DC school security officers say removing them will make children less safe

Cause for concern over removing SROs from DC schools

Frustrated and fearful school security guards spoke out Thursday, claiming that recent moves by the D.C. Council make District children less safe. 

WASHINGTON - Frustrated and fearful school security guards spoke out Thursday, claiming that recent moves by the D.C. Council make District children less safe.

“Parents should be enraged right about now,” said Abdul Al-Akbar, a security officer at H.D. Woodson High School.

“If you cut security,” said Crystal Nicholson, a security officer at Brightwood Education Campus, “how will we be able to keep violence out of our schools?”

The concern stems from a heated debate happening all over the country, including in D.C., where the Council voted eight-to-five Tuesday to transfer management of the DC Public Schools security contract from the police department to the school system. The council also voted to reduce the contract by $4 million and direct the school system to put the savings into school budgets.

“I think that makes it a whole lot less safe,” Luke C. Moore High School Security Officer Alicia Lewis said of the legislation.

But those who support the measure have a different take. Councilmember David Grosso chairs the Education Committee and tweeted, “by passing this amendment, the council will show that it believes funds are better utilized on educating our students and supporting their behavioral health.”

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Councilmember Charles Allen chairs the Judiciary Committee and has also advocated for reinvesting money that would otherwise go to traditional policing. In a statement on proposed budget changes released late last month, Allen said, “this budget, on its own, will not overcome decades of underinvestment in our Black neighbors. But it is a significant step forward, propelled by the advocacy of thousands of residents who have written, chanted, and marched to demand an end to the status quo.”

Still, those on the other side of the debate urged the council to reverse their decision when the legislation comes up for a second vote at the end of the month.

“That would show that the council members do care about our fifty-thousand-some-off children that are in the school system. Other than that they’re not showing that they care,” reasoned Cherita Whiting, the co-chair of the NAACP Education Committee for the DC Chapter as well as the co-chair of the Ward 4 Education Committee.

As for the sworn resource officers themselves, Sgt. Sonja Flipping said, “if we do all that we should for the youth, for the community we serve from our heart, and it’s really in us, we don’t have to push, search or beg, our gift will make room for us.”