Two New York City councilmen are calling on officials to transfer control of school security from the NYPD to the Education Department in the wake of massive protests over police brutality and racism.
Councilmen Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn), the chairman of the City Council Education Committee, and Donovan Richards (D-Queens), said the current organizational setup leaves the more than 5,000 school safety agents stationed in city schools unaccountable to school principals, and ill-equipped to handle sensitive situations with students.
“At a time when students are experiencing more trauma than ever, we need to make sure that our approach to school safety is aligned to meet the holistic needs of children,” the lawmakers wrote in a Monday statement.
“We need nothing short of structural change,” they added.
The call comes on the heels of cries from students, activists, and thousands of Education Department employees urging city officials to remove the NYPD from schools. Some critics have suggested transferring supervision of current safety officers to the Education Department and retraining them.
Mayor de Blasio signaled last week he has no plans to reconfigure the school safety force, citing continued risks at schools. Hizonner instead proposed a series of town halls where students can voice their opinions.
Treyger and Richards argue that oversight for school safety originally shifted to the NYPD during an era in the late 1990s when city officials prized “Zero Tolerance” student discipline — an approach the Education Department has tried to leave behind.
“We are past the days of ‘Zero Tolerance,’ ” they wrote, “but we maintain its systems and structures.”
The lawmakers said that more incremental efforts to reform school safety operations — like revising the agreement between the Education Department and the NYPD — have fallen short. They said Council legislation that required cops to report on the use of metal detectors and asked principals to evaluate the performance of school safety agents in their buildings went unheeded.
“School safety personnel still have a role to play in keeping children safe,” the lawmakers continued, “but as part of a holistic approach to school climate led by school leaders, not as a fiefdom of the NYPD operating within schools.”
