CPS High Schools Vote To Keep All, Some Or None Of Their Police Officers

By Madeleine Parrish, the South Side Weekly:

In June and July, Chicago high schools are voting on their respective Whole School Safety Plans. These plans include decisions on their school’s SRO status—whether to keep all, some, or none of their cops.

Chicago police officers are assigned to individual Chicago Public Schools (CPS) through the School Resource Officer (SRO) program. Last summer, the appointed school board voted against terminating their $33 million contract with police, and later, high school Local School Councils (LSCs) chose between keeping or getting rid of their SRO program. Fifty-five schools decided to maintain their SROs and seventeen schools voted to remove them.

The Weekly kept track of how South Side schools voted.

Currently, schools are also voting on a variety of options offered in CPS’s Whole School Comprehensive Safety Plan. Five lead non-profit organizations developed “a menu of trauma-informed approaches … as alternatives to the School Resource Officer program.” Their recommendations include holistic restorative justice practices, increased focus on social emotional learning and mental health by providing access to professionals, and training for designated intervention employees such as safe passage workers, counselors, social workers, behavioral health teams, administrators, and security officers.

As students slowly returned to classrooms this spring after a year at home following COVID-19 guidelines, CPS decided SROs were “not necessary at this time” due to reduced in-person attendance. But they’re expected to return to their posts in the fall.

In the upcoming month, high school LSCs will continue holding virtual meetings to discuss and vote on their SRO status, as well as other alternatives; and the Weekly will be keeping track.

Check back for updates:

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*Schools located on the South Side are denoted with an asterisk.

Can't see the table below? Click here to view the original story.
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Madeleine Parrish is the Weekly’s education editor. She last wrote about the state of mental health in Chicago.

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