Senator Gary Winfield and Community First Coalition Call for Action on the Use of School Resource Officers, Announce Proposed Bill 119
Hartford, CT (February 2, 2023) – The Community First Coalition, Senator Gary Winfield, Representative Anthony Nolan, and other education justice advocates and legislators packed room 1B in the Legislative Office Building yesterday during a press conference to discuss the role of school resource officers (SROs) in Connecticut Schools.
“Good morning everyone, today is February 1st, the first day of Black History Month. The weather is cloudy with a chance of police-free-schools” said Shineika Fareus, Organizing Director with Connecticut Black and Brown Student Union (BBSU), who opened the Press Conference. “A just and care-centered educational system is possible for our students… It’s one thing to speak about this issue, it’s another thing to do it. It’s time for change.”
Throughout the conference, speakers discussed solutions for building an educational system that emphasizes community and care in Connecticut schools by addressing the use of SROs, as well as highlighted disparities in arrests and expulsions for Black and Latinx students.
The sponsor of Proposed Bill 119, “An Act Concerning the Use of School Resource Officers In Connecticut Schools,” Senator Gary Winfield (D-New Haven) spoke next. “There's no reason why the good stuff that [School Resource Officers] do cannot be done by other folks. So that bill is going to open up a conversation about just that… Instead of having the same battle where we make no progress, this seems like something that people who don’t even agree about whether we should have them or not should be able to find a space of agreement.” Winfield said.
Attendees included Representatives Aundre Bumgardner, Deputy Majority Leader Antonio Felipe, Chief Majority Whip Robyn Porter as well as several Community First Coalition member organizations including CT Students for a Dream (C4D), Citywide Youth Coalition (CWYC), Hearing Youth Voices (HYV), Radical Advocates for Cross-Cultural Education (RACCE), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut (ACLU-CT).
“I happen to be in the unique position of having been a police officer, a Black police officer, and also being a 10-year role as a school resource officer,” said Representative Anthony Nolan (D-New London). “I had a lot of encounters with youth, even here in this room, and I built really good relationships, but I’ve come to grow into understanding the difficulties as a police officer who is trying to break away from the arrest policies and towards restorative justice policies. I’m very happy to be a supporter of this bill.”
“I stand in front of you today to speak to the importance of providing alternatives to non-violent interactions with students, as well as holding schools accountable to the reporting process of police interactions with students and schools,” said Nicole Broadus, mom of two, Organizing Manager at Hearing Youth Voices, and member of the Community First Coalition. “Research has shown that the overpopulation of school resource officers has directly impacted children of color more than anyone. Especially Black and Latinx students, who are 3.1 times and 1.6 times, respectively, more likely to be arrested as compared to their white peers..”
“Waterbury is Ground Zero for Connecticut’s School to Prison Pipeline… Our work surveying over 250 Waterbury students reveals that 75% believe schools benefit from having school counselors more than they do SROs,” said Robbie Goodrich, Co-Founder of Waterbury-based non-profit Radical Advocates for Cross-Cultural Education (RACCE). “Students, teachers, and parents need to have a larger role in these decisions to place police or to allow policing tactics to be used in schools.”
CT Students for a Dream members Alisha Estrada, a 17-year-old high school junior from Brent High school, and Shairi Benavidez, an 18-year-old senior at Brent High school shared their stories of how the presence of SROs or inadequate funding for counselors and mental health supports has negatively impacted their school experience.
“With 2000 plus students we only have four social workers. One of the four social workers are Spanish speaking when the majority of the students are Hispanic or Latinx,” said Estrada. “Students don’t meet their social worker unless they’re called down or they need serious help. Not only do we not have enough support. We don’t feel safe.”
“I have an eleven-year-old brother who’s in 6th grade. I get anxious thinking about how soon he will be experiencing the same things as me, maybe even worse,” said Benavidez. “I’m here because I envision a better future.”
“There are too many stories of undocumented and unprecedented police interactions with students. Back in 2019, a group of out-of-district Norwich police officers were buzzed into New London high school where they pulled 5 kids out of class into the hallway without informing their parents lined them up and took their mugshots,” said Andrea Kitchen Walker, an Apprentice Organizer with Hearing Youth Voices (HYV). “This is just one of many examples of the ways in which the school-to-prison pipeline criminalizes and adultifies our youth.”
The coalition urged those interested in participating in this campaign to follow the BBSU on social media, and to keep track of PB 119’s progress as it makes its way through the Judiciary Committee, which Sen. Winfield co-chairs.
“Because of systemic racism, the students hurt worst and first, by police surveillance in schools are Black and Latinx kids. Because of interlocking systems of oppression, students with disabilities are also disproportionately hurt by police presence in schools,” said Claudine Constant, Public Policy and Advocacy Director, ACLU of Connecticut and final speaker. “Black and Brown students often have to attend schools with fewer resources and support and teachers are often not equipped to maneuver through difficult situations. Leaving the police as the first and only resort.”
“This bill is not an end. It is resetting the foundations of understanding that we should have made clear in 2015,” Sen. Winfield said.
Community First Coalition members are available for further comment.
A live stream of the conference can be viewed here.
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About The Community First Coalition (CFC)
Coalition Members include the Blue Hills Civic Association, Citywide Youth Coalition, CT BBSU, CT Justice Alliance, CT Students for A Dream, Connecticut Voices for Children, Hearing Youth Voices, Middletown Racial Justice Coalition, New Britain Racial Justice Coalition, and Radical Advocates for Cross-Cultural Education (R.A.C.C.E.).
CT BBSU’s Community First Coalition is a group of grassroots, youth-led, and justice-centered organizations fighting to reimagine public safety without police or policing in our communities.
About The Connecticut Black and Brown Student Union (CT BBSU / BBSU)
The BBSU is the work and dedication of youth and adult organizers and philanthropists committed to strengthening and growing the landscape of youth justice in CT. The BBSU serves as a grassroots incubation hub for youth development and institutional change and works at the intersection of education justice, leadership development, and community safety.
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