Columbia City Council to authorize agreement with CPS bringing back officers in school buildings

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia City Council plans to authorize a new contract with Columbia Public Schools on Monday to bring back police officers in some school buildings, and some people are against the change.

The SRO agreement is a first reading. Meaning there will likely be no discussion at city council, and will need one more reading for passage.

There have been no school resource officers in schools for more than a year after the contract ended in 2020 due to financial reasons.

There will be four new officers hired by the city and CPS that will work throughout the school year and one month during the summer session.

One parent and president of Race Matters Friends Columbia, Traci-Wilson Kleekamp, said school leaders are spending money in ineffective solutions.

"We're spending money on a solution that doesn't provide solutions, when we could spend money on nurses, and counselors, and mentors, and tutors and programming right that helps students learn reconciliation tools, mediation tool, mediation practices, and conflict resolution," Kleekamp said. "I don't expect cops who are taught to only react to violence and to discipline people in ways that are not appropriate for young people to keep doing that."

Renee Carter, RMF member with the district, said this raises the concerns of a school to prison pipeline.

"All the resources shows when you have police officers in the schools students get arrested most of those students are black males and children with special needs, they become school pipeline to prison also," Carter said.

Kleekamp said there is no data that shows SRO's are effective.

"Then there's other issues like equity and what that means and why we believe that SROs are effective even though there's no data that shows that they are. So I would say that the school district's, school to prison pipeline is very concerning," Kleekamp said. "I'm also concerned that because young people are minors when they get arrested, that information is closed to us."

According to the NASRO, school based policing has become one of the fastest growing areas of law enforcement.

There are approximately 19,000 school resource officers working across the country.

In January, the district shared a presentation with its community and heard from a former SRO at its board of education meeting.

The presentation said there are three tenets to being a school resource officer, an education aspect, a mentor or role modeling aspect, and theres the safety deterrent, a deterrent by having an officer in or around schools.

Keisha Edwards, Columbia Police Sergeant and former SRO, said it is important to create a safe space for students.

"My office as a school resource officer is a safe space, when you don't have another adult to talk to. The arrest is not the first thing you want to do its the last thing you want to do," Edwards said.

One officer will be assigned to work at Hickman High School, one at Rock Bridge High school and two will be assigned to Battle High School.