Fresno schools will keep police on campus after debate – but some things are changing
Fresno CA June 18 2021
A nearly yearlong community debate over police in the city’s public schools ended Wednesday when the Fresno Unified school board voted to keep armed police officers on campus over the objections of community groups that pushed the district to end its relationship with law enforcement.
Before Wednesday’s vote, Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama said the department’s new deal with the schools would include more robust data reporting the outcomes of student interactions with campus police officers.
“It would be a lot easier for me as police chief to not enter into these contracts with you. That would be the easier choice,” Balderrama said. “That’s not the right choice. The right choice is to keep our schools safe.”
The FUSD school board voted 6-0 to approve the contracts with the Fresno Police Department. Veva Islas — a trustee who frequently spoke in favor of major changes to the district’s relationship with law enforcement — abstained from voting Wednesday.
Islas said that even with the contract provisions requiring better data and information gathering, she said the contract “failed” to address “some of the disparities as a result of bias in our education system.”
Islas said she “was not against the contract,” but wanted it improved.
In a message to The Bee’s Education Lab following the meeting, Islas said she also objected to what she described as some “egregious” language in the contract that she said “framed students as criminals.”
“I believe the way it was handled was not fair,” Islas told the Education Lab. “There were several amendments that would have aligned the contract in a way that (even) the Chief agreed to that did not get incorporated.”
The new contracts will include more opportunities for students, staff, teachers, and parents to have a say in how police work on school campuses, according to FUSD staff reports.
Wednesday’s vote comes after months of debate and two FUSD-sponsored community surveys gauging community support for the use of armed police on public school campuses.
Several community groups, led by Fresno Barrios Unidos, urged Fresno Unified to remove police officers from schools and reinvest the $3.2 million from the contracts into social-emotional services, student resources such as laptops, and after-school programs.
While FUSD officials didn’t rule out the possibility of moving funds around, they noted the district already earmarked more than $42 million for mental health-related services this school year.
Supporters of removing police from school sites also point to Fresno Police Department data that shows Black students were disproportionately arrested in 2019. That year, Black students made up about 7% of the FUSD student population. However, Black students accounted for about 25% of all school-related arrests.
But critics say eliminating law enforcement funding in schools would jeopardize student and teacher safety.
“The purpose of the program is to keep the students and teachers safe,” Balderrama said. “Our priority is not to perpetuate the school to prison pipeline. It’s to keep people safe.”
More than a dozen community members voiced their frustration with the board’s decision on Wednesday.
“There is a clear lack of empirical evidence that shows that (police) make schools safer,” resident Brandi Nuse-Villegas told the school board on Wednesday night.
Jennifer Rojas said the relationship with police and public schools “can no longer continue this way.”
“I urge the board to make the bold decision to permanently end contracts with police and reallocate that funding into care,” she said.
Despite Wednesday’s vote, Ashley Rojas and others have said they plan to continue the fight at the state level.
“We are disappointed FUSD has voted to continue a legacy of overinvestment in police and disinvestment in education. They have failed to listen to the needs of Black, Latinx, and other students of color who are more likely to be criminalized and disproportionately arrested on school campuses,” Rojas said in a statement the following day. “This fight isn’t over and we will keep fighting to ensure Fresno schools are caring, welcoming and safe places for all students to learn.”
Barrios Unidos also noted some positive changes were made to the contract, including the reinvestment of $350,000 in leftover police funding into student support centers.
“There was also an agreement to provide more data transparency between FPD, FUSD, and community groups so that we can monitor racial disparities in school-based arrests and referrals,” the group said in a statement.
Debate over police in Fresno schools sparked last summer as FUSD was preparing to renew a series of law enforcement contracts around the same time the nation was rocked by the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, who was killed by a police officer while handcuffed.
Schools around the country have ended police contracts and removed officers. Other districts have “defunded” police contracts while changing how schools work with law enforcement.
The discussion in Fresno reached a crossroads in early October when the FUSD school board postponed a vote on nearly $1 million in police funding and instructed district staffers to begin a formal discussion with students and community members.
“I think that it’s important to remember that we did have a win last summer when the board postponed the hearing on the middle school (police) contract. By way of postponement, they lost their hold on those law enforcement officers. Middle schools do not have police anymore because of our work, and the school district is now funding 15 safety personnel, security guards, non-uniform, non-police to support the middle school campuses,” Fresno Barrios Unidos director Ashley Rojas previously told the Education Lab.
Rojas said the district should continue replacing armed police officers with security guards.
But the hard-won surveys revealed that most FUSD students and parents want to keep armed police officers on Fresno Unified campuses.
Most Fresno Unified parents polled — nearly 75% — opposed removing police officers from city schools. Just 8.9% of parents said they were in favor of eliminating campus police.
Campus safety and security were significant factors for students supporting police in schools, the FUSD report says.
Fresno’s police chief echoed those concerns again Wednesday.
“God forbid if a tragedy happens, I seriously doubt any of those yelling, screaming are going to be standing at a press conference with me,” Balderrama said.
But Fresno Barrios Unidos officials said they rejected the results of the district-wide study and said the results were “pro-police.”
“It is very clear the funding and resources that went into these reports … could have been used for resources for students who have been impacted by policing that has caused harm,” Marisa Moraza, the youth advocacy leadership manager for the non-profit, previously told The Bee’s Education Lab. “We reject both of these reports.”
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Read more from The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.
FRESNO BEE
