Following calls for Police to return to Boston Public Schools, divisive views on safety measures intensify

Following nationwide protests against police brutality, the 2020 Police Reform Bill forced police officers out of the Boston public school system. Only three years later, four of twelve Boston city councilors have called for them to return.

How did this pendulum swing so quickly?

The Historical Context

In 1972, Tallulah Morgan, a parent of a black student, filed a class action lawsuit that accused the Boston School Committee of unconstitutional segregation in violation of Boston's 1965 Racial Imbalance Act. Judge Wendell Arthur Garrity ruled that Boston Public Schools violated the act by sustaining racial segregation among BPS students, teachers, and staff. Garrity ordered immediate implementation plans for racial integration of students and faculty in Boston Public Schools. 

Throughout the two years following the ruling of Morgan v. Hennigan, violence broke out, with almost 40 riots violently protesting busing and desegregation efforts. In response, Mayor Kevin White deployed about 70 percent of the city's police personnel to Boston elementary, middle, and high schools.  

"[I]n Boston in the second year of court-ordered desegregation, in the midst of quite well publicized white and violent resistance to desegregation, the overwhelming number of school-based arrests were for black students," said Matthew Kautz, an assistant professor at Eastern Michigan University, whose research focuses on the history of education inequality in Boston Schools. 

Police were initially brought into schools to help with desegregation, but “ultimately, they stayed and began to police black students," said Edith Bazile, a former BPS educator of over 30 years. Bazile recalls her younger sister, who attended South Boston High School, being hit by a rock thrown by a white resident during busing. 

While the violence and unrest continued, the Boston Police Department's resources began to strain. As a result, school administrators, the teachers union, and the police department began to push for a more permanent police presence in schools. 

By 1978, the Boston School Police Department was established in schools across the district.   

The Big Shift 

After almost 45 years with BPS, the Boston School Police Department disbanded in 2020 to become the Department of Safety Services. The shift came following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, at the hands of police, earlier that year. By December 2020, former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker had signed the Police Reform Bill. 

 "I think it was a shift in what we were experiencing, not just in the Boston or Massachusetts community, but nationally,” BPS chief of Safety Services said.

Neva Coackley Grice said in a recent interview. “When it comes to relationships with law enforcement, I think they wanted to see, particularly, policing black and brown communities changed,” said Grice. 

A Roxbury native and former police officer for more than 25 years, Grice was appointed chief of Safety Services in 2020 and was the first black woman to hold the position. She was tasked with implementing, what she describes as "a three-to-five-year reform plan" within a mere summer.

"As a police officer, you have all these tools, you have a tool belt, and you have all these resources to support your daily encounters. But now we've replaced that with community resources and other resources that I think are just as effective and need a lot more in different types of engagement," she said. 

Previously the Boston School Police Department had law enforcement jurisdiction on school grounds. Officers dressed in uniform had arrest powers, carried handcuffs, could remove and restrain students and trespassers, and file police reports. 

Now, through the Department of Safety Services, specialists collaborate with school administrators, teachers, mentors, and BPD when addressing safety concerns in or around school grounds with "in-depth training, de-escalation, and restorative justice practices” as described by Grice. The safety specialists - dressed in a blue polo, khakis, and a walkie-talkie - can no longer arrest, restrain, or file reports on students.

As the Chief of Safety Services, Neva Coackley Grice oversees 55 schools across the Boston school district and their safety specialists. Since the shift however, the numbers of specialists have severely dwindled.

The Current Action 

 In January, the Council of Great City Schools, a Washington D.C. based coalition of 78 large city school districts, recommended that Boston consider beginning conversations about  forming an internal school police department, only three years after the shift. 

Four city councilors Erin Murphy, Michael Flaherty, Frank Baker and Council President Ed Flynn, the report's recommendation was simply more evidence to support their continued calls for school police to return. The councilors issued a letter to Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper requesting they bring an internal school police department and metal detectors to all schools across the district. Notably, no city councilors of color signed the letter.

The recent calls for school police represent an "old feeling of commitment, " Grice says. 

Edith Bazile also questioned the reason behind considering school police as a first resort. "There is so much upfront work that has not been done. What are the systems in place to address the social and emotional needs of students? We know that mental health issues have expanded as a result of the pandemic. So when we talk about the collective trauma of a community, the first line of response should not be police; it really has to be about healing," she concluded. 

Then why the call from city councilors? 

The data is complex. The annual Student Discipline Data Report by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education showed a general downturn in student disciplinary incidents from 2016 to 2022 with a spike in 2019. The disciplinary actions include in-school and out-of-school suspensions as well as emergency referrals. 

Some groups such as the Boston SOS, Safety of Our Schools, have declared BPS to be in a school safety crisis with the rise in high profile violent attacks on school grounds, the rise of firearm incidents, bullying and sexual harassment reports. When comparing the data of 2022 and 2023 to 2021, the rise is evident but the effects of the pandemic and remote learning  are uncertain.  

For Ray Hart, the executive director of the Council of Great City Schools, the recommendation came down to the determination of those on the local level. "Our recommendation around having a conversation about what [school police] looks like, really stems from encouraging the district in the community, to think about how those roles might be beneficial in the broader school environment," he said in a recent phone interview. 

The Bigger Picture

In addition to the report's recommendation for conversations on school police, Hart’s group also recommended building strategies to combat low morale throughout the Safety Services Department.

"One of the things that has occurred is that when BPD is called to a building, there's confusion about how it's handled,” Hart said in a recent interview. “There's confusion about what role the police officers play given the change. One of the things that is critical for really identifying is helping to understand what is a school discipline issue, when the police arise, versus what is a criminal issue and those are some things that usually are spelled out in a memorandum of understanding." 

Grice recalled the struggles of low morale within the department caused by the shift. "In the challenges of transitioning, the old mentality still is there and that's affecting morale. A lot of them were police for 40 plus years, so I totally understand where they're coming from," she said. "We lost a significant amount of staff, almost half of the staff in weeks. And so that kind of crippled us in our actual school-based presence."

Among those who have rejected the idea of an internal school police department, there has not been much solace found in the current BPS safety system either.  

When asked about the shift to Safety Services, Bazile argued that more needs to be improved. 

"They are former police officers, so they still have that mentality and mindset of surveillance of black and brown students," Bazile said. "Safety Officers are not mentors. They're not counselors. They are not social workers. They are there to look for criminal behavior. So I think you have to look at the intent of these safety officers." 

Meanwhile, Grice has continued to struggle to convince those in and outside of her department to trust in the shift, new model, and training. 

In moving forward with the recommendations from the report, Grice says the department is looking to hire individuals who did not "have to be convinced of the buy-in."

 "I'm talking about individuals that are former educators, former social workers, former military that have experience in conflict resolution..former community advocates, former police wanting to work with young people under this model," Grice said. 

Following the report the Department of Safety Services, BPS and the city has focused on addressing the recommendations. 

While Mayor Wu and Superintendent Skipper have maintained that they do not plan on reinstating school police in Boston public schools, last month  Wu initiated movements to begin formalizing the roles and relationship between BPS, BPD, and the Department of Safety Services with talks of establishing a memorandum of understanding. 

The highly disputed argument to what safety in schools should look like inevitably continues between those who want police-free schools, police in schools, and a completely reimagined system of safety and security. However, the overlooked voices continue to be those most affected by the prospected change.