Nick Blumberg | July 14, 2021 8:55 pm
Wednesday marks the deadline for about 50 local school councils with Chicago Public Schools to decide whether they want to keep their school resource officers — Chicago police officers assigned to work on school campuses.
So far, CPS data shows that most of the schools are set to keep at least one officer. While they’ve been the subject of controversy, particularly after last year’s racial justice demonstrations, supporters of having officers on campus argue that they can be part of a comprehensive safety plan.
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“They’ve been a resource, whether it’s (helping) students who’ve endured violence en route to school or whether there has been violence surrounding the school that had to result in a soft lockdown,” Ramona Burress, a member of Kenwood Academy High School’s local school council told WTTW News last year. “Those things would only occur because we had those officers present to be the resource … that they are intended to be,” he said.