Phoenix school students want police out of their schools
Phoenix AZ June 8 2020
Following a Minneapolis school district’s decision to end its contract with the police department for on-campus officers, students are pressuring Phoenix Union High School District’s governing board to do the same.
Abia Khan, who graduated from North High School this year, started a petition on change.org earlier this week asking the school district to end its relationship with Phoenix police.
“Students of color, black students, are just more likely to get in trouble with the police on campus than white students,” she said.
The petition has more than 1,700 signatures.
The calls come as the country confronts its relationship with law enforcement. Protesters have flooded city streets every night for a week calling for systemic change to the U.S. criminal justice system following police brutality aimed at black Americans.
The protests came after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Minneapolis father. Floyd died in police custody after an officer used his knee to pin him down by his neck.
On Wednesday, protesters urged the Phoenix City Council to decrease funding to the Phoenix Police Department and increase funding for community programs and a new police oversight department.
Now, a group of Phoenix protesters are looking to school districts.
Minneapolis Public Schools ended its contract with the police department for on-campus police officers on June 2, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Students rallying against police presence on campuses have said the officers foster fear, particularly for black students, in an environment that’s supposed to be safe for children.
Local students with March for Our Lives AZ have pushed for the past two years to focus funding on more counselors in schools instead of police officers.
Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature have increased funding, but allowed schools to decide whether they wanted to use the funds for counselors or officers. Schools requested more money for counselors than officers.
In October, an officer used pepper spray at a Phoenix middle school. Puente Human Rights Movement organizers said the officer sprayed two dozen students with no warning and, in a separate incident, handcuffed an 11-year-old.
On May 31, Stephanie Parra, a board member with the Phoenix Union High School District, tweeted that the board would postpone a vote to renew its contract with Phoenix police for on-campus police officers.
“We do not know what the future holds for SROs in Phoenix Union, but I guarantee it will continue to be grounded in protecting and serving all of our youth and families,” she wrote.
The Phoenix Union board is meeting on Thursday night and is expected to discuss the program, but a vote is not on that agenda.
A spokesman for the district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Puente Arizona is also staging a protest on Friday over on-campus police officers. The group will begin the protest at Steele Indian School Park at 1:30 p.m. and will walk to the district office on Central Avenue.
A 2018 analysis by The Arizona Republic found that about 165 full-time officers are stationed at campuses across metro Phoenix. Due to the increased state funding for the program, there are likely more than that now.
Called “School resource officers,” the officers are usually charged with carrying out a few different roles within a school. The National Association of School Resource Officers recommends that on-campus officers arm themselves on campus, just like an on-duty officer would.
While they still act as law enforcement, they also sometimes intervene in mentoring students. Advocates say the goal of many SRO programs is to foster a better relationship between young people and police.
Some school leaders have pushed for on-campus officers, like leaders with the Wilson Elementary School District, which is in an area of Phoenix with a high homicide rate.
But student activists have long said the relationship between students and on-campus officers is fraught.
“Having SROs on campus is just perpetuating fear and it makes students feel unsafe,” Khan said.
A 2009 study published by the Journal of Criminal Justice stated that “schools with an SRO had nearly five times the rate of arrests for disorderly conduct as schools without an SRO.”
Since the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, student activists with March For Our Lives have asked for fewer officers on campus and more mental health resources, like counselors and social workers.
North High School, where Khan attended, has just one social worker, according to the school’s website. She said sometimes she would see a line of students waiting to see a social worker or counselor, in tears because they needed immediate help.
“We need more mental health supports,” she said.
In the 2019-2020 school year, Phoenix Union’s board approved a contract for nine on-campus police officers, four of whom were funded through the state’s school safety grant program. The district has gone from 12 officers to nine in recent years, according to board documents, as a part of an ongoing school safety plan.
The state-funded grant program at first funded grants for schools to hire only police officers, but was expanded in recent years to include counselors and social workers.
The $32 million program funds positions for three years. In the last round of applications, nearly 400 Arizona public schools received funding for 148 counselors, 118 social workers and 116 school police officers.
But the demand was much higher: More than 400 schools that applied for the funding did not receive any money for additional counselors, social workers or police officers.
Schools asked first for 267 police officers, 279 social workers and 337 school counselors, totaling $73.8 million requested.
Out of the three positions, police officers cost schools the most: A counselor costs schools an average of $70,000 annually, a social worker costs an average of $67,000 annually and an on-campus police officer costs an average of $117,000 annually, according to Arizona Department of Education data. Those figures include benefits.
On Thursday, Khan and Puente organizers want the board to strike down the district’s agreement with Phoenix police.
Khan said many students in the district are undocumented, and live in fear that they’ll be arrested and turned over to immigration.
“They don’t deserve to feel that way in our school,” she said.
ArizonaRepublic.com
