“In recent years, high profile use of force incidents and several reports indicating racial profiling of students raises concerns about the presence of deputies in schools. We’ll bring together experts to discuss how the program began, the purpose and protocols, and areas for improvements,” according to a news release by the LASD Civilian Oversight Commission.
A teenage girl was allegedly body-slammed and called an “animal” by a deputy working as a school resource officer at Lancaster High School in 2021. The girl is now suing the county, the Sheriff’s Department, Deputy Daniel Acquilano and the Antelope Valley Union High School District. [Read more here.]
The schedule for the Civilian Oversight Commission’s virtual conference series titled “Deputies in Schools” is outlined below:
Session 1: Deputies in Schools: Background & Overview
- Thursday, July 27
- 9 to 10:30 a.m.
- Speakers: Mourad Kabanjian, Sergeant, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; Kelly Fischer, Deputy Director, Office of Violence Prevention; Raquel Derfler, Co-Chair or Cancel the Contract; and Dara Williams, Chief Deputy, Office of Inspector General.
- Register here. When your registration is approved, you’ll receive an invitation to join the webinar.
Session 2: Deputies in Schools: Balancing Safety & Equity
- Monday, July 31
- 1:00-2:30pm
- This session will dive into the goals and obstacles of balancing safety and equity while deputies are in schools. While School Resource Deputies are tasked to ensure school safety, there is debate about the impact of engagement these officers have with students.
- Register here or call 213-306-3065 and enter access code: 2538 262 8261.
Session 3: Deputies in Schools: Ensuring Outcomes & Accountability
- Thursday, Aug. 3
- 9 to 10 a.m.
- This panel will highlight the goals of school security and how districts, schools, parents, and students can work toward improved outcomes for student and ensuring accountability for all.
- Register here or call 213-306-3065 and enter access code: 2538 893 5740
Submit written public comment
In addition to a live question and answer periods following speaker remarks, community members may submit written comments online by August 7. To submit comments in writing click here.
[Information via news release from the Civilian Oversight Commission.]
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Tim Scott says
The pitch that sold “hey let’s put cops in the schools” was the idea that it would somehow prevent mass shootings in schools. So we had a school shooting in a school with a cop in it in Florida, and the result was prosecution of the cop for dereliction of duty since his response to the shooting was to cower in the parking lot. Meanwhile we have the unintended outcome that cops become hall monitor enforcers that think their job includes beating the hell out of children. Time to abandon this approach, that was obviously misguided, and try something else.
Frank Rizzo says
Cops are needed in the schools out here. The kids are products of their trash parents. These schools are terrible out here, this is what happens when liberals run an education system. I think if kids don’t want to be in school and their parents don’t care, why make them go? They just cause problems for kids that want to learn.
TM says
Public education, on the whole, is “trash” now. It’s all about test results and data, data, data — completely driven by Pearson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and other for-profit companies that lobby the federal and state government for standardized testing every school year.
On top of that, teachers are held to unrealistic ideals and workplace demands that few of the general public can really comprehend. Yet, they (the state, the districts) keep piling more and more demands on us, more paperwork and continue to tie our hands even further with regard to discipline and keeping order in the classroom. We are supposed to have optimal classroom management while also permitting certain students to have behaviors and minimal ability to reprimand them or have admin give any consequences. The lower the household income in a given area, the worse it is for the schools and staff.
What’s the answer to all of this? I don’t know. Sadly, I see the U.S. public school system eventually imploding in on itself. It is already under an immense amount of pressure and lots of teachers have simply thrown their hands up and walked off the job into other careers where they feel more valued and dignified.
Tim Scott says
While I agree with the idea that kids that don’t want to be there shouldn’t be there, the reality is that the education system’s primary function is containment of youth so that parents can work. If you give an exemption to “the kids that don’t want to be there” the place would be empty.
Beau says
Schools had cops on campus way before “mass shootings” existed. It was for the ongoing gang wars that always had someone arrested for stabbing, or assault. I was happy they were able to use force because the students knew over 20 years ago they could act a fool and threaten to sue if teachers did anything. Lawlessness was and is bred into and taught under the guise of social justice and “equity”. So sick of this disgusting parasitic mindset.