A new approach to safety in schools
In light of recent events in the world like mass shootings, police brutality, COVID-19, etc. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has partnered with five community based organizations to come up with a more holistic approach to school safety.
The organizations involved are: The Ark of the St. Sabina, BUILD, COFI Power PAC, Mikva Challenge, and VOYCE. These organizations were tasked with coming up with a Whole School Safety Comprehensive plan.
Lois Edmon, a Chicago Public Schools teacher for over 15 years, shared her thoughts about the Whole School Safety Comprehensive Plan.
“I think that the plan came out according to plan. We said we wanted, They listed out the principles, process, and recommendations on how to get the job done. In all 15 years of my teaching, I’ve never seen an initiative this big backed by the government,” she said. “A lot of the safety planned revolved around the safety of the children but it’s also adults in these schools too that face safety issues. We’ll take all these problems one step at a time though. I’m happy we have gotten this far.”
The organizations hosted 18 town halls where parents and teachers alike could voice their concerns and opinions on what they think should be included in the whole school safety plan. In an article published by the Chicago Sun Times, Donte Hullum, a Simeon High School sophomore and leader with the student group, VOYCE, spoke on how he felt about the town hall meetings.
“Having community input that was centered on youth voices helped create a space for young people to feel heard in this process,” said Hullum.
At these meetings, people spoke out their desire for CPS to remove officers from within schools and replace them with counselors.
Block Club Chicago spoke with the director of community engagement at BUILD, Juan Villalobos, about the issue.
“When young people have conflicts with each other or conflicts with teachers or conflicts within school, we know that there’s sometimes a deeper issue there,” said Villalobos.
The Shriver Center Poverty on Law compiled research from 2003 that out of over 8,500 students were arrested in school 77 percent of those students were Black. They also found that almost 5,000 referrals were made in school to law enforcement in 2012-2013. This is an alarming amount of children arrested instead of given the mental help they actually need.
The safety plan was presented virtually and broadcast here for everyone to see. The entire plan can be read here. The plan includes these highlights:
Schools should increase focus on Social Emotional Learning and mental health practices by increasing access to mental health professionals.
Schools should invest in increased and continuous training for designated behavioral intervention employees (e.g. safe passage workers, counselors, social workers, behavioral health teams, administrators, security officers).