School Resource Officers will be returning to high schools and middle schools on a temporary, transitional basis — a decision made by city council members in the wee hours of Wednesday morning after a long, dramatic meeting.
In a 4-3 vote (with council members Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, Mo Seifeldein and Canek Aguirre voting against it), council voted to temporarily restore SROs to Alexandria's middle and high schools.
School Resource Officers (SROs) were removed from schools in a budget add/delete session just before the city’s overall budget passed back in May, while most students were attending school remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, city staff has started to work on hiring additional mental health professionals for students and ways to increase safety without armed police officers stationed in school buildings — but the early weeks of the school year have included multiple reports of fights, at least one "brawl" and two weapons incidents at Alexandria City High School. At least two shootings involving juveniles have also occurred in the city.
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'We have a problem and we need to fix it.'
The bulk of Tuesday night's council meeting centered on a three-hour-long conversation between city council members, school officials and police officials about school safety. The conversation was frequently pointed, tense and dramatic.
Shortly after 11 p.m., a frustrated and angry Mayor Justin Wilson suspended the conversation on the issue of school safety and expressed extreme disappointment in the conduct of some of his fellow council members.
"I thought we were going to have a productive conversation… and I don’t think we had that," Wilson said. "We had, quite honestly, a discussion where we’re all trying to score points back and forth on an issue that was decided back in the spring. I’m sorry that we had to do this, quite honestly. Every day I send both my kids to you guys," Wilson said, addressing school officials who were in attendance. ".... I trust you guys with my kids' lives every day and I have for a long time. Regardless of what your opinion on this issue is, we have a problem and we need to fix it. I was hopeful we would have a dialogue on how the two bodies could work together … that didn’t happen."
Wilson noted that the City of Alexandria is trying to hire a new city manager and he couldn't imagine any city manager job candidate watching Tuesday night's meeting video and wanting to work in Alexandria.
"I think that has been a horrific process from the beginning regardless of your view on this issue, this is not the way we collaborate with another elected body," Wilson said. “This sucks. This is disastrous. What person would watch this meeting tonight and say this is where I want to send my kids?"
(Audio and video of the full meeting will be available at this link in the next few days: https://alexandria.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=57.)
An Unexpected Proposal
In response to the escalating violence in and around Alexandria public schools, the four city council members who voted earlier this year to effectively sunset the SRO program unexpectedly proposed solutions in a joint statement they released just minutes after the city council meeting started — before any discussion occurred.
The timing of the release by Canek Aguirre, Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, John Taylor Chapman and Mo Seifeldein caused confusion and frustration among some council members and school system officials.
The statement said: “We will not be reimplementing the SRO program, but we offer instead a new path forward. We propose to add additional resources ... for ACPS to implement a holistic student health and safety solution, which includes a transitional period, immediate and ongoing support, and a long-term solution to begin in the 2022-2023 school year.”
Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Gregory Hutchings, Jr., School Board Chair Meagan Alderton and ACHS Executive Principal Peter Balas had been invited to speak to council Tuesday night — and they asked specifically for the return of SROs to Alexandria schools.
Releasing the statement prior to the city council discussion with school system and police officials confused those who did not receive the statement directly, including Alexandria City High School Executive Principal Peter Balas, who posted on Twitter: "... huh?" Later, as the meeting wore on, Balas tweeted, "This was already decided? The topic is still being discussed. ... I just kinda feel like the meeting is still happening."
After several hours of discussion, which did not include discussion about the released statement, council member Amy Jackson brought up the statement to her fellow council members and said she found the timing of the statement's release "concerning."
"Why were we talking about it if minds were already made up?" she asked. "If you knew what you were gonna do, why did we still go through three hours of what just happened?"
Aguirre said that everyone wants students to be safe, but the issue is that there are a lot of different philosophies of what safety looks like. Part of the reason the extended conversation Tuesday night had to happen, he said, was due to the way the docket was laid out.
Hutchings, Alderton, Balas Ask for Return of SROs to Schools
Opening the conversation about school safety earlier in the meeting, Wilson, who voted against defunding the SRO program earlier this year, said there has been in recent weeks "unacceptable and inappropriate" violence in local schools.
The school system does have its own security force who are trained in de-escalation techniques and peaceful resolution. In addition, the city council proposed creating city staff positions for additional mental health support for students and the larger school community, but hiring people to fill those positions is not yet complete.
