In The News: Defunded, Removed, and Put in Check: School Police a Year After George Floyd

Since George Floyd’s death in May 2020, some school districts have eliminated or reduced their school police presence – a change that would affect about 1.65 million students across the country. As some schools evaluate and take action on school resource officers, teacher diversity, anti-racist training, and other related issues, the pandemic school year provides little data on the actual effectiveness and safety of the current approaches. Many districts are still wrestling with what exactly to replace school resource officer programs with that both keep classrooms safe and don’t result in profiling aimed at Black students. Read on for more about how schools are attempting to strike a balance between racial justice and the reality of safety threats.

“Just over a year ago, the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer was captured in a nine-and-a-half minute video that has irrevocably changed the contours of K-12 schooling. Education Week reporters reached out to dozens of districts that overhauled their school safety programs in the wake of last summer’s protests for racial justice. Even in those districts that pulled police officers from schools, complex questions about safety remain.”

Read this full article in EdWeek: ‘Defunded, Removed, and Put in Check: School Police a Year After George Floyd’