A Washington school district is cutting ties with local police departments and getting rid of school resource officers over the “threat” they pose to students.
The Edmonds School Board of Directors, which oversees a system of four schools near Seattle, voted unanimously on Tuesday to end contracts with police departments providing school resource officers for three of the schools: Meadowdale, Edmonds-Woodway, and Mountlake Terrace. Law enforcement presence at the fourth school, Lynnwood, will be voted on in August, according to Washington’s My Edmonds News.
“Given the facts of our highly-dangerous national and state systems of policing, supervision and incarceration, by being housed in our high schools — no matter how helpful and beloved they are — police are a real risk to many of our students and they contribute to stress and bad health for hundreds of children,” school board president Deborah Kilgore said.
The vote came after weeks of debate among community residents and students over whether removing police and deputies from schools was necessary and, above all, safe. – READ MORE
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