In the wake of the George Floyd killing and a time when many school districts nationwide are canceling their contracts with city police departments to provide school resource officers, the Antioch City Council has moved to do just the opposite.
On Tuesday, the council voted 3-2, with Lamar Thorpe and Monica Wilson dissenting, to accept a federal grant for $750,000 to partly pay for six officers on the district’s middle and high school campuses for three years.
If all six positions were filled, the initial cost to the city would be about $754,756 the first year, increasing annually thereafter, depending on raises. The funding could come from the school district or the city or a combination of the two, as is done in nearby Brentwood and Concord.
Antioch last had school resource officers more than a decade ago when budget cuts made it impossible to continue the program. But, armed with funds from Measure C in 2013 and Measure W in 2018, police staffing levels have been increasing to the point where it is now possible to consider bringing back officers, according to Chief Tammany Brooks.
The chief told the council he had long hoped to bring back school resource officers and the U.S. The Department of Justice COPS Hiring Program grant offered that opportunity.
“Since I have been chief, I’ve had residents asking me when I thought I was going to be able to put school resource officers back in the schools,” Brooks said.
Brooks said he was further spurred into action following the fatal shooting of student Jonathon Parker on Jan. 31 after a basketball game at Deer Valley High School. At the time, members of the community, including Parker’s family, asked for a law enforcement presence at schools, so the police department submitted an application, the chief said.
If approved, Brooks said the officers selected for SRO positions would be tenured ones, while the less experienced ones would then fill in as patrol officers. The school resource officers would be required to attend special training and their hours would be flexible so they could attend after school or sporting events, he said.
“A lot of people have a misunderstanding of what an SRO does, thinking they are just armed guards present at the school, but this is far from the case,” Brooks said. “A large part of the SRO’s job is actually building positive relationships with the students and the faculty.”
Brooks said he had worked with Superintendent Stephanie Anello and she would bring the matter up at a school board meeting for a possible cost-sharing plan to pay for the campus officers.
But during public comments, when more than 100 residents spoke, the overwhelming majority didn’t want SROs on campus.
“Schools need counselors, not officers,” Lawrence Miller said.
Sarah Laughlin, a 2015 Deer Valley High graduate, agreed.
“Extracurriculars are cut from our schools, sports teams are underfunded, buildings are crumbling, aides and counselors are being laid off, and teachers are severely underpaid in our district, but somehow the city can come up with $750,000 annually to hire multiple six-figure salary officers to patrol our schools.”
Another former student talked about the many inadequacies at schools that need to be addressed.
“I believe it is absolutely ridiculous for you to even think about funding more police into policing schools,” Haley Hastings, a 2018 Deer Valley High graduate, said. “If there’s anything I can tell you, it is that there are so many areas and resources that are lacking at that school. Textbooks are destroyed, sports teams are using 10-year-old uniforms, the theater is extremely unkempt.”
Aurora Solario, whose nephew was fatally shot this past January at Deer Valley High, had a different take, though, saying her family wants officers on campus and at afterschool events.
“If the proper people had been there, maybe the outcome would be different for my nephew. We don’t want what happened to Jonathon to happen to another family,” she said.
Mayor Sean Wright said the community has been asking for school resource officer for at least five years.
“We see community policing as an opportunity to put officers on campus not just for safety but to create those relationships,” he said.
But Councilman Lamar Thorpe said the message he’s heard in the community has not been to hire school officers.
“What I have heard is they do want youth programs, what I have heard is they want mental health specialists, what I have heard is they want opportunities to ensure our young people are being diverted onto the right path and out of trouble,” he said.
Thorpe also noted that in light of $1.8 million in cuts the Antioch Unified School District recently made, he could not support the hiring of resource officers.
“This one is giving me a lot of heartburn because this is contrary to what I think people are demanding in our country, in our state, and in our community right here in Antioch,” he added.
Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock meanwhile recalled her three children attending schools with resources officers, something she said she appreciated.
“They didn’t have a fear of the police officers because they had the relationships that the mayor just spoke about and to me, that is a big thing to create those relationships between the youth and the police officers.”
Councilwoman Monica Wilson said students were looking for more counselors, not officers.
“It just doesn’t sit right with me to use officers in a role when we really could use counselors, mental health experts, trauma experts, I’d rather look at other solutions for that.”
Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts said though she hoped for more time to consider the proposal, she had reached out to a handful of principals all of whom were in favor of having SROs.
Ogorchock motioned to accept the grant monies as long as the school district split the cost, which passed on a split vote. The school board will take up the matter next, and if passed, the City Council will revisit it for final approval.
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