- This week, the Madison School
Board voted to remove police
officers from its schools.
It was one of the demands of
racial justice protesters
who say African-American
students can feel threatened by
their presence.
Earlier today, we spoke with
Madison School Board President
Gloria Reyes, who also
happens to be a former police
officer.
And Gloria Reyes, thanks very
much for joining us.
- Thank you for having me.
- So why did you vote in favor
of removing police resource
officers from Madison's high
schools?
- No, it was a really difficult
decision.
You know, after George Floyd's
murder of-- by
a police officer, it really
changed the environment
throughout the country and here
locally.
I learned early on,
shortly thereafter that
I lost the majority
of board members' support to
keep SROs in our schools.
And I had to set
my personal and professional
thoughts about
our police officers in schools
and listen to my colleagues and
the many voices in our
community who were
advocating to remove
our officers from our
schools.
Well, I know that
our Madison Police Department,
SROs particularly,
have provided our schools and
students many benefits that
have built trust and
relationships.
And our
Madison Police Department
officers serve our community
every day with integrity
and compassion.
I know that because I served
and worked alongside many
of them.
I also felt that the
combination of the racially
motivated incidents in our
country had served
really to increase the
emotional and psychological
impact that having SROs
in our schools and it
had and the impact that it had
on our students, especially our
students of color.
So as a result, I felt we owed
it to them to pursue a viable
alternative to
SROs in our buildings.
I know that we as a community
and all over the country have
utilized police
officers to respond
to every societal challenge.
And we need to stop placing our
officers in those positions,
invest in
resources that get to the
root causes of violence and
public safety challenges
instead of relying on our
officers and place them in
these positions
to solve a lot of our
complex societal challenges.
So considering the
incidents of racial injustice
that our nation has experienced
and as
MMSD continued planning for
the reopening of schools this
fall, I felt
that the timing was right.
It gives us some time
for the Board of Education
to incorporate a strategy
of options to remove
SROs from our school.
And so, you know, it's a very
complex times, as you know,
and having lasting
and painful memories
for our students and staff and
felt it was time to press
harder to dismantle
the systems that perpetuate
racism and create new
structures,
void of harmful
inequities.
And with that well being of
every student at the center,
and this is an opportunity to
do that right.
Not only within our law
enforcement profession, but
also within our public school
system.
- I know that you were just
saying that the student
resource officers provide
a lot of different services
other than just being kind of
peacekeepers or,
you know, dealing with issues
within a school.
In fact, some people
are saying, OK,
if you if you remove these
officers from the schools,
then you really need to
backfill with things
like social workers and
psychologists, counselors and
nurses.
Is that in the
planning in terms of
trying to replace all of the
things that these officers
provided in the schools?
- Yeah. I mean, that has to be
part of the plan.
We had relied
on officers to really be social
workers, mental health
professionals
when they don't have the
capacity to do that.
And we as
a school district need to
prioritize our budget
around social service
opportunities and services to
our students.
And so we're just going to have
to invest our funds
in a different way
to provide those mental health
and
social emotional support
systems for our students.
- And so are there those funds
within the district to do that?
- We will-- currently right
now we are waiting
for the state budget.
And so we don't have
anything set in place right
now.
But that is going to be our
priority.
You know, I know that Madison
Teachers Union did come out
and had
supported removing
SROs out of our schools
if we were able to come up with
an additional 33
staff people.
And I can't say
either way right now,
however, we're considering a
variety of different
approaches.
We are, like I said, currently
waiting for the budget repair
bill from the state.
And it's unlikely, though, that
we will be able to hire
anywhere near that amount of
additional staff in time, but
we anticipate because
we anticipate some budget
reductions. However,
I think we have to figure out
and be innovative
and divert current resources
to these support services.
- Some people have said that,
in fact, not withstanding
everything we've been talking
about, these officers in the
schools had been able
to build relationships and
provide as role models
to some students.
What about the loss of that?
- It's going to be a big loss.
It is. I think
they have-- they
were one component of
our safety and security plan.
They were able to build
relationships, as you said,
de-escalate situations
and offer, you know, family and
training support.
And so they provided great
service to our students at our
comprehensive high schools.
And I think we're just going to
have to reimagine what
our public safety looks like
right now. I think we
have to really put our
students, particularly our
students of color
at the center
and to be able to lead us
through a solution.
Law enforcement has-- is
really been placed
in positions that
historically has caused harm
disproportionately
for our
people of color.
And we have to recognize that
on reinventing
what public safety looks like
in our schools.
- All right. Gloria Reyes, we
need to leave it there.
Thank you very much for joining
us on this.
- Sure.
Thank you.