Chalk Beat Chicago | “School Safety Without Police: Social Workers, Private Security Considered As Chicago Councils Vote To Remove Officers”

Watts, the student advocate with Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, has spent the past few months observing the process. His group is one of five community organizations that helped the district develop its Whole School Safety strategy. He said he’s optimistic about the changes — particularly in efforts at schools such as Morgan Park to take more student voices into consideration — and by school-level discussions about what robust mental health services should look like.

In a crisis, he said, some students can’t talk to police officers because they have experienced trauma linked to policing.

“School should be a pleasant, peaceful place for us to learn,” Watts said. “Education shouldn’t be a place where we’re potentially being arrested for something we didn’t do wrong.”

His vision, however, is a cautious one because it’s too soon to say what will happen next year.

Under the district’s new approach, schools will vote to retain or remove campus police officers on a year-by-year basis. Nothing’s set in stone.

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