School Resource Officer Return Sought By Alexandria Superintendent

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria's superintendent has joined the calls of some parents to seek the return of school resource officers as recent incidents of violence spurred concerns.

At Thursday's school board meeting, Superintendent Gregory Hutchings Jr. called on City Council to bring back school resource officers to the public schools and develop a plan to "reimagine policing in our schools." City Council's approved fiscal year 2022 budget had eliminated funding for school resource officers. That funding was later redirected to mental health positions.

"The events of the past weeks have shown us what can happen without our community policing partnership with our Alexandria Police Department, and I'm pleading with our City Council this evening that we reinstate our school resource officers immediately," said Hutchings. "We cannot wait for extended conversations about this matter as this situation has really escalated, and I'm not talking about the fights and situations. I'm talking about things that school staff are not equipped to deal with such as the incident [Wednesday].

The statement comes after a student with a gun was found outside Alexandria City High School Wednesday, prompting a lockdown. The student was detained outside the school entrance until Alexandria Police arrived to make an arrest. In addition, there have been reports of numerous fights at the high school as well as George Washington Middle School since the start of the school year.

Other recent incidents happened close to the high school's King Street campus. On Sept. 21, a juvenile was shot during a dispute at the McDonald's at the Bradlee Shopping Center. Another fight happened at the McDonald's Tuesday, as reported by WJLA.

Ricardo Roberts, who is running for the school board in the general election, told the school board Thursday that the safety issue with students bringing weapons has been going on for years. He said his student was beat up last week and wants virtual schooling for safety reasons. Roberts called for the return of school resource officers as well as metal detectors.

In his remarks, Hutchings said students and staff deserve to come to school feeling safe and focused on learning and teaching. He expressed concerns about students who bring weapons in schools to "feel protected."

The superintendent credited school resource officers with preventing incidents and escalation of events. He said the latest memorandum of understanding with the Alexandria Police Department adopted last year was "carefully crafted" to include monitoring, data analysis, collection of data, community engagement, and roles and responsibilities of school resource officers.

Mayor Justin Wilson addressed school resource officers during his Thursday virtual living room town hall. The mayor had been opposed to removing school resource officers from school and hopes the issue will be revisited by City Council. He expects City Council will discuss the issue this upcoming Tuesday.

Wilson believes changes made to the memorandum of understanding last year helped address concerns of Black and brown youth prematurely entering the criminal justice system.

Now, the mayor says police are called to the school frequently instead of school resource officers who are familiar with the school building and staff.

"My bigger concern is that I think by not having school resource officers in the school right now, we're creating a situation where we do accelerate the involvement of youth in the criminal justice system," said Wilson.