As police return to Fresno middle schools, campus officers promise some big changes
The Fresno Unified School Board sided with a majority of district parents and staff in a vote late Wednesday night to bring armed police officers back to some of the district’s middle school campuses — despite challenges from around a dozen residents who spoke out during the meeting, urging trustees to consider alternative routes to safer schools.
The board approved a new agreement with the Fresno Police Department in a 6-1 vote. Trustee Veva Islas was the only member to vote against the deal.
The new agreement will provide five full-time Student Resource Officers to five middle schools, plus one sergeant to oversee these officers, at an annual cost of just over $1 million.
District leaders have described the move as an upgrade from the previous Student Neighborhood Resource Officers (or SNROs) the middle schools had previously who were part-time. The SNROs split their time between schools and the surrounding neighborhood.
The addendum also comes with the goal of staffing all of Fresno Unified’s middle school campuses with at least one SRO by the start of the 2023-24 school year.
Board communications released June 10 said that SRO placement throughout the process will depend on “multiple data measures.” Staff announced Wednesday night that the Fort Miller, Tenaya, Terronez, Kings Canyon, and Gaston middle school campuses would be the first to receive SROs in 2022.
As with the district’s agreement with Fresno PD for its high school campuses, the new deal for the district’s middle schools also stipulates that the district publicly provide data on SRO-student interactions.
Islas, the lone nay vote Wednesday, questioned the amount of money allocated for six campus police vehicles — totaled at roughly $64,000 in the agreement, which she described as “exorbitant.”
Trustee Andy Levine praised language from last year’s agreement for SROs on high school campuses, outlining their responsibilities and stating that officers aren’t supposed to be called upon for “classroom disruptions.” He said that was one of his biggest concerns about SROs contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline while questioning whether the district should collect more data from site administration in this effort.
“How can we be sure this guidance will be followed by site admin and SROs?” he asked.
Several representatives from Fresno Barrios Unidos and other community organizations voiced concerns about the consequences the new measure might have for students with disabilities and students of color. Past data from the police department has shown Black students, in particular, have been arrested disproportionately. In 2019, Black students made up about 7% of the district’s student population, but about 25% of all school-related arrests.
Briana Zweifler, a youth law and policy attorney with Fresno Barrios Unidos, said that she spent years in and out of the carceral system in her youth, which “severed” positive relationships with other students and staff.
“The only reason I was able to exit the trauma (of) the school-to-prison pipeline is because of the opportunities I was afforded as a white person from a higher-income family. Black and brown students are not so lucky,” she said. “So why are you putting cops back on middle school campuses? You can define the role all you want. ... They do not prevent violence. They perpetuate it.”
Wednesday’s vote comes almost two years after the district’s previous contract with Fresno PD to staff its middle school campuses expired in the summer of 2020.
The board tabled a vote to renew the contracts in October 2020, committing to a community engagement process before voting on the contracts again. That process included surveys that showed most parents and staff supported campus police officers.
Board communications from June 10 also referenced survey data from principals at FUSD middle schools, a majority of whom also said there’s a need for SROs on their campuses after not having them for the past two years.
Deputy Police Chief Mike Reid addressed the board, thanking public commenters and trustees for sharing suggestions and “lived experiences.”
He said the district and Fresno PD are still “fine-tuning” the data tool tracking positive outcomes of interactions between SROs and students over the past three months. He said the data currently provides breakdowns by categories like race, ethnicity, and gender, but that they intend to add disability status in the future.
“You’re gonna see a vast difference in about a year,” he said.
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. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 8:17 AM.
