LOS ANGELES (CN) — In a contentious hearing Tuesday, the Los Angeles Unified School District board rejected multiple police-reform proposals, including a study into whether the second largest school district in the country still needs police and a plan that would have cut the district’s police department budget by 90% over three years.
After an 11-hour hearing, the Board of Education — which oversees a district serving more than 600,000 students — failed to agree on a path forward.
For weeks, black students in LAUSD, their parents and Black Lives Matter-LA members have called on the Board of Education to enact policing reforms as mass protests against police violence swept the nation.
Students Deserve, an LAUSD student-led organization, demanded the board reduce funding for the LA School Police Department, which its members claim contributes to a learning environment that is anti-black and detrimental to student achievement.
The $70 million budget for the nearly 470-member school police force — the largest in the nation — makes up about 1% of the school district’s roughly $8 billion budget, according to district data.
Students in and outside the board meeting voiced their opposition to having LASPD officers patrol their campuses.
LAUSD graduate and former Board of Education student member Tyler Okeke said at the hearing officials should acknowledge the fear of police expressed by students and their families.
“We’re not interested in reexamining or reimagining police in our schools,” Okeke said. “We think they have no productive role in our schools. No amount of de-escalation training changes the need that students need counselors not handcuffs.”
Speakers at a rally outside the meeting urged the panel to support board member Mónica Garcia’s motion to slash next school year’s police budget by 50% and eventually by at least 90% total by the 2023–24 term.
Garcia said before the vote her proposal would free up funds for more health services for students.
“Removing police is not going to solve the problem of underfunding of schools or systemic racism,” Garcia said at the hearing. “This is a chance to transition away from police to another safety strategy.”
Cecily Myart-Cruz, president-elect of United Teachers of Los Angeles — the labor union representing LAUSD educators — urged board members to consider the comprehensiveness of students’ demands.
“When they spoke about random police searches they were not believed. When they spoke about pepper spray they were not believed,” Myart-Cruz said regarding past student advocacy. “Now we’re standing here today trying to re-envision something for our youth. Our students are not suspects.”
But the seven-member board voted down Garcia’s proposal, with some members saying it jeopardizes the district’s ability to respond effectively to any future disasters.
The panel also rejected board member Jackie Goldberg’s proposal to implement a hiring freeze at the school police department — amounting to an estimated $20 million budget cut — and to remove police from school campuses while launching a study on whether police are needed at schools.
LASPD Chief Todd Chamberlain told the board he acknowledges nationwide calls for police reform but that school police play a critical role in keeping campuses safe.
“If you take away police, what you’re gonna have, you’re still going to have people victimized,” Chamberlain said. “You’ll still have crime and still have an environment that's not safe.”
Board member George McKenna accused student activists of repeating inaccurate talking points from “outside” groups and painting an inaccurate portrayal of police.
McKenna, a former school principal in the district also said students have exaggerated accounts of experiencing police violence on their campuses.
“Police are being unfairly demonized,” McKenna said. “I can tell you now school police are essential.”
