April 8, 2021 – Around 125 people attended a Winooski School District (WSD) School Board Special Meeting on Wednesday, where more than 60 individuals from the Winooski community, including parents, current students, alumni, and school staff members shared their thoughts, experiences, and feelings about the School Resource Officer (SRO) program in the WSD. The meeting was interpreted in Swahili/French, Arabic, Somali/Mai Mai, and Nepali.
After four hours of public comments, the School Board voted 4-1 to retain the district’s current SRO program through the 2021/2022 school year.
Within the same motion, the board approved the commission of a multi-stakeholder committee to further examine the SRO program in the district and research school safety models. The multi-stakeholder group will be required to have a report and recommendations ready mid-November 2021 to guide a path forward.
Board Chair Tori Cleiland said that while the level of community engagement at the meeting was inspiring, she still felt sad about the outcome due to the voices that would remain marginalized.
Tori said she agreed with fellow Board Member Kamal Dahal’s statement that the issue of the SRO program in the district remains completely binary. “It was clear from the testimony that our community is divided about whether to keep or remove the position. It is imperative for all students to feel safe in school and it is clear that’s not the case as BIPOC students expressed being negatively impacted by the presence of an armed SRO. Institutional racism exists; collectively, there is a lot of dismantling ahead,” Tori said.
In June 2020, a newly formed group called the Winooski Students for Antiracism (WSA) submitted a list of eight demands to the WSD School Board which included that the SRO be replaced with two trauma specialists trained in restorative justice practices/intervention. In response, the School Board has been collecting information and input from the community over the past five months about safety and security in the district. Wednesday’s Special Board meeting was the first meeting held explicitly for community members to share their thoughts about the SRO with the full board.
Tori said there is more work to be done before viable alternatives to the SRO program can be proposed. “The wisdom is in the community and we need to do the work together. Change is not about just stopping something; it’s about finding new ways of doing it”.
The roles, responsibilities, and tasks of the new multi-stakeholder committee will be discussed at the next regular board meeting on April 14 at 6:30pm. Find the link here.