copsinschools

CPS has reopened candidate nominations for council spots until Oct. 2, part of a series of changes to address council elections delayed in April due to the coronavirus crisis.

This is the second time the Chicago Public Schools board has rebuffed a proposal to formally end the district's school resource officer program in the face of vociferous demonstrations from young activists.

Most recently, 55 local school councils voted to keep police and 17 voted to remove them. Chicago Board of Education members have been split on the issue.

At one South Side school, 63 students or young people were arrested this school year, according to CPS data.

Police officers will now only be eligible to work at schools if they have an "excellent" record, and complaints about them will be sent to outside investigators.

Most schools where the student body is majority Black voted to keep cops on campus. The factors that led to the outcome are multifaceted and complex.

Local school councils at more than 70 public high schools spent weeks deciding whether to keep school resource officers on their campuses. Find out more on how your school voted.

Many said they supported having school resource officers at the North Park school, but they want the officers to interact more with the school community.

The school council members said they were listening to students and alumni in voting to remove the school's on-campus police.

Members of the Lake View council said they want the principal to use the first quarter of the school year, when all learning will be online, to craft a structured plan for school resource officers.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday again made it clear she does not intend to defund the Chicago Police Department, but youth activists aren't giving up the fight.

So far, 33 councils have decided to retain the police program, while 12 councils will remove police from schools. More than 70 schools with police officers will need to vote by Friday.

The East Side high school's local school council voted to remove its officers after students organized over the last month against the school's police presence.

"Just knowing that an officer has a handgun on their hip causes so much stress on the students, not knowing if our lives will be taken away," one student said in asking the council to remove police.

One parent volunteer said the city put local school councils in a bad position by forcing them to decide on whether cops should stay in schools. "We aren’t experts on school safety or equity and inclusion," she said.

The Belmont Cragin high school is the latest school that has opted to keep officers in place.

Dozens of Chicago public high schools must vote by the end of the week on school resource officers. The majority have opted to keep police officers on their campuses.

Senn is at least the 10th CPS high school to eliminate in-school police officers.

"There’s a lot of ways to improve what we have here. I think everyone on the council has heard that," said one teacher.