DeKalb Times

Bill Nicklas, the manager of DeKalb, said the city and DeKalb County School District are collaborating to get law enforcement officers at schools.

“It’s a collaborative thing that is discussed first with the staff at the district and school,” Nicklas said. “There's usually an understanding, a shared understanding that there will be some citation issued and, obviously, the parents or guardians get involved in that as well.”

The ACLU noted there are some risks tied to having police in schools. For example, an 11th grader in Philadelphia argued with a school police officer over using the restroom without a hall pass. Then, the officer “punched” the student in the face and threw them to the ground in a chokehold while the student had asthma.

The city council voted to have five Security Resource Officers in the schools for the 2022-2023 school year. The officers would be distributed among all the schools - two in the high school, one in each of the middle schools, and the remaining would be responsible for the six elementary schools. The resolution did pass.

Cassandra Kaczocha, a mother and writer, noted on Chicago Unheard students marched in protest against having police in their Chicago schools.

“Officers who work in the mounted division get training for working with horses. Officers who work with children get nothing,” Kaczocha wrote. “There is also no special test or measures used to decide that an officer has the skills or demeanor for being in an environment with children.”

The school district would pay 75% of the officer’s salaries as that is the amount of time of the year that they would be working in the schools after considering holiday and summer breaks. The district would also reimburse the city for partial use of some police cars in the agreement.

UCONN reported while schools allocate funding for officers, there hasn’t been the same effort for getting school counselors.

While it is within the authority of the SROs to deal with both criminal and violation offenses, it is not the intent of the officers or the district to have them pull students out of classes to issue tickets and citations. The district will send out a revised student handbook and code of conduct that includes infractions and their consequences in light of the new officers.