A YOUTH VICTORY: Statement from our #CopsOutCPS coalition for real safety
Following over five years of struggle, our youth and allies have won removal of School Resource Officers across our city. In the next few months, we’ll be organizing to make sure that funds previously spent on those police get re-invested into the vision for safety that our youth and families have been calling for.
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We made the statement below the day before we won. We made the statement with fellow coalition members Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Chicago Freedom School, and Good Kids Mad City.
Safety does not exist when young people are forced to interact with a system of policing. We, as youth, community members, and organizers, call on the Chicago Board of Education (CBOE) to cancel the nearly $10.5 million contract between Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and Chicago Police Department (CPD) and invest that money into real safety for youth and families. This means not only removing police from schools but ending all policing practices, and investing in true systems of care for youth and families.
Four years ago, students across the city boldly demanded the removal of police from schools. Students took over the front yard of then-President Miguel del Valle’s house in protest, held dozens of workshops city-wide, and mobilized thousands under one clear demand: Cops Out CPS. Youth at the time won a cut to the SRO program by $21 million from $33 million to $12 million and the removal of police from 17 schools. It was clear then and remains clear now that the ways of addressing harm, including police officers, are not working.
After schools voted to remove police, CPS failed to provide schools the full $180k it cost to maintain one officer. Instead, schools that voted out their officers were given $40k.
We are grateful to the youth then and now that are demanding more from CPS. Without them, this would not have been possible.
We know, because of their visions for healing and safety, the $40k schools were given is not enough to invest in systems of care for our schools. It is not enough to pay for a full-time position let alone help provide safety. Our families and communities need and deserve more. We demand the full $180k CPS paid per police officer be invested into creating systems of care developed by youth and their families.
This year, in the span of one week, four students were shot outside of their high school.
This moment calls on us to question why we continue to invest millions into policing at the expense of real community safety. We need the CBOE to implement a real student and family centered safety plan without police or policing practices.
Safety means providing fully-funded holistic supports to our young people. It means listening to, affirming, and following the lead of our young people and communities in developing their own visions for healing and wellness outside of these carceral approaches. It means investing in the things students are asking for: in afterschool activities, vocational education, peace rooms, parent mentorships programs, expansion of the Peacebook, and more.
Young people and communities are experiencing harm that is a direct result of purposeful divestment from the city. Divestment in their neighborhood schools, community spaces, public and free mental health care, affordable housing and transportation. Yet, they continue to see investment in policing. Policing does not keep us safe.
What has changed from 2020 when youth demanded police free schools to now? Our demand is Cops Out CPS. Young people have survived the pandemic, survived the loss of stable housing, have survived grief and loss. They should not have to survive having police in their schools and the fear that their mental health or socio-emotional needs will be responded to with police.
Policing looks like cops, and it also looks like social workers and clinicians calling the cops or for the involuntary hospitalization of a young person; it looks like teachers; it looks like surveillance and the monitoring of young people’s social media and online interactions.
Between April 2019 and April 2022, schools have called on police to respond to 33 wellness checks, 48 calls for suicidal behavior, and 155 incidents for social emotional needs. It is moments like these where students should be met with love, care, and respect, not policing.
We know what happens to students who can appear dysregulated and have forced interactions with police, it’s happened before. It has happened to Dnigma Howard at Marshall High School, JaQuwaun Williams outside Gresham Elementary, and a pre-school student at McCutcheon Elementary. In these moments of crisis we should embrace, love, and care for our young people. When policing their behaviors is our first response, we send a clear message that their well-being and safety is not our priority.
In 2018, CPS announced a move away from punitive practices and a move toward restorative and trauma sensitive support for students. We are calling on CPS to follow through on this commitment: to cancel the contract between CPS and CPD, remove police from our schools, and reinvest the $10.5 million dollars into our schools, into real safety, and trauma-informed resources and supports.