There’s a Movement to Defund School Police, Too
Fueled by recent protests, some school districts are ending contracts with local law enforcement and instead turning to private security officers and counselors.
An activist hands out posters calling for the removal of police officers from schools during a youth protest in Boston on June 10.
Photographer: Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
When students in Minneapolis, Denver and Oakland eventually return to their classrooms, one group will be notably missing from school grounds: the police.
After the killing of George Floyd and the resulting “defund the police” movement to divert resources to other types of community services, the Minneapolis School District was the first of several in the U.S. to end its relationship with the local police department. On June 2, the school board voted unanimously to terminate the decades-long contract, which costs the district $1.1 million per year to employ 14 school resource officers, or SROs, to monitor high schools and middle schools.