Petition Calls For Defunding San Diego Unified Police

Speaker 1: 00:00 Marches and protests stemming from the Memorial day police killing of George Floyd led to renewed calls for meaningful police reform nationwide. That includes a movement to defund police, to fundamentally change policing by redirecting funding away from the department to other agencies within the city. And that's led further to a call to defund school police, which has already happened in Minneapolis. Joining me to discuss this as India Griffin, a student organizer behind a petition drive to defend school police at San Diego unified and Michael Burke, a reporter for ed source, an online publication covering education issues. Welcome to you both. Thank you. Thanks for having us. And it start with the effort to defund police in San Diego schools. What exactly does that mean to you? Speaker 2: 00:46 So we believe that it's important to defund school police, um, in San Diego schools, because just the statistics surrounding school policing are disproportionately negatively affecting black and Latino students. Um, so we believe that the resources that are currently being used to fund, um, standing unified school police can be reallocated to things like mental health practitioners, um, restorative justice, practitioners, counselors, et cetera. Speaker 1: 01:14 And Michael, you covered the effort to defund police in the Los Angeles unified school district. Explain that effort. Were they calling for something similar to what we're talking about here? Speaker 3: 01:24 Yeah, very similar. Um, you had activists, um, and the teacher's union and also the union that represents a lot of the non-teaching employees that we're all calling for. Um, they basically all joined forces behind a proposal being brought by board member, Monica Garcia that would have cut the districts or the police department, the school police departments funding by about 90%. It would have, it would have phased out over several years. Um, but that, that proposal was rejected by the school board edits a meeting last week as was another proposal that was brought by a separate board member, Jackie Goldberg that would have cut the police department's budget by almost 30%. Um, but it would have avoided laying off any officers immediately, um, instead would have made reductions to vacant positions over time and non-salary costs. Um, and it would have put a freeze on new hiring. Um, and then it also would've charged, um, a taskforce being formed by the superintendent, uh, to make a recommendation to the school board, uh, by July 30th on whether the district needs a police department at all. So it would have left the door open to actually completely eliminating, uh, the school police. Speaker 1: 02:31 So it was a big argument as the, as the board made their decision, right. They thought this needed a lot more study before they could really vote on this. Speaker 3: 02:39 We were very split. Um, there were, uh, board members like Monica Garcia who, you know, thought that they had enough evidence already based on the testimony of a lot of students who said that they basically feel uncomfortable around school police. And then also, you know, research from places like UCLA that has shown the disproportionate impact that black students in particular and other students of color are punished, uh, at higher rates than their peers. They kind of looked at that evidence and thought that, um, there was enough evidence to, to drastically cut the school police funding, but then there were other school board members who yes, as you, as you, uh, suggest, wanted to take a closer look and, and do a further study of the department. And that's sort of, what's what is happening now because the superintendent did announce last week, a task force, that's going to look at their budget and, and practices and their truth and their training and bring a report to the school board this summer. Speaker 1: 03:35 I should point out the Los Angeles district is the state's largest and San Diego second right behind them. So we're talking about the two largest school districts in California and India. Explain your view of the role of school police on campuses here. What do they do Speaker 2: 03:50 So often the police exercise actions that are not necessarily really in the safety of students. Um, and this is partially because of the way that they are allowed to function within schools, according to, um, the education code that allowed them to be in schools in the first place, which is, which allows them to act upon reasonable suspicion rather than probable cause. Um, this leaves too much discretion to police officers to act in ways that are often discriminatory to black and Brown students. Um, and so actions that are typical of high school students, like maybe like getting into like play fights or being running through hallways, or just asking in ways that typical teenagers do acting can be seen as criminal behavior by school police, just because they do have the authority to act in some ways that are uncalled for. And we also recognize that in the adults vacation of black and Brown students, we are often seen as criminals within the education system as a whole leading to the school to prison pipeline. Um, and as one of our