Response to the Chicago Police Department School Resource Officer Policy Comment

4 min readJun 3, 2020

To whom it may concern:

As I was reading Twitter, I noticed there was one hour left to comment. [25] I have the following request. In light of recent events, it does not appear that these policies take into account the gravity of the situation at hand, which represents decades of poorly aligned interests. I urge you to reconsider your timeline and postpone public commentary until 15 days after the peaceful protests have stopped, the riots and looting is under control without National Guard presence, and Mr. Floyd is put to rest.

Throughout the globe, we all grieve not only for Mr. Floyd, but for the exponential loss of faith in the very Institutions, which we are told to blindly trust, i.e., law enforcement. Sadly, these same Institutions appear to have habitually, and with utter disregard, swept these fundamental Civil Rights under the proverbial rug. However, as in Tinker v. Des Moines,

“Children do not shed their Constitutional Rights at the school yard gate.” [11]

Moreover, the issues addressed by a School Resource Officer, likely involve this disparate treatment of minorities and/or police brutality. Given the significance, I urge you to extend the period of public commentary for the following reasons:

Over the last week, whether warranted or not, our trust in the Chicago Police Department, or more specifically, law enforcement in general, has sunk to an all time low and continues to sink lower as each scene of brutality surfaces on social media. Yet, community engagement will be pivotal to begin the process of repairing the city of Chicago’s faith in the Chicago Police Department, including, School Resource Officers.
This issue is too important to merely check a box. The role of Officers within schools has been shown through research studies to impact the school to prison pipeline. [23] We must break this cycle.
These issues are further highlighted through an unequal, double-edge sword of technology, where in part, schools possess technological tools to discipline: collecting Biometric data and aggregating such through Facial Recognition software, to create school surveillance systems. Yet, some of these same students do not have access to basic technology as evidenced by the highly contested E-learning grading policy AKA the “digital divide.” [24]
Furthermore, this policy does not include the recent changes to Title IX as set forth by Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos, which changes the dynamic of sexual harassment in ways that mirror a Courtroom, and which now also carry the force of law. Thereby, Title IX manipulates early intervention and needed education surrounding these sensitive matters into trials and evidence of the adversarial, legal process.[12]

While the Chicago Police Department has the primary duty to enforce laws ensuring public safety, this opposes a school’s primary purpose to educate and scaffold behavior. Further, in recent weeks numerous incidents have once again come to light throughout the nation. I urge you to not only postpone this process, but to re-open these fundamental policy dialogs, hold educational sessions, and use this as a teachable moment to remedy and redress the perception of law enforcement thereby, beginning to fuel the spirit of genuine collaboration with ALL stakeholders, even those who are only now becoming aware, of CPD’s systemic issues.

Quite simply, our world is changing before our eyes. Creating a School Resource Officer scope of duty before the issues of injustice surrounding Mr. Floyd’s tragic death are fully heard is a missed opportunity to show compassion, remedy past failures as manifested by the Consent decree, and to permanently redress this chapter of American history.