Madison’s teachers union is shifting its stance on school-based police officers and is now advocating they be taken out of the city’s main high schools — but only if 33 additional support staff are hired.
In a statement Sunday, Madison Teachers Inc. said it backs the removal of school resource officers, or SROs, stationed inside each of the Madison School District’s four main high schools — a move local activists have demanded of the district for years.
“We see the systematic racism that exists in our current structures and join the voices of our students and our community in calling for dramatic change in how we educate and interact with all of our students, especially those most marginalized in our schools and society,” MTI president Andy Waity said in the statement.
The major caveat, though, is MTI will only support the removal if certain positions at the four main high schools are staffed at recommended levels by the American Civil Liberties Union.
According to MTI, achieving those levels at each high school based on the ACLU’s “metric of equitable staffing” would require additional hires of:
One counselor, one nurse, one psychologist and four social workers for East.
One counselor, one nurse, one psychologist and five social workers for La Follette.
Two counselors, one nurse, one psychologist and five social workers for Memorial.
One counselor, one nurse and seven social workers for West.
“If we remove police officers from our schools, but do not adequately staff those same schools with social workers, nurses, counselors, and psychologists