How many times do we have to tell others that our Black and Brown children don’t need policing, especially inside schools? And, when will it sink in that we’re right? For over a month, Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT) advocated against Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Keith Posley and others proposal of a $217,600 contract with ADANI that would install airport-style x-ray (metal detectors) machines in more than a dozen MPS High Schools. The contract would be paid for with a state safety grant. According to their site, ADANI’s top clients are prisons and correctional facilities, and customs and border crossings. Just this past Tuesday, on Sept. 22, the MPS Board of School Directors Committee on Accountability, Finance, and Personnel rejected the proposal on a 3-2 vote.
During the day of the voting decision, LIT sent a letter urging the committee to vote no by providing facts and statistics that prove there’s no significant evidence that more security measures lowers violence and unsafe environments in schools. These practices actually make the students feel unsafe.
LIT suggest the state safety grant should be invested into trauma-informed schools and mental health care.
“People need to realize we need to take a holistic approach to this,” said LIT Organizing Director Cendi Trujillo Tena. “Students need to feel understood and nurtured.”
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice 2018 School Safety Initiative, “Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) was awarded grant funds in the amount of $3,310,177 to implement a comprehensive school safety project designed to ensure the physical and mental safety of students and staff.”
Some teachers in MPS say they feel unsafe, but Trujillo Tena said we need to question why they feel that way.
“What are you doing to a student that you’re scared they’re going to hurt you?” Trujillo Tena asked.
In the proposal, MPS wanted to spend over $1.9 million on security camera installations at all MPS-owned school buildings, $397,800 on x-ray machine purchases and installations for 18 high schools and only $90,000 on youth mental health first aid and de-escalation professional development.
Instead of waiting on someone to come speak up for them, the students used their own voices because they “are the experts in their lives,” said Trujillo Tena. Not someone who sits on a board and doesn’t live in their neighborhoods or have their lives nor experience.
“We need to invest in [the students],” said Trujillo Tena.
The decision on how to spend the money now goes to the full board. To stay updated on what happens next, follow LIT by clicking here.