Framingham Group Wants Police Out Of Public Schools

FRAMINGHAM, MA — A group of Framingham parents want city police out of schools over concerns that the officers put minority students at higher risk of being harshly disciplined.

The group Framingham Families for Racial Equity in Education released a petition on Tuesday asking the Framingham City Council and School Committee to remove school resource officers. The group wants money spent on officers to be put back into the school system.

One of the group's main concerns is that minority students are disciplined more often than white students. Having officers in schools could also worsen the school-to-prison pipeline, the group says. Two officers are stationed at Framingham High School and a third works across the district as a school resource officer, according to the Office of Safety and Security. Keefe Tech also has a school resource officer.

The latest state data on discipline in Framingham from the 2018-19 school year is lopsided against minority students. Out of 399 students who received serious discipline that year — including suspensions, arrests, and emergency removals — 238 were minority students and 161 were white. Only about 45 percent of students in Framingham schools are minorities.

And, only students from minority groups experienced a school-based arrest in 2018-19. No white students were arrested that year, according to the state data.

One of the founders of the group, Meenakshi Verma Agrawal, highlighted the district's recent statement on the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The district's statement affirms support for the Black Lives Matter movement, and Agrawal says removing police from schools would be a tangible step toward that support.

"If you're going to put out a statement about Black Lives Matter, you need to put some policy and practice behind it," she said.

The group was founded in 2016 by parents over equity issues at King Elementary. Agrawal helped train district staff on racial equity issues, but she's been disappointed with "no noticeable changes or improvements" made since then, she said.

Since Floyd's killing, a movement to defund police has swept the nation and some parts of Massachusetts. Parents in Worcester have asked the school district to stop funding school resource officers. The school board in Minneapolis last week voted to terminate the school resource officer program following Floyd's killing.

Patch has reached out to Framingham Public Schools for comment. We will update this story as soon as we hear back.