The Los Angeles Unified School District’s vote to slash $25 million from its policing budget and cut 133 officers from schools with the intention of diverting funds to support a proposed Black Student Achievement Plan is misguided and dangerous, a National Police Association spokesperson says.
“If I had a child in those schools, I would be very concerned,” retired Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith, a 29-year-police veteran said. “It doesn’t really accomplish anything. It’s almost illogical.”
The Los Angeles Unified School District Board voted to defund the L.A. School Police Department.
These include 70 sworn officers, 62 non-sworn officers, and one support staff member. The staff reductions reduce the annual budget of the district’s police force from $77.5 million to $52.5 million.
Police officers stationed at all secondary schools will be replaced by new “climate coaches,” who are trained to, according to the plan, implement “positive school culture and climate,” use “de-escalation strategies” to resolve conflict, understand and address “implicit bias,” and eliminate “racial disparity” in school discipline practices.
Board President Kelly Gonez said in a statement:
“Student safety is everyone’s responsibility and starts with creating a school environment that is centered in students’ social-emotional wellbeing. The Board’s investment in the Black Student Achievement Plan ensures we are actively working to promote equity across the District.”
Brantner Smith says the move will create problems for schools, police stations, and local communities.
“Are they harming the police officers? They are not,” she said. “They are punishing the students; they are punishing the staff, because now who is going to deal with violent students?
“What if a student does get violent or a school is broken into and you call 911? Now you’re taking the patrol officers out of the neighborhood to respond. . . . And they’re not going to have specialized school resource officer training.
“When you get an average patrol officer, do they have CIT training or any kind of counseling background? And, as training dollars are taken away from other departments – let’s say LAPD is responding – we’re not going to have specialized people to respond. So, who loses? Not the officer.”
The LASPD has now been left to figure out how to protect the students and faculty with far less funding and a decimated police force.
There are currently approximately 650,000 students in the district.
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