Today, 110 organizations sent a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea demanding that they immediately cancel plans to hire 475 new school safety officers. Last week, in a City Council Education Committee hearing on policing in schools, it was revealed that the NYPD is discussing the possibility of hiring 475 new school safety officers, at the expense of $20 million, to the dismay of students, advocates and elected officials. The letter, organized by Communities United for Police Reform, included a diverse list of organizations signing on, including civil rights, faith-based, youth/school advocacy, police reform, and community-based organizations.
The revelation came as the global pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing racial disparities in education for Black, Latinx, and other communities of color. In the letter, groups slam the Mayor for prioritizing the criminalization of youth in NYC public schools over providing social, emotional, and mental health supports that are acutely needed as students grapple with the physical and emotional effects of the pandemic and a year of remote-learning.
The letter, organized by Communities United for Police Reform, stated: “The current plan to hire more officers for schools in the context of last year’s false budget claims by your administration and the ongoing pandemic is hard to comprehend. Last year, a hiring freeze was imposed on almost all city agencies except the NYPD and programs that could help communities are facing huge potential cuts in the coming budget (e.g. $40 million from school allocation memorandums and $45 million in reduced funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program). The more than 5,000 existing school safety officers is already a larger force than the police departments of many cities across the country.”
Many of the signers of the letter joined a campaign last year for #NYCBudgetJustice and achieved commitments from the Mayor and the City Council that the FY21 budget would include a $1 billion cut from the NYPD’s budget, to redirect to core needs in communities of color. But the approved budget used funny math and budget tricks to avoid reallocating at least $1 billion from the NYPD. One of the Mayor’s most egregious false budget claims was that school safety officers would be removed from the FY21 NYPD budget. While moving school safety officers from the NYPD to the Department of Education was never a demand of the #PoliceFreeSchools movement, it also never happened in the FY21 budget.
“We are adamantly opposed to the hiring of any news school police, particularly when we know that those resources should go toward supporting the emotional and mental wellness of students,” said Ashley C. Sawyer (she/her), Girls for Gender Equity. With the $20M that is being used to make new police hires, the NYCDOE could instead hire 200 more school nurses or school social workers. To increase policing at this time is not only an example of mismanagement but a threat to the safety and wellness of students of color across NYC.”
“There are more School Safety Agents across New York City’s schools than social workers, guidance counselors, and school nurses available for one million students. It's infuriating that close to $450 million is spent on police in schools and even more so that Mayor is going to spend another $20 million on more police in schools. We need to spend all those funds on social, emotional, and mental health supports. We need police-free schools,” said Brielka Rodriguez, youth leader at Urban Youth Collaborative and Make the Road.
“Adding new officers to the 5,000-member school safety division would be a problem under any circumstances, but during a pandemic and a devastating school budget it’s unthinkable,” said Johanna Miller (she/her), director of the NYCLU Education Policy Center. “Instead of ending school policing, the Mayor is stalling, hedging, and wasting education dollars. These proposed hires must be canceled."
Programs that could help communities are facing huge potential cuts in the coming budget (e.g. $40 million from school allocation memorandums and $45 million in reduced funding for the Summer Youth Employment Program). Spending $20 million on additional school safety officers is a cruel misallocation of resources at this time, as the 110 organizations signing the letter noted.
Full letter can be found here.
ADDITIONAL QUOTES:
“Hiring more school cops ignores all we’ve been working for and tells us students that the city cares more about policing and criminalizing us than providing us with the support we need," said Dariel Infante, youth leader at the Urban Youth Collaborative and Future of Tomorrow. "Why don’t they hire more counselors, social workers, and nurses instead? Spending $20 million on hiring more school cops wastes more resources that could be used on hiring staff we need.”
"We at TREEage understand that racial justice is climate justice. And we understand that we cannot achieve racial justice until we end the cycles of harm from policing. Refusing to hire more School Safety Officers and centering Black and brown students in decisions on public health and safety are crucial steps in making the city truly safe for all," said Caroline Schwab, Communications Director at TREEage.
"It is inconceivable that amidst a pandemic when children's education is being disrupted and schools are sitting empty across the city, NYC is increasing NYPD school policing instead of investing in education. We need more support for students through teachers, counselors, and practitioners of restorative justice, not more handcuffs,” said Sandeep Kandhari, Litigation Supervisor, Juvenile Justice Practice Center for Family Representation.
"It makes no sense to hire additional NYPD officers to police schools when many students still lack access to counselors and social workers. We know that real community safety comes from investing in the health and wellbeing of our young people," said Genevieve Vaida, VP of Policy, New Kings Democrats.
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About Communities United for Police Reform
Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is an unprecedented campaign to end discriminatory policing practices in New York, and to build a lasting movement that promotes public safety and reduces reliance on policing. CPR runs coalitions of over 200 local, statewide and national organizations, bringing together a movement of community members, lawyers, researchers and activists to work for change. The partners in this campaign come from all 5 boroughs, from all walks of life and represent many of those most unfairly targeted by the NYPD.