The DC Council’s vote to remove #police from school is going to do more harm than good. In the wake of recent police brutality cases that have surfaced, the community’s trust in its police department has been removed. But can we risk the safety of our children?

Leaders of several American states have been busy re-evaluating the role of law enforcement and how recently the police have failed us. The public has become restless, with parents at the forefront, while the school makes arrangements for changes to its security. School authorities and the Council see the police as more of a threat than protection.

Councilmember David Grosso has proposed a bill that calls for the elimination of the school system’s $23 million contracts with the DCPD, which finances more than 300 security guards. Those funds will be reallocated into initiatives for public wellbeing. 

The proposal, they believe, will place their kids in a much safer place, away from the police. Sadly this isn’t true, and will attract more harm than good for the school and its students alike. The school authority does not understand the role of the police and how the department works.

We support the movements that call for unity and equality, such as Black Lives Matters, but when it comes to supporting a noble cause and putting the lives of #students at risk, the two issues are not parallel. In fact, they are polar opposites.

“If there is no officer in the school, their only experience [with police] might be a negative one,” said Officer Aaron Vanatta of the Quaker Valley School Police. Removing the police force from the school would leave the education institution and the student body vulnerable. “We need to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community, and what better place to do that than the schools,” Mr. Vanatta continued. “In the long run, that’s what keeps kids safe.”

You want your kids to be protected even when out of home at school. You never know what might show up and cause an upheaval. The police at schools are trained to prevent school shootings. A conversation between the police and students can prevent an overwhelmed kid from committing suicide or taking pills.

It's not just that, besides keeping the kids under a protected umbrella, the police can also take action if a student reports sexual abuse or any kind of threat, whether it’s from a fellow student or anyone else present in the school.

School Resource Officers or SROs can be called to the school as often if the school doesn’t have its force. These SROs are better equipped to communicate and work with the students compared to the city police.

The school needs protection - protection from a suspicious outsider, a student with a gun, or anything malicious. You can’t consider enough of the uncertainties and the misfortune that can happen. Of course we need someone who is well trained to protect the campuses where our kids spend hours. Who would be a better fit than the SROs? You can’t expect the teachers to teach and then supervise and protect the school boundaries too.

A majority think that police are brutal and that the schools are more interested in “policing than imparting education.” Views have been expressed referring to the current policy creating a “student prison pipeline.” There are no limits to the outlandish claims against the police, however they are there for a reason; they are trained and can do what the rest of us cannot. They are there for the student’s protection.

It’s not only about safeguarding the school and protecting the students. There’s a lot more to that. It is about establishing a healthy relationship between the SROs and the students of different age groups so that the school can be what we expect it to be. 

Black Lives do matter, and there are bad cops out there. But you can’t blame the entire police force for acts committed by a few. Instead of removing police presence from school premises, we should rather applaud Felicia Gaines, a Racine Police Officer and Kenosha native, who was featured in the newspaper for protesting police brutality.

Not all cops are bad. We as a society need to trust that the police are there for our protection and should not be removed from the schools.