Seattle Public Schools Cut Ties With Police For One Year

SEATTLE, WA — Seattle Public Schools has officially suspended their partnership with the Seattle Police Department for at least one year.

School Superintendent Denise Juneau first discussed the decision during a virtual town hall Tuesday afternoon.

"At this time we are re-evaluating our relationship with SPD, and we are enacting a district-wide, one year suspension of the SEOs and SRO in our schools while we do so," Juneau said.

SEOs are School Emphasis Officers, which have been stationed at four schools within the Seattle Public School district. The officers were stationed at schools through a partnership with the City of Seattle. Otherwise, the school does not have any current contracts with the Seattle Police Department, except as security for large sporting events.

Juneau says decision to suspend their partnership came about through feedback from school leadership, families of color, and public outcry against the recent actions SPD has taken against protesters in Seattle. Since protests began, nearly 17,000 complaints of police misconduct have been filed with Seattle's Office for Police Accountability.

"We need to ensure the Seattle Police Department's values and actions are in alignment with our strategic plan, as well as our values," Juneau said. "I recognize that for many students, any police presence in school buildings can create an environment of fear, rather than one of safety."

Juneau expounded upon that idea in a letter sent to staff and families earlier Tuesday:

While the focus of the School Emphasis Officers has been to build relationships and provide assistance to youth in crisis, the unintended consequence of their presence in our buildings could bring more distress to our young people. While these officers do not do any kind of enforcement, they are armed in our school buildings, and I know that at this moment in time, the presence of an armed officer prohibits many students and staff from feeling fully safe and welcome in our buildings.

After putting forth the idea Tuesday, the Seattle Public Schools board officially enacted their one-year suspension Wednesday.

"Until we can ensure they are in alignment with us, they will not be in our schools except in emergencies," Juneau said.

The move comes shortly after another point of conflict between SPS and SPD. On Monday, a photo circulated online showing police officers using Lowell Elementary School's parking lot on Capitol Hill as a staging ground for protests. Seattle Public Schools said the staging was unauthorized, and strongly condemned the police presence on school grounds. Tuesday, Seattle Public Schools announced that they were forbidding the Seattle Police Department, National Guard, and SWAT teams from using their school campuses as staging grounds for protests.

Along with suspending ties with police, Juneau's letter says the school district must do much more work to protect and encourage black and minority students.

"The anti-Black systems in place in this country are deeply rooted and have been fortified over hundreds of years. The work to tear down and re-build these systems is complex. We will re-evaluate the presence of SPD in our buildings, but like any other organization that supports our students within our walls, they must be aligned to our strategic plan Seattle Excellence, and work to uphold and support the inherent brilliance and innocence in each of our students."

Speaking at the virtual town hall, she reaffirmed that idea. "Our mission is clear, we must become an antiracist organization," said Juneau.

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