youth act, organizers pointed out, so poignantly is that we can not be students and criminals at the same time. So it's important that we are not seen in a way that criminalizes us before we've done anything. Speaker 1: 05:10 India, what do you say to people who say the police are needed in order to prevent or respond to school shootings or to interfere with gangs, trying to maintain a presence around school? Speaker 2: 05:19 So we've done research into how school police were impacted by high profile school shootings. Um, and after the shooting of the Sandy hook shooting, um, in 2012, the Obama administration approved a lot more funding to go to school police, but we see that Parkland still happen in 2018. And there were actually police officers that were hiding as the school was being shot by students. And so what we want to explain is that police presence in schools doesn't necessarily prevent these types of issues from, but when we reallocate funding from school police and put it into support systems for students, we can provide a culture of rich connections between educators and students that will make students feel more welcome at school. And that will curb those feelings of isolation that often your school shooters Speaker 1: 06:18 And Michael defunding school police become a nationwide issue. Talk to me about the efforts here in California. Speaker 3: 06:24 Yeah. Well, there have been several districts, you know, in, in, in the case of Oakland unified, they voted their, their school board voted unanimously to eliminate their, um, district police department. Um, and there have been also several other districts like San Francisco just last night Sacramento, or I don't know if it was last night, but this week Sacramento city unified also West Contra Costa that they've voted to, to terminate contracts that they have with local city police agencies. So they don't have their own independent school police departments, but they, you know, contract with city police that provide, um, officers to schools. So those districts have all moved to, to terminate those contracts. And, um, have said that they'll develop, um, alternate safety plans. Speaker 1: 07:05 What of proponents of having police in schools said in response to such a, Speaker 3: 07:09 What are the main arguments you hear is that, um, that school police and school police officers that are from city police that are assigned to schools, that they get specific training to, to respond to incidents involving, um, students and youth. And that if districts, you know, don't have a school police departments where if they cut ties with the, if they cut their official ties with city police, then you know, then if they do have to, at some point call police officers that, that those officers, you know, won't be trained or have the same training as, as officers who work on schools currently do. And then you also hear the argument that I think you alluded to that, um, you know, school police are necessary to prevent tragedies like mass shootings, but it's not entirely clear whether having police on campuses actually prevent school shootings. You know, that that's, you know, the evidence there is a little unclear. Um, so that's something that's just worth keeping in mind too. Speaker 1: 08:00 Michael, how has the California state superintendent responded to these calls to defend police in school? Speaker 3: 08:06 Um, well, he's, uh, attacked, uh, West ed at a nonprofit education organization based in California that, um, is going to, to study it further. Um, he based, based on his comments last week, um, at a press conference, he seemed to be saying that more research is needed. So I think that they're going to take a closer look and, and, and, and see what they find in terms of, you know, whether, um, having police officers on campuses actually make students safer or, or not Speaker 1: 08:36 In India later this week, a protest is planned. Talk to me about what's going to happen at that Speaker 2: 08:41 On Thursday, July 2nd, starting at 12:00 PM and going to around 2:30 PM, we are going to be hosting a protest to defund school police at the Eugene Brecker education center. Um, and it's a student led grassroots effort when we're going to hear from speakers throughout the community, as well as students on why they believe that school police should be defunded. Speaker 1: 09:08 I've been speaking with student activists and DIA Griffin and Michael Burke reporter for the online publication ed source. Thank you both. Thank you so much. Thanks Mark. In a statement San Diego unified said they have 41 sworn officers serving some 200 schools and 100,000 students. And that school police account for less than 1% of their annual budget, they said, quote, in San Diego unified school, police are not a substitute for counseling and mental health services. We have five times the number of counselors, 231. Then we do school police and we spend twice as much on our mental health department, $21 million as we do on school police, they perform a vital role on criminal issues like human trafficking, internet crimes against children and investigating threats of violence against our schools close quote. They also said school police help reduce drugs on campus. Speaker 2: 10:11 [inaudible].