In Minneapolis, where protests exploded after a police officer killed local resident George Floyd, the school board voted Tuesday evening in favor of a resolution to cut ties with the police department.
“Hopefully this can be a small step towards the dramatic changes that are needed in our city and the past few years, serious conversations surrounding the impact of police in schools have occurred after high-profile incidents of officers assaulting children, like when a police officer was recorded knocking down a student and dragging her at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina.
In Denver, the power of school police officers is already regulated by the district: These cops are not allowed to handcuff students in elementary school.
In a statement before Tuesday’s vote, Deputy Chief Erick Fors of the Minneapolis Police Department said that the relationships the department has built in schools “were impactful not only for the students and staff, but for the officers who had a calling to work with our youth through mentorship and engagement.”
Janaan Ahmed, a 17-year-old recent graduate of Minneapolis Public Schools, said that student activists have made clear their disdain for constant policing at school and that they have been questioning why it took another police killing for the issue of school cops to gain momentum in the district.
