School board votes to phase police out of La Crosse schools
La Crosse WI Dec 24 2020
The School District of La Crosse Board of Education voted to phase police out of its schools, after months of investigating the program found it negatively impacted marginalized students in the district.
Police officers will no longer be regularly in school buildings, and the district will begin reducing the amount of officers it employs through the La Crosse Police Department to its School Resource Officer program over the next two years, as well as shifting disciplinary and support practices.
The decision Monday night comes after the board commissioned a report from the district evaluating the program, that found SROs contribute to the over-criminalization of students of color and the school-to-prison pipeline.
“We definitely have to do better for our students, specifically Black and brown … racially diverse youth in this district, because we have done some damage,” said school board member Shaundel Spivey.
“And for some folks, they went through the district, they graduated, they’ve experienced the damage and they’re still living in it. And for some of the youth that are currently in it, we have to do what we can to transform our district to make it better and safe for everybody,” he said.
The new recommendations will be implemented “immediately,” superintendent Aaron Engel told the board, though a new contract and budgeting details will still need to be ironed out.
The amount of officers in La Crosse schools will be reduced from five to three beginning July 2021, and down to two in July 2022, though it is the long-term goal of the district to only need a police liaison occasionally called to the schools.
At the board’s previous meeting, Engel clarified that police will no longer be physically present in the schools by default, and would now only be called when deemed necessary.
“The program will be drastically different as of July 1,” Engel said at the Dec. 7 meeting. “The SROs under this proposal will not be in our buildings on a regular basis, they will only be responding to incidents that are necessary from a legal perspective.”
The price of the program will be reduced from $244,000 to $150,000 for the 2021-22 school year, and to $100,000 for the 2022-23 school year, under the new recommendations.
In addition to reducing police presence, the district’s recommendations approved by the board include shifting away from punitive measures when disciplining students, and will employ more funding for social workers and therapeutic and restorative practices.
This includes working with La Crosse County Human Services and other local agencies to increase the amount of proactive social service resources available to students by July 1, 2021.
Heading into Monday night’s vote, some school board members had made clear their dissatisfaction with the phased-back approach, and wanted instead to discontinue the SRO program entirely, and some said those feelings remained.
“I look at this as an emergency,” said school board member Keonte Turner.
“That phased-out approach, I understand, we can’t — it took us so long to get here, we’ve got to rile it back a little bit, slowly,” Turner said. “But I just do see that not moving in an expedited way, we are still going to harm kids. Literally when we get back to school we’re still going to be doing them a disservice.”
“I really feel like we’ve damaged so many kids, that I do want to expedite the process, but I understand that we cannot,” he said.
Still, others liked the slow transition, calling it the “right first step,” and hopeful it will ensure support for students doesn’t slip through the cracks and help garner more support from the community over time.
“That’s why this process has to take time and be deliberate,” said board member Juan Jimenez. “Though I wish I had a magic wand and could change it tomorrow, we can’t. I think we’d do more damage if we were to try to move any faster.”
Board member Dawn Comeau, who has previously referenced how the SROs helped her daughter in school, said she supported the program, but because of expected budget constraints and the district’s report finding La Crosse pays more for its police than comparable districts, she was going to vote to phase it back.
Board member Pelli Lee voted against the report, advocating for stronger reform, and both board members Jeff Meyer and Keonte Turner abstained from the vote, leaving it to pass with six votes.
One detail from the district’s oversight report often emphasized by school board members and district staff throughout this process, was the broad reform needed throughout the district, not just from removing police, but also from staff and administration’s reaction to misbehavior.
Specifically, many pointed out that SROs or police were often called by staff members to handle misbehavior, or that over-criminalization often begins with students being called to an administrator’s office, an indication that reducing punitive approaches to discipline doesn’t stop at removing police.
The most immediate action outlined by the report will be in creating a School Discipline Committee by the first of the year. The group will create an action plan for the district and board on disciplinary actions within the schools, highlighting this point of broad reform.
“This isn’t just about the SRO program, it’s about changing our practices district-wide for social justice. So it’s not about a one-time thing, this isn’t a single issue that we’re going to address and move on. This is an ongoing, continuous focus that will never leave the district’s eye,” Engel said.
“It’s not only about an oversight committee on SROs, it’s not only about an MOU, but it’s ongoing, consistent work on equity for social justice within our school district,” he said. “That is going to be the long-lasting work that makes the biggest difference for our students on an everyday basis.”