The addition of the school safety topic to the city council meeting's docket came after Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Gregory Hutchings, Jr. asked for additional assistance during last Thursday's School Board meeting, saying, "I'm pleading with our city council this evening that we reinstate our school resource officers immediately. … We cannot wait for extended conversations about this matter as this situation has really escalated, and I'm not talking about the fights I'm talking about things that school staff are not equipped to deal with such as the incident [Wednesday].” (On the Wednesday Hutchings referenced, police officers intercepted a student at the doors to the school who had a loaded gun.)
In addition to that gun incident, police have responded to several incidents of violence at Alexandria City High School and responded to after-school fights at the nearby Bradlee Shopping Center. A knife was confiscated from another student at ACHS the day before the gun incident. Students have recorded fights on their cell phones at the middle schools, and at one point students created an Instagram account to upload the videos.
Hutchings noted in his statements Tuesday night that the school board was really excited to have students back in school five days per week after enduring virtual or hybrid learning for 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But in those 18 months, many students had experienced trauma from losing a loved one to the pandemic, unemployment of parents, and an ongoing reckoning around systemic racism across the country.
Hutchings said the school system is fortunate to have many talented staff members and support systems in place, but there needs to be even more support for students' mental health. He also noted that the school system needs to be "also making sure we have the safety and security measures through our School Resource Officer program — we actually need both of them."
Acting Police Chief Don Hayes said the Alexandria Police Department has been sending police officers to local middle schools and the two high school campuses in the morning and during dismissal in the afternoons, in addition to increased patrols at Bradlee Shopping Center. Hayes said that there has been "very good cooperation" between the police department and the school system so far this year.
ACPS security chief John Contreras explained there are 21 school security officers and one supervisor assigned to ACHS's main campus, in addition to six at the Minnie Howard campus and five each at George Washington Middle School and Hammond Middle School. There are additional security officers assigned to other schools and/or evenings and weekends. (This is the same total number of school security officers as there were in the school system in 2019, before the pandemic.)
"The bigger picture is that this year feels different," Contreras said, "so we're asking for help in bringing the SROs back."
ACHS Executive Principal Peter Balas, visibly shaken as he read his statement, said he was "saddened to be here on the topic of student behavior tonight that has been escalating to unsafe levels" and "is begging" city council to reconsider the decision to defund the SRO program.
Hutchings also brought up an incident this past weekend involving a firearm and a local student, pointing out that "things that happen in the community can make their way into the schools." While school staff, teachers and administrators can break up fights, they are not trained or equipped to handle guns, gang initiations and other more serious problems.
"Safety has to be a key component of an optimal learning environment," Hutchings said, before directly asking city council to reinstate the School Resource Officer program. Staff and teachers have reported feeling unsafe at times, according to Hutchings. "We cannot ignore the perceptions" that the schools are not safe.
The Role of SROs and Trusted Adults
Hutchings said the SROs in past years have been "the key to preventing incidents and the escalation of events at the schools, and we definitely need them back as soon as possible."
School Board Chair Meagan Alderton, speaking after Hutchings, said that Hutchings visited ACHS and received a standing ovation when he told ACHS staff that he would be going to bat for them to get SROs returned to campus.
Prior to Hutchings, Alderton and Balas addressing the council, Aguirre, who led the charge to remove funding from the SRO program, said there have always been fights in schools, seeming to suggest that the current violence in Alexandria schools is not out of the ordinary. He also pushed for data to show exactly how SROs affect safety in schools, including arrest levels, weapons incidents and other data.
Aguirre also said that everyone knew that pandemic-related and other trauma would make this year difficult, but the lack of SRO program data has made it difficult to know whether SROs were making a positive difference or not.
Aguirre noted he did not believe there is a correlation between violence in and around the schools and the removal of SROs. Because so little data was collected on the effectiveness of the SRO program in its 22-year history, he believes it's hard to tell whether the program was meeting its goals or not. He also noted that perception in the media and on social media was causing confusion. "What I'm getting at is there has been this swell saying, 'Look at all this craziness happening!' That hasn't been backed by the data."
"For years, we've known security was an issue at the high school. We haven't seen concrete policy and actions taken," Aguirre said.
Hutchings also brought up his concerns about off-campus violence affecting students on campus.
"I think it's important for us to realize that these things are happening off campus... However, these incidents, because they happen in the community, they can come back into our schools in regards to the concerns and the issues," Hutchings said.
"I want them to feel safe, too," Aguirre said later. In addition, he noted that students could go to another trusted adult if they are concerned about a student who may be bringing weapons to school — it's not necessarily a role only that SROs can play.
Alderton said, in response, that SROs are not the only solution, but they "are a piece of the pie that is missing."
Council member Chapman, who grew up in Alexandria and is an education professional, asked a series of questions about ACPS policies regarding weapons, sexual assault and other incidents — and how those policies have evolved over time. ACPS policies, including safety practices and the student code of conduct, are updated every year as required by the Virginia Dept. of Education.
