Fresno groups want schools to cut campus police funding. Will the district go for it?

This story is part of The Pipeline, a series of stories written by The Fresno Bee’s Education Lab that explore mental health, students and their experience with law enforcement on campus.

As Fresno-area students struggle with what public health experts describe as “crisis fatigue,” a movement of local parents and activists hopes to push schools to invest more money in mental health services for young people.

And many of those groups want the Fresno Unified School District to pay for the services by cutting all funding that schools pay local law enforcement to patrol campuses.

The parent groups suffered a setback over the summer when Fresno Unified’s Board of Trustees renewed some contracts with the Fresno Police Department. The issue was a hot button topic that drew more than 254 public comments from parents and youths.

But the vote to renew the contracts wasn’t unanimous, and the parents and students are hoping for a different outcome Wednesday night when the trustees vote on another round of campus police funding. According to a district staff report, Superintendent Bob Nelson will recommend the board approve the roughly $839,330 in law enforcement funding.

Parents and students identified mental health, campus law enforcement and spending as key issues in a series of recent listening sessions with The Fresno Bee’s Education Lab.

Those parents and students said they feel the district’s law enforcement funding would be better spent helping students like Elisha Mendoza.

Mendoza recently graduated from Edison High, but said pandemic-related stress and struggles with learning online caused her to “shut down” during the final weeks of her last school year.

“I completely gave up,” Mendoza told The Bee in a recent interview. “The thought of, ‘Yeah, I can turn off my laptop, but I can also just stay in my bed.’”

Mendoza was far from alone in her struggles. Mental health experts warn pandemic-related stress and lingering trauma will likely continue to affect young people for years to come, even as some elementary schools and businesses begin to reopen in the coming weeks.

Nelson has repeatedly talked about the need for social-emotional support services for students. Fresno schools have for years offered a variety of mental health-related services, and outperform the state average in school counselor staffing, according to a Fresno Bee analysis of state and local data.

Fresno Unified has earmarked more than $42 million for mental health-related services this school year. But parents and elected officials who spoke with The Bee said it’s not nearly enough. They note that, even with mental health spending far outpacing law enforcement spending, youth suicide attempts in Fresno County have increased in recent months.

With at least some support from elected school officials, those parents want the district to cut all of the nearly $3 million schools spent last year on law enforcement contracts and spend that money on counselors, psychologists, social workers and restorative justice programs.

But critics say the money doesn’t have to come from cutting police contracts, and eliminating law enforcement funding in schools would jeopardize students’ and teachers’ safety.

“In the climate of 2020, 2021, the idea of not having law enforcement on our high schools and middle schools would be paramount to lunacy and insanity,” Trustee Terry Slatic told The Bee.

Suicide attempts up among young people in Fresno

Fresno County health officials have seen an increase in suicide attempts among youths. Health professionals predict COVID-19 will have long-lasting mental health impacts.

This increase is not unique to Fresno. A recent report released by the California state auditor showed the annual number of suicides of youth ages 12 to 19 increased by 15% statewide from 2009 to 2018.

Researchers who spoke with The Bee said Mendoza’s feeling of “giving up” is common and potentially damaging physically.

According to Indiana University neuroscientist Cara Wellman, crisis fatigue-related stress can physically alter a person’s brain.

“Prefrontal cortex is a part of the brain that is very important for cognitive processes like attention,” Wellman said. “Chronic stress produces changes in the structure of brain regions.”

Fortunately for Mendoza, when she gave up learning during the semester’s final weeks, it didn’t hurt her academically.

Nelson cited inequities in technology and internet access when he made schoolwork optional for students after the pandemic shuttered campuses in March.

But that’s not the case for the fall semester. Work and attendance are now required in Fresno’s online classrooms, potentially adding to the pressures for young people who have already faced a summer of COVID-19, social unrest, and, now, massive wildfires that have torched thousands of homes and businesses in California.

Fresno Unified has increased the available mental health resources and tools for students and adults. Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced $5.3 billion in statewide aid would help mitigate learning loss and could be used in various ways, including devices and internet access, mental health and academic support.

Do Fresno schools have enough mental health resources?

With kids learning from home, acquiring social-emotional tools has become a “challenge,” according to the district’s director of the Department of Prevention and Intervention, Rita Baharian.

“It’s heightened the need of it or intensified it. We’re all home, we feel disconnected, and there is a lack of belonging or connectedness, so it impacts our relationships,” Baharian said.

Baharian could not say whether there are enough resources to serve the entire 73,000 student population.

“We have more resources now than we’ve ever had over the last five years. Our services are invested in social, emotional support. We’ve increased our contracts. We’re happy to have partners in the community that can support us,” Baharian said.

Students who need social-emotional support should first contact their local school site. Additionally, Fresno Unified has online resources parents and students can access.

Fresno Unified currently employs 54 social workers, 78 psychologists and 143 counselors to serve the entire district. Additionally, the district hires 107 social-emotional classified staff workers, eight Social Emotional Support staff and one mental health clinician to work directly with students.

Fresno schools are doing better than the state with 513 students for every counselor versus the state average of 592 students per counselor, according to a Fresno Bee analysis of local and state data.

However, the district remains behind the American School Counselor Association’s recommendation of 250 students per counselor.

“We are always looking to increase our partnerships to connect the community with what they need,” Baharian said.

And while district leaders say it’s not clear whether they have all the necessary resources, the problems related to student mental wellness are likely to grow in the coming months.

Can the money come from police contract?

Fresno Unified paid nearly $3 million in law enforcement contracts during the 2019-2020 school year, according to documents obtained by The Bee through a Public Records Act request.

In a statement to The Bee, Fresno Police Chief Andy Hall said, while campuses have been closed, Fresno campus officers have been assisting with meal distribution in the mornings and helping schools with “any other distance learning needs.”

“Currently the trend in our state is that a school district will form its own policing group, similar to what is being done in Clovis or the policing is contracted with a local agency. The decision to change this would lie with Fresno Unified Schools,” Hall said.

Supporters of police funding cuts said the proposed shift would help students.

“I’ve seen the amount of money that they spend to have a police officer on campus, and that could go to different programs; that can go to ethnic studies or mental health programs, or after-school programs, art programs, it could go to so many things that could make school better for kids,” Mendoza said.

Slatic said while more money for psychologists, counselors and social workers is necessary, it shouldn’t come out of police contracts. He has another idea: Slatic said the school district has taken on the “noble” effort to feed everyone in Fresno — not just students. “Why is that a school district priority?” Slatic said those funds could go toward much-needed mental health resources.

Fresno Police Sgt. Jeff La Blue told The Bee that all police officers receive racial bias training every two years.

According to Fresno police data, Black students in 2019 accounted for about 7% of the student population in Fresno Unified schools, but more than 25% of the on-campus cases investigated by law enforcement.

Those numbers are one of the reasons supporters say cuts to law enforcement funding should be permanent.

“Personally, I feel very strongly there is an inequity that is created by having permanent, ongoing, daily presence of law enforcement. There is data that shows a disproportionate impact to Black and brown students in particular,” Trustee Veva Islas said. “We need resource prevention, and, for me, mental health is a part of that prevention.”

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Read more from The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.

This story was originally published October 7, 2020 at 5:00 AM.