Jeffery Payne addresses his fellow students during the Youth Empowered in the Struggle rally on May 1. (Photo by Devin Blake)
By Devin Blake
This story was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, where you can find other stories reporting on fifteen city neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Visit milwaukeenns.org.
It’s been nearly six months since police officers were supposed to be stationed at Milwaukee Public Schools campuses under a new state law. While local and state entities work to roll out the mandate, students continue to voice their opposition.
About 150 students rallied outside MPS’ school administration building on May 1, which also is known as May Day, a day observed in honor of workers’ rights and the labor movement.
Students argued that school resource officers should not be present at schools at all.
But some students are proposing a compromise: have school resource officers stationed somewhere discreetly on campuses but away from classrooms and buildings.
‘It doesn’t make me feel that safe’
“I’ve had some issues with cops in the past, like getting pulled over and stuff. It’s scary,” said Zaiire Winslow, a 16-year-old student at Riverside University High School. “Having those people around you all the time when I’m supposed to be in a safe place of learning, it doesn’t make me feel that safe. It makes me feel like I’m always being watched.”
This is not the first time the issue of school resource officers in Milwaukee schools has come up.
MPS began removing school resource officers in 2016, then ended its contracts with the Milwaukee Police Department in 2020.
Common arguments against having school resource officers include: their disproportionate engagement with students of color and students with disabilities. Others say the money to pay for the officers could be used for other needs and that police in schools do not actually improve student safety.
But some lawmakers have not been convinced.
In June 2023, the state legislature enacted 2023 Act 12, which, among other things, requires the deployment of 25 police officers in MPS schools.
‘Evolve with it and go with it’
The rally was organized by student members of Youth Empowered in the Struggle, or YES, the youth arm of Voces de la Frontera, a group that advocates for immigrant and workers’ rights.
Students gave speeches on a range of topics, including the quality of school lunches and the crisis in Gaza.
When it came time to discuss school resource officers, students articulated standard arguments against them, but others decided on a different strategy by accepting the presence of school resource officers as an inevitability.
“The best that we can do is evolve with it and go with it,” said Jeffery Payne, a senior at Milwaukee Marshall High School and a member of YES since he was a sophomore.
Since school resource officers are being deployed at MPS due to a state law, Payne and other YES members want to make sure they have a say in their duties.
“I’m personally fine as long as they’re not patrolling in the classrooms or in the buildings,” Payne said. “If there was a way we could just compromise and just have them off to the side somewhere, they’re only called when needed, they’re not touching the students, near the students any other way, that’s fine with me.”
The point of this arrangement would be to reduce the amount of interactions students have with officers.
Neither MPD nor MPS officials provided comment regarding the proposed compromise by students like Payne.
Abdull Aziz (from left), Emily Chang and Nataly Gudino hold a sign protesting police in schools as part of a Youth Empowered in the Struggle rally outside the Milwaukee Public Schools administration building on May 1. (Photo by Devin Blake)
Existing alternatives
Such a proposal is not just wishful thinking, Payne said.
A similar arrangement is taking place with school resource officers from the city of Racine Police Department.
School resource officers in Racine have a dedicated office in each of the two high schools where they are deployed, only responding to police matters, rather than mere violations of school policies and responding only by request from school administrators, said Sgt. Kristi Wilcox, public information officer for the department.
School resource officers interact with the students during passing time in a “social way … not shaking any students down” and try to have positive interactions with the students, Wilcox said.
School resource officers also are active during sporting events and assemblies, added Wilcox.
YES members proposed this sort of middle ground directly to MPS administration during a listening session in March, said Ari Antreassian, director of YES.
MPS administrators listened to YES members but have not substantively responded to their concerns or questions, said Antreassian.
Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, which trains school resource officers throughout the country, believes that such an arrangement defeats the purpose of having police in schools.
School resource officers who are stationed away from students cannot fulfill the essential functions of the job because “a school resource officer, by definition, is engaged in community-based policing in the school environment,” Canady said.
When stationed away from buildings and classrooms, school resource officers are unable to achieve some of their vital law enforcement goals, including relationship building and intelligence gathering, Canady added.
Stephen Davis, media relations manager for MPS, said that MPS continues to collaborate with a number of stakeholders, including student groups and MPD.
The goal, Davis said, is to develop a plan that “redefines the previous role of the school resource officer.”
No timeline for the return of school resource officers has been announced.
Devin Blake is the criminal justice reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. His position is funded by the Public Welfare Foundation, which plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.