Correction on July 3: this story was updated to reflect that The 4J school district will discuss an initial framework for undertaking a community conversation on how to replace SRO officers on August 19, and will not have an outline for how to replace them at that meeting. It was also updated to reflect that the 4J school board meeting where members decided to extend the contract was on June 17, not June 15. The story was also updated to reflect that discipline records come from the school district and that records pertaining to SRO callouts and responses would come from EPD.
The Eugene 4J School Board voted on June 17 to extend its contract with the Eugene Police Department until the end of the year, with the amendment that the next contract will not include Student Resource Officers stationed in schools. Now the board has six months to fill in the void left by SROs with something new.
The vote came at a contentious time, with worldwide protests against police brutality. This is a likely reason why two petitions — one supporting SROs and one against them — reached almost 10,000 votes between the two of them.
The petition against, claiming to have been written by current 4J students and graduates, cites times when the EPD has killed or assaulted people from marginalized communities, and studies that show that school districts that use SROs are more likely to see adverse effects than increased safety over long periods of time.
“Study upon study has demonstrated that the presence of a school resource officer does little more than comfort those who enjoy the status quo and do not experience discrimination at school,” the petition said.
The supporting petition said that cutting SROs from schools completely is too extreme a measure and that there should be more of a dialogue between 4J and the public before voting.
“These SRO officers are specially trained in handling youth, especially those who have experienced trauma. This is our opportunity as a community and school district to work together with Eugene Police Department to make our world a better place!” the petition said.
The Black Indigenous People of Color Liberation Collective held a protest outside of the building where the vote took place. They listened to the live broadcast of the meeting and put up photos of school board members and sticky notes to thank those that pledged to vote against SROs.
The meeting began with the expectation that the current contract would not remain in its current form. Cydney Vandercar, assistant Superintendent for 4J, asked the board to consider reducing the contract to one year rather than five.
The board then debated on what the new contract should look like. While some of the board members felt the urgency of the protests required that the contract be changed or terminated now, others were afraid that completely replacing the system would do more harm than good.
“My worry is those are people who are going to come in, possibly delayed, not having relationships at all with kids and I’m afraid we’re going to exacerbate the problem unless we have some replacement plan before we do that,” board member Judy Newman said.
The board discussed alternatives to SROs, one of which was the Helping Out Our Teens in Schools program. HOOTS is a branch of CAHOOTS, a team of mental health professionals that position themselves as the alternative to police response.
A statement from HOOTS on its website says that it is, “calling for our schools to prioritize the mental health needs and well-being of all students by de-funding the school resource officer (SRO) position and reallocating those funds towards support services for students.”
HOOTS currently offers a mental health support line for students and staff of 4J high schools.
The board created a tentative plan for the replacement to the EPD contract. From now until the end of the year, 4J will communicate with students and communities of color, the general public and the City of Eugene to find a system that can replace SROs. It will also attempt to gather disciplinary data and SRO calls and responses. 4J will begin discussing an outline of a plan during the August 19 meeting.
“We should be open and excited and committed to listening to those voices and to make sure that we continue to do that hard work,” board member Alicia Hays said.
