Pomona Unified to consider bringing police back to schools
Pomona CA October 25 2021
Three months after Pomona Unified School District leaders voted to remove dedicated police officers from campuses, the school board is now reconsidering the move on the heels of a shooting near a high school.
Superintendent Richard Martinez has announced the board will have a special meeting to vote on whether the district should enter into a service agreement with the Pomona Police Department for two community school resource officers. That vote will take place Nov. 1 or Nov. 3, Martinez said Wednesday, Oct. 20.
The school board is reconsidering whether it should bring police officers back to campuses after an Oct. 15 shooting near Pomona High School. A 12-year-old boy was injured by broken glass or debris after several shots were fired from a car, according to Pomona police.
Martinez didn’t point directly to that incident as the reason to reinstate campus safety resource officers, as they are known, but he said the district had been keeping the door open for police on campus, should the need arise.
“I believe we are at a juncture here in PUSD to enter into a working agreement with the Pomona Police Department for the overall well being of our students and staff.” Martinez said Wednesday at a school board meeting.
Martinez pledged that the positions would not be funded by the Local Control and Accountability Plan, or LCAP, which prioritizes funding for services that support students. In 2019, the district planned to use those funds for school police and other security programs but later reallocated $5.4 million to provide funding for counselors and programs in science, math, technology, art and music.
School police officers were not included in the 2021-22 budget, the district said, as the result of parents and students calling for more on-campus resources such as mental health services. The disruption of the ongoing pandemic and calls for social justice presented an opportunity for the district, which serves Pomona and Diamond Bar, to make “impactful changes,” Martinez previously said.
Many parents, community members and some students who spoke at the meeting Wednesday — which continued until nearly Thursday morning — favored bringing school police back to PUSD campuses, citing safety concerns.
Crystal Andrews, a teacher at Pomona High School and member of Associated Pomona Teachers, recalled the traumatic events that unfolded after the Oct. 15 shooting, which she said sent students and staff running for their lives. She applauded colleagues, school security and community members for their help that day but asked for more support from the district.
“Will you assure us that our APT members are taken care of in the same way that Pomona High School took care of our school community that day?” Andrews asked the board.
APT President Manuela Echeverria said that while she understands not having police on elementary school campuses, middle and high schools should be an exception. She noted there was a heavy police presence at Pomona High on Monday morning, Oct. 18, something that was well received among parents and students.
During the meeting, students from The Justice Team, a student advocacy organization at Village Academy High School, raised some concerns about the return of police on campuses. They recommended improving training for officers in areas such as implicit bias and de-escalation, and suggested a selection process that allows students, parents and staff members to approve campus safety resource officers.
Junior Janet Marino said safety could be promoted with self-defense classes taught in school, “in a positive way and not for physical aggression.” Senior Evelyn Barajas called for the district to provide resources for students to discuss mental health on campuses instead of waiting for a referral to a mental health agency.
Meanwhile, Gente Organizada, a Pomona social action group that applauded the district’s decision to remove officers from schools following its four-year campaign to end the program, sent a letter Monday, Oct. 18, asking the school board to stay the current course. The letter, signed by the ACLU and the nonprofit law firm Public Advocates and Youth Law Center, outlined how Pomona police have negatively affected PUSD students.
“The challenges students are currently facing abound: many are struggling with re-acclimating to in-person instruction, with personal and family health issues, with addressing the trauma of the past two years, and with losing family members and friends,” the letter reads in part. “Pomona students need warm and supportive spaces more than ever, and they should be greeted at school with robust mental health and academic supports rather than police officers.”
Jayla Sheffield, a student representative at Wednesday’s meeting, cautioned the board against making a reactionary move to the Oct. 15 shooting that fails to address the root of the problem, such as a lack of investment in student services.
“It’s very clear right now that students more than ever need healing and more mental health services, not policing and not over-surveilling students,” Sheffield said. “The board should definitely take more time and consideration into this as a real matter because deciding on it just based off of Friday’s events should not dictate the future of our community.”
