schools. They have allied with similar groups in Waterbury, New London, and Bridgeport to push for state changes, and they are working with Senator Chris Murphy to push the issue on the federal level.

“The fight doesn’t end for us here,” Castillo said.