Authored by Matthew Cregor, MHLAC Staff Attorney
On Monday, March 6th, Somerville’s school committee adopted recommendations eliminating school-based policing from its public schools.
Under the school committee’s new directive, officers can no longer be stationed in schools, where they are too often relegated to the role of default disciplinarian, with harmful results for students. The new policy limits calls to the police to more significant instances of criminal conduct outlined in the state’s 2022 model memorandum of understanding (MOU) for school-based policing. The policy also asks the Somerville police to identify specific, specially trained officers to serve as liaisons to the school district and first responders to such calls, a model similar to what Worcester Public Schools adopted last year and other districts have adopted in New England and across the nation.
The change comes two years after news broke that Somerville school officials had called the police on a Black and Latinx 6-year-old for touching a classmate’s clothed behind in the cubby area of their 1st grade classroom, an incident that led Somerville to suspend its school resource officer (SRO) program. During the suspension, the district invested in a host of social/emotional supports for students and hired five community engagement specialists – adults who are on campus to build relationships with students and deescalate situations among them. In adopting its new policy at a time when some Massachusetts officials are calling for more police in schools, Somerville may be showing the rest of the Commonwealth how to make sure students feel safe without feeling policed.
Students with mental health needs – particularly if they are Black or Latinx – are far more likely than their peers to be met with police responses to disciplinary incidents in Massachusetts public schools. As a first-time arrest doubles the odds that a student will drop out, the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee (MHLAC) has worked to limit police involvement in school matters in advocating for the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018 and the police reforms of 2020. MHLAC has similarly provided legal support to communities and schools seeking to implement school safety approaches that do not rely on constant police presence, including Somerville, where MHLAC assisted the parent-led group Safe Schools Somerville in developing their own People’s Policy MOU to govern when police could be called into Somerville schools. MHLAC also provided technical assistance to the school committee and the district as they developed the new policy.