School violence prompts calls for resource officers to be returned to Madison schools
MADISON WI Nov 14 2021 After several fights at Madison East High School, many parents and students now question the ability of the district to provide a safe learning environment and now want school resource officers back in school.
“I thought that at some point in time, this might be an inevitability when the district decided to move away from having school resource officers,” said Mike Koval, Madison’s former Police Chief.
Koval is talking about the school district’s decision to remove resource officers from its four high schools last year.
“I think they made a strategically poor long-term answer based on sort of a political knee-jerk reaction,” Koval said.
Some parents and students want resource officers back here inside schools and Madison’s former police chief says resource officers would be a complementary piece of the learning environment.
“Resources officers, they are part of a collaboration team, social workers, school nurses, administration, the officers are very good at de-escalation, proactive engagement, learning and listening to what the dynamics are within the school.”
Michael Johnson, President & CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County, agrees.
His organization has worked with East High students for years and helped over 6,000 students graduate and pursue college.
“There needs to be a balanced approach; a counselor, school resource officers, parent resource officers school, and I would say, including school police officers,” Johnson said.
However, when district leaders didn’t seem convinced when they spoke at a November 8th press conference, after the fight.
Carlton Jenkins, Superintendent of Madison Metropolitan School District, said, “There’s nothing against the officers per se, but officers don’t make our learning environment necessarily better.”
Savion Castro, an MMSD school board member said, “We have to dig deeper, and it’s more than just an officer in a school.”
More than a third of the high school’s students didn’t show up for class the day after the brawl; some students called for more security.
“When over 600 kids don’t show up to school, that tells you that there’s a climate concern. If kids don’t feel safe in school, then kids won’t learn in school.”
“The Madison school district is going to have to acknowledge that a lot of parents don’t feel that these schools are safe and the school resource officers would go a long way to mitigate those perceptions,” said Koval.
On Monday, the Madison Metropolitan School District will meet to address school safety.
