CPS schools remove dozens of cops, shifting $2M from school policing to other student supports

[mopinko]

Last year, when 17 out of 72 schools opted to remove their cops, those resources were poured back into the district’s central operations and weren’t put into other programs for those schools. LSC members citywide said they were frustrated that the district was asking them to choose between police officers or nothing. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools officials were also criticized for pushing the decision to LSCs in the first place instead of taking a stance last summer when racial justice protests swept the country.

The decision stayed at the school level this year, but the district partnered with community groups and advocates over the past few months to help each school develop its own alternative safety plan for the LSC to choose.

That led 24 schools to remove one of their officers and seven to take out both in votes over the past month in favor of new positions such as a dean of restorative justice or a culture coordinator. Another 20 schools kept both cops and two votes are still pending.

After those LSC votes, at least one officer will still be assigned to almost 50 CPS high schools, a majority. But the number of cops at CPS will have fallen from 146 to 74 in the span of two years

https://chicago.suntimes.com/education/2021/7/21/22587789/cps-public-school-police-cops-resource-officers-sro-restorative-justice


brandon johnson is getting pounded on ‘defund the police’. but there’s some interesting convos on twitter around this race. vallas gets a lot of pushback on it, including a link to this article.
i find it interesting that lsc’s are getting this kind of power. they used to be allowed to select principles and sign off on budgets. not many of those elected were happy about that. they regularly took on issues. glad to see they have leveraged that up.