Alexandria schools pushed out student resource officers because "racism" ... I bet they feel great now a city high school student was stabbed at Bradlee Shopping Center
https://alexandrialivingmagazine.com/news/alexandria-ends-school-resource-officer-SRO-program-ACPS/
he Alexandria City Council this week agreed to put the funding for School Resource Officers in contingent reserve, effectively ending the SRO program while city staff, the police department and school system officials figure out new ways to support youth mental health while keeping schools safe.
Council members discussed the issue for more than two hours during a city budget add/delete work session on Monday — the last budget meeting before City Council adopted the City’s budget Wednesday evening in a special session.
Alexandria City Public Schools officials, city staff and the police department will have to come up with a plan for implementing changes for how the Alexandria Police Department and ACPS work together, and present that plan to city council in the coming months.
During the meeting, Council Member Canek Aguirre said he wanted to reassure residents that “no one is being fired, everyone is going to keep their jobs, and this is not saying that police cannot interact with city youth — so this is a continued conversation of how we’re trying to move forward with reimagining public safety.”
In the past several years, a movement for police-free public schools has gained steam nationwide, including here.
Ashley R. Moore, an attorney at the Legal Aid Justice Center, spoke in support of Tenants & Workers United youth and other students who have been calling for police-free schools in Alexandria. She called for city council to divest the nearly $800,000 SRO budget and instead invest in other programs that are focused on strengthening students’ mental health.
Moore called the budget session “an opportunity to remove SROs and instead hire actual counselors and mentors who are specifically trained and equipped to focus on student well-being.” She also argued that SROs are not needed to keep students safe.
Maria Pilar, an ACPS parent of a high school student and longtime resident, said she believes SROs can be intimidating to students and the program is unnecessary. She said reappropriating the funds from the program to mental health would be a good start.
The City of Alexandria had allocated about $790,000 for the SRO program in the upcoming budget, including salaries for an SRO sergeant and several officers in the middle schools and high school.