Jackson also asked multiple questions about how SROs and students interacted, the relationship and differences between SROs and SSOs, and how emergency response is different with SROs in the building as opposed to them being nearby. Jackson also asked about funding to return SROs to the school system — or at least to ACHS and the Minnie Howard campus.
Funding Available Despite Earlier Votes
City Manager Mark Jinks said that there is money in the shifted funds from the SRO budget, and there is unused money left over from last year's budget that can be used to increase school security. "The city's resources are flexible enough that if council makes a priority choice, funds could be made available," Jinks said.
It wasn't until shortly before midnight that the four council members addressed the statement they had released nearly five hours earlier. Their plan called for a limited, transitionary period with increased police presence at schools, additional funding for school security officers (SSOs) and adding School Safety Coaches in the 2022-23 school year.
City staff will need to determine the cost of implementing the proposal so city council could allocate the appropriate funding.
"Any restoration here is going to have a challenge of trying to figure out how you staff it," Wilson explained. Right now, police who patrol at schools are being paid overtime.
Toward the end of the meeting in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, the city council agreed to ask Alexandria city staff to put numbers behind the proposal that Aguirre, Bennett-Parker, Chapman and Seifeldein put forth.
The ultimate decision, a motion by Chapman and seconded by Jackson, was to return SROs to schools on a temporary basis under the prior memorandum of understanding while transitioning to a new program that does not include having armed police in schools but increases social and emotional support and mentoring for students and families.
Chapman questioned whether returning police to schools was a "loss" and if it would be impossible to remove SROs again in the future. "I'm confused why we can't have a future that has a different model. We do that in education all the time. ... This should be part of that, but we don't talk about that, we talk about SROs and that being a permanent solution."
"Our kids need adults around them that are not going to let them ruin their futures," Chapman said, explaining that he wasn't only talking about SROs but all adults, including at school and in the community. "We gotta do something coming out of here tonight," Chapman said before the vote.
Once city staff returns with cost estimates for the proposal put forth by Aguirre, Bennett-Parker, Chapman and Seifeldein, an appropriations ordinance would follow.
The following is the complete text of the joint statement and plan of action from Aguirre, Bennett-Parker, Chapman and Seifeldein that was released prior to the city council's discussion Tuesday night:
The safety of students and teachers is always of highest priority for all of us. The traumatic effects of the pandemic, a staffing shortage, a new lunch schedule in which all three thousand plus students break at the same time, and the resocialization of students, half of whom are in a high school setting for the first time, present tremendous challenges to our community.
We are taking action and would like to work together with our colleagues in the best interest of all of our students, teachers, and staff. We will not be reimplementing the SRO program, but we offer instead a new path forward. We propose to add additional resources, outlined below, for ACPS to implement a holistic student health and safety solution, which includes a transitional period, immediate and ongoing support, and a long-term solution to begin in the 2022-2023 school year.
This plan includes the following components:
1) A transitional addition of external police officers at all high school and middle school campuses. The City would also cover the cost of the off-duty officers employed by ACPS and would add additional funding for ACPS to expedite the hiring of the additional security guards proposed by ACPS. This is the proposed plan through the end of the school year, with a new long-term solution (School Safety Coaches) taking effect at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.
2) Funding and additional resources to support students, including for restorative practices; covering fees for vulnerable students to participate in after school activities, and a renewed focus on mentoring.
3) Funding to support teachers, including for optional training in de-escalation
4) An Immediate Review of the over $1 Million School Security Contract that ACPS uses to hire more than 40 security officers at ACHS.
5) A Transparent Open Data Portal. We ask ACPS to create and maintain publicly accessible data, as allowable by law, on incidents involving violence and involving law enforcement, including previous years.
6) Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, School Safety Coaches, following the model established by Charlottesville, Virginia would be inside our secondary schools. The School Safety Coaches would be funded by the City, in addition to the mental health positions and resources previously defined and allocated earlier this year.
While ACPS leadership has stated that the number of fights last month is essentially consistent with the number of fights in September of previous in-person school years, the status quo is not acceptable. To resolve these issues in our community, we need to address the root causes, including mental health crises, the COVID-19 trauma, and institutional and structural racism, as well as recognize the role of new challenges, such as staffing shortages and the new lunch schedule implemented at ACHS.
The steps above outline a path forward. We appreciate the dedication of ACPS teachers and staff and their commitment to supporting the well-being and success of all students. We look forward to continuing to work with our colleagues, ACPS and our community to maintain a safe and healthy learning environment for all of our students, teachers, and staff.
