Chicago Police Department school resource officers will not be present at the city’s newly reopened high schools for the rest of the school year, Chicago Public Schools announced as it aims to provide a “more holistic approach to school safety.”
While schools will continue to have the option to participate in the School Resource Officer program during the 2021-22 school year, the decision to halt the program this spring follows months of gathering feedback from the community, Jadine Chou, CPS chief of safety and security, said in a letter to district families.
“With less than two months remaining in the school year and reduced daily in-person attendance, we feel that the presence of full-time SROs is not necessary at this time,” Chou said.
“Please be assured that the safety of your children remains our top priority, and we are confident that your school has the necessary staff in place to safely support the limited number of students who have returned to learn in person,” Chou said, adding: “Every CPS school deserves a comprehensive safety plan that is unique to the needs of their community, and our job is to put a plan in place that will make every student feel safe, valued, and supported.”
CPS is still working with the city’s police department “to ensure our school buildings receive attention from police officers in the neighborhood, particularly during high traffic times like dismissal,” Chou added.
With high schools opening just a week ago for the first time since March 2020, no school police officers have been working in CPS this school year, with the exception of 22 sergeants assigned to the district, according to a CPS spokesperson.
That means the district, which previously said it wouldn’t have to pay for school-based officers during remote learning, won’t incur any costs related to the officers. While the district expects to pay CPD for the sergeants, CPS and CPD will need determine the amount based on the level of support the sergeants provide, according to the spokesperson.
The police murder of George Floyd last year in Minneapolis amplified calls to remove CPD officers from CPS schools. The Chicago Board of Education also cut its spending on school policing last year, in part because of the pandemic, and more than a dozen Local School Councils voted out their schools’ resource officers. CPS leaders also said they were looking at plans that could involve phasing out the officers altogether.
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Yep, no police officers in the Chicago Schools, because this will promote “safety” for the criminals that shoot up the schools and kill teachers and students. Let’s not offend any criminals who want to kill students and teachers! The world is upside down, because of liberalism / communism.
AND when the inevitable happens, and schools DO get shot up.. DO NOT BLAME GUNS!
It is best to let the kids have their knife fights and clean up the mess afterwards.
Just make the Chicago schools a free fire zone inside fencing…… that seems to be what the libtards want…….maybe the parents will rise up and vote to save their children and be good examples……doubt it
WHY waste tax payer money cleaning the bodies up. JUST LET THEM rot where they fall.
Blacks and white libs prefer a higher body count than admitting too many black kids are a disciplinary and criminal problem starting already in school. Are there no sensible black parents raising kids they DON’T want in discipline-free chaotic schools? If they exist, why are they voting for Democrat cronies of teacher unions condemning black kids to the crappiest schools? Why aren’t more of them agitating for CHARTER SCHOOLS with zero tolerance for violent students?
The line a “more holistic approach to school safety,” really means more azholistic. That is like grading essays holistically with very light reading and much reduced feedback for student improvement. I have seen that policy in use.
I thought they meant the kids would be walking around (or not walking) with some extra “holes” in their bodies!
With the # of gang shootings in chi-raq, give them time.. I am sure some of those kids will soon be sporting extra holes in their heads and chests.
Best way to describe what is being done to schools is to watch the movie “Blackboard Jungle” except no teacher will be able to take control once discipline breaks up in current schools.
What discipline?? MOST schools lack any discipline, and have been that way for a good 30 years now.
No police in Chicago schools?? What a stupid idea!! I can just see the future headlines. “Chicago School Shootings Out Of Control’,
“….our job is to put a plan in place that will make every student feel safe, valued, and supported.”
Valued and supported? A few well placed posters about Kumbaya should do the trick.
…we feel that the presence of full-time SROs is not necessary at this time….”
Valued and supported just left the building.
What’s the betting, once the first shooting occurs, they will TRY TO BLAME IT On the officers LEAVING.