Chicago Sun-Times | “CPS schools remove dozens of cops, shifting $2M from school policing to other student supports”

This was the second consecutive year Local School Councils voted on whether to maintain school police programs — but this time they had other options.By Nader Issa@NaderDIssa  Jul 21, 2021, 6:26pm CDT

More than 30 Chicago high schools have voted to redirect money spent on uniformed police officers to alternative behavioral and mental health supports a year after intense student-led protests put a microscope on the role of cops in public schools.

The moves shift about $2 million from policing to restorative justice programs, according to an advocacy group involved in the district’s planning, with a total of 31 high schools choosing to remove at least one of the two officers typically stationed inside their buildings.

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“By shifting the conversation towards more holistic approaches to safety, we believe that the new plans will enable schools to use strategies that are more proactive and supportive in keeping our students safe,” Jadine Chou, CPS’ chief of safety and security, said in a statement.

This was the second consecutive year Local School Councils voted on their school police programs — but this time they had other options.

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.

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