What local school councils need to make best decision about keeping cops in schools
In theory, it makes sense to give local school councils the final say on whether to keep police in their schools.
LSC members, elected from among parents, community members and teachers, know their schools best. And while this editorial board believes police ought not be stationed inside schools, we realize that many an LSC has, so far, taken the opposite view.
We respect that decision.
But sadly, too many LSCs are in no shape to make an informed decision on the matter. Too often, the votes now taking place at high schools across the city are mired in dysfunction and frustration because so many of the 72 high schools have no LSC at all or too few members to reach a quorum.
CPS is not to blame for the apathy about serving on LSCs. But it’s a scenario ripe for bad decisionmaking, and it calls for stronger leadership.
Which includes, to our way of thinking, giving schools a real choice if they are undecided or leery about keeping full-time police. There’s ample research proving that schools and police are a bad mix, putting Black students at greater risk of arrest without making schools safer overall.
That’s why schools need more than a nebulous promise from the administration of CPS to “work with” them on an “alternative.”
Some schools will no doubt keep their police, no matter what. Maybe their officers work well with young people and serve as positive adult role models. So be it.
But we’ve heard, over and over, from parents and teachers alike that what schools really need is exactly that: adult role models and authority figures.
“People are clear that right now they don’t have an option,” one parent who has been attending LSC meetings around the city recently told us. “That has come up. If we vote to get rid of [police], what do we do? We’ll take all hands on deck, but the hands on deck we have right now are police.”
We’re not sure how the finances would work, should the school board eventually vote to cancel its $33 million contract with the Chicago Police Department.
But even part of that money would go a long way toward paying for more counselors, security guards or other adult authority figures who can build relationships with students and keep them in line without labeling their misbehavior as criminal.
Schools deserve at least that choice.