Article: School board surprised by recommendation to expand police presence in Berkeley high schools by Ally Markovich/Berkeleyside. April 25, 2021 https://www.berkeleyside.com/2021/04/25/police-presence-berkeley-high-schools

Summary: At a recent Berkeley (California) school board meeting, board members debated the role of the School Resource Officer (SRO), currently occupied by a single Berkeley police officer who is stationed at school campuses.  During the meeting, a committee made up of students, administrators, parents and other community members recommended that the school district expand the role of the SRO and consider adding additional hours to the role or a second SRO.  

The committee backed up their recommendations with results from a survey they had conducted of students and staff. The majority of people surveyed supported the SRO position, including 72% of Black students, 73% of Latino students, 77% of Asian students, and 62% of white students. White staff members were the most critical of the SRO role, with 54% opposing the position. No teachers and fewer than 6% of students found the SRO “hostile or mistrustful of kids.”

The committee’s recommendation came as a surprise to many board members, who hoped the committee would imagine school safety without an armed police officer stationed on campus.

Selected Posted Comments: 

1. Consider the possibility that students feeling safer on their campus can improve a high school's climate and culture no matter what one's preconceived ideas may be.

2. It’s wonderful for students to have the opportunity to interact with a police officer in a variety of settings that are non-conflictual rather than having their very first encounter involve handcuffs. It’s no different than with other professions.

3. How can Berkeley maintain a diverse and community oriented police force if the school board ignores the opinions of teachers and students and relentlessly demonizes school resource officers? We actually want more local kids to grow up to be local community police officers, so we should humanize, not demonize, our local public safety officers.

4. This is also a great example of the importance of polling. When you make decisions based on outrage-media hype and whoever can get 50 activists to show up at a public meeting, you end up listening to idiots, extremists, and profiteers. Governance by hype. "Defund the Police! I saw it on Twitter!!" Here, the committee just asked (sane) people to weigh in. And rather than ask them to repeat the narrative and whether they support some slogan, they asked how everyone personally felt about SROs. They listened to the community they served and the community that was affected. A truly revolutionary idea…Hats off to the committee. Articulating common sense takes a lot of courage at the moment. And if we're lucky, you just reacquainted Berkeley with the idea of good governance.

5. What I take away is white students and staff do not understand the experience of their minority coworkers and students. Minority students and staff approve the SRO by more than a “super majority” that should be all you need to hear. The data is good, the students and staff like it, but these self-important white people can’t help but think they still know better. STOP IT ALREADY! Do you hear yourselves? Listen to the people directly affected and stop trying to reimagine what people already greatly appreciate.

6. The data in the Berkeleyside article are really telling - that it’s mostly white students and faculty who want to reduce the role of police on campus. I think a lot of white liberals have good intentions but take their cues from black activists rather than black people. But they tend to be more exposed to the activists and understandably don’t want to speak over them. Black communities in America do not support the white liberal demand to defund the police. https://www.newsweek.com/81-black-americans-dont-want-less-police-presence-despite-protestssome-want-more-cops-poll-1523093

Food for thought.