Community voices strong emotions on school police
A powerful rainstorm did not stop about 100 people from rallying in Oakland Monday afternoon for the removal of police officers from the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
Comments during the school board’s public hearing that followed the demonstration, however, showed the issue of police in the city’s schools has opened a floodgate of emotions from the community as well as past and present district employees.
Nearly 250 people signed up to speak at the Pittsburgh Public Schools board’s public hearing Monday evening, dozens of whom were both for and against removing police from district buildings. So many people signed up, in fact, that the board was forced to split the testimony over two days.
The public hearing, which began at 6 p.m., lasted until 10 p.m. — hours longer than those meetings normally take — and was scheduled to resume at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Calls have been growing in recent weeks for the Pittsburgh Public Schools to join several other large districts around the country in cutting ties with police after a Minneapolis officer killed George Floyd in May.
Although public hearings and other school board meetings are usually held at the building on Bellefield Avenue, they have all been done virtually since the COVID-19 shutdown in March. Community members who want to comment are asked to submit
written testimony, which is then read aloud by district administrators during the livestream of the hearing.
Participation was robust Monday, partially because a coalition of more than 10 social justice and youth advocacy groups urged community members to tell board members police should be removed from schools.
That coalition — which includes One PA, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Youth Advocacy Clinic at Duquesne University and other organizations — hosted a rally that preceded the hearing outside the Pittsburgh Public Schools’ main office building on Bellefield Avenue.
“We’re here today in front of the Pittsburgh Board of Education,” Angel Gober, the Western Pennsylvania director of One PA, told the crowd at the rally. “There is no one in there right now; because of COVID-19, they are closed, but they’re going to hear us loud and clear.”
The crowd was soaked by a heavy downpour that lasted for about 15 minutes just before the rally began, but the demonstrators were not deterred by the rain. Several of the rally’s organizers hurriedly passed out umbrellas throughout the crowd. Meanwhile, a few people danced in the rain as music continued to blare from speakers underneath a tent.
When the storm passed, the water-logged group listened to Ms. Gober and other speakers who advocated for removing police from Pittsburgh schools and replacing them with more counselors and mental health staff.
“Even the most caring and best trained police cannot and should not be expected to replace counselors,” said Ghadah Makoshi, a community advocate with the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “The data shows that school police are causing very real and very measurable harm to our students, and they are contributing to the school-toprison pipeline right here in Pittsburgh.”
While a large number of community members submitted testimony in favor of removing police from city schools, many also defended the officers.
“Much attention has been focused on taking resources away from law enforcement to divert toward social services to treat the causes of injustice and its effects,” wrote Marco Corona, an assistant principal at Brashear High School. “This is a legitimate point, but our schools’ police and security are not merely enforcement officials — rather, they serve many roles to ensure the safety of all.”
Mr. Corona said the officers at Brashear are visible and vocal members of the school community, who have a presence inside the hallways and the cafeteria, when students are getting on buses and during or after school activities. The officers get to know the students, become coaches, mentors and friends and work to solve issues behind disputes, he said.
Mr. Corona also said he was concerned about what the school would do in situations when a police officer was needed but was not there, such as a large fight or a custody dispute.
Maria Jenesky, the parent of a student at Carrick High School, told board members the “insane” idea of removing police from schools would endanger the lives of students and staff.
What would happen, she asked, if someone entered the school with a gun or a knife? Who would stop an armed intruder?
“God forbid we have another school shooting and innocent children or staff gets killed,” Ms. Jenesky wrote. “Where the hell are your brains? Are you all living in the same world as I am? This is an absolutely insane idea ... if this moves forward I will be pulling my daughter out of the war zone, because that’s what’s going to happen.”