Montgomery County, Maryland is also discussing the practice of having police regularly stationed on school premises. In March, County Executive Marc Elrich stated that “The SROs will not be in schools” in the fall. Additionally in April, he announced the interagency “Reimagining School Safety and Students’ Well-Being Initiative.” This committee will be focused on reforming safety in MCPS and will be chaired by representatives from Montgomery County’s police department, health department, school system, and will include some students, as well. Local activists are concerned that police will still be as present as they are now in school communities and in the lives of students through other practices, such as by rebranding their roles as community resources officers. The Montgomery County School Board is meeting on May 11th and there is a scheduled dialogue on School Resource Officers, however there is a vote to make this a closed meeting early in their agenda.
Zakiya Sankara-Jabar, MCPS parent and activist says, “I know for me and my family, we don’t view having police officers as safety. In fact, we believe that sometimes when officers are involved, we fear that people will actually get more harmed or even die because of the history and because of things that we know are continuing to happen in our world.”
Now is the time to call and/ or write your district councilmember, the at-large councilmembers, your district board of education member, and the at-large board of education members to express your concerns about having police in our schools.
