MILWAUKEE — In a major move following Black Lives Matter protests, the Milwaukee Public Schools votes to end all of its contracts with the Milwaukee Police Department. This came Thursday evening during a special meeting of the Milwaukee Public School Board.
More than 800 people either called in to speak or sent in a letter to the school board’s virtual meeting.
“I do not send my child to school to be unsafe,” said Shavonda Sisson. “I, as a parent do not want my child in an unsafe environment with people who have terrorized the community."
“Police do not make schools safe. There is no evidence that school crime or mass shooting has been reduced,” said Lorraine Malcoe.
“This is a binary choice, a very easy one, fund counseling, get MPD out of schools,” said Joe Riley.”
“I support getting the police officers out of the schools,” said Beverly Walker.
In the resolution, the Milwaukee School Board voted to end all contracts with Milwaukee Police including funding school resource officers and other personnel. Those contracts cost the district nearly $500,000 a year.
According to MPS Board Director Marva Herndon, there was some confusion in the public on what ending the contract with Milwaukee Police would look like.
“So many calls and so many emails that I received [were that] they were misinformed,” said Herndon. “There was an assumption that all our schools were supplied with police officers.”
MPS stopped having police officers in schools in 2016. However, they have a handful of school resource officers in the neighborhoods outside of schools who are specially trained to respond quickly to school buildings. Parents say those officers are called in by Milwaukee School leaders too quickly.
Board members unanimously say change needs to happen and it starts with ending this contract.
“We cannot continue to have relationships with institutions that engage in racist activity,” said Tony Baez, MPS school board director.
The board also voted to stop paying any contracts that would use technology in a discriminatory or criminalizing manner. That technology includes social media monitoring, facial recognition software and metal detectors.
“There are plenty of way to look at what safety looks like and to me we don’t need to put the mental health of our students once again in a difficult position because we can’t imagine what safety looks like without these machines,” said Paul Phillps.
