The concept of safety within school walls has undergone scrutiny in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), particularly in the aftermath of the George Floyd protests. The ensuing policy shifts aimed at removing police officers from school settings have culminated in a study revealing mixed outcomes regarding perceptions of safety and disciplinary infractions. The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research released findings on Wednesday that highlight minimal change in safety perceptions among students and teachers, amidst a slight decrease in high-level disciplinary violations in schools sans police presence.
The study, as detailed by a Chicago Sun-Times report, focused on institutions that ousted their School Resource Officers (SROs) after the CPS encouraged local school councils' autonomy in deciding on-campus police presence back in the summer of 2020. Principals like Rashad Talley from Wendell Phillips Academy High School, which was among the first to remove police, emphasized the importance of staff relationships with students over the mere presence of officers. As Talley told the Chicago Sun-Times, "It matters that relationship."
The analysis compared outcomes between schools that removed both officers and those retaining one or both to discern the resultant variances in disciplinary trends, drawing upon the 5Essentials survey developed by UChicago, administered in CPS schools annually. While students' and teachers' perceptions of safety seemed unmoved without SROs, the Suntimes report underlines a striking decrease in serious disciplinary infractions in schools devoid of police presence, a potential marker of successful intervention through less punitive, more rehabilitative measures. Furthermore, as per the research, Black students were more likely to encounter officers in their schools than their counterparts from other racial groups, raising concerns of disproportionate policing within educational frameworks.
The question of whether SROs significantly impact safety yielded interesting findings, as noted by Chalkbeat Chicago. The study indicated schools that removed SROs experienced a slight dip in high-level disciplinary occurrences, such as violent incidents, or infractions involving illegal substances or weapons. "On average, on the whole, there weren't that many changes or differences between schools that had removed SROs and schools that didn't," stated Amy Arneson, a senior research associate with the consortium. Notwithstanding, the study presents a conundrum, as the same institutions without officers also reported a general uptick in severe incidents between the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years - albeit not as pronounced as schools with an SRO presence.
The impending district-wide removal of SROs this fall invites a transition to new safety protocols emphasizing alternative discipline and mental health resources. Jadine Chou, CPS’s chief of safety and security, recognizes that the relationship between perceived safety and the literal absence of law enforcement is multi-faceted. "This is not going to be a light switch, turn it on and everything will fall into place," Chou elucidated to Chalkbeat Chicago, acknowledging the need for nuanced, community-specific approaches toward holistic school safety.
