The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted Tuesday to cut $ 25 million from the Los Angeles School Police Department and reduce 133 jobs, a CNN spokesman said.
Money goes from the police agency to a black student performance plan to empower community groups, improve student literacy and reduce the “over-identification of black students in suspensions, discipline and other measures”, according to the meeting’s agenda.
The council for the country’s second largest school district, with more than 600,000 students, also banned pepper spray against pupils, the spokesman said.
“We are taking an important step in the right direction to provide black students with vital investments in their success – with millions of dollars providing money for academic support, social-emotional resources and a new approach to school climate and safety,” the school said. said. board member Nick Melvoin. “These student- and community-driven actions have long since ceased to be necessary.”
The cuts to the police budget apparently did not come as a surprise to the agency.
In a
statement following the vote, Chief Leslie Ramirez said: “The depth and significance of this action was clear from the outset and today’s decision brings the realism of an upcoming LASPD reform into our service delivery model.”
Several large school districts have eliminated or reduced the police presence
The council announced that they would re-evaluate the role of the police on campuses in June, with the aim of making students feel that they are a respected part of their school community.
Los Angeles joins cities such as Oakland, Milwaukee and Denver that have reduced or removed police from public schools, a step spurred by nationwide protests against police brutality following the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and other black men and women the hand of police.
Some police reform activists say that officers end up “criminalizing” black and Latin students or punishing them disproportionately as students of other races.
Disturbing footage showed school police behaving violently toward students, such as when Orlando police were arrested in which they arrested a 6-year-old girl after an apparent rage in 2019, or the same year when North Carolina police fired accused of beating their children to death and putting them down. in a stranglehold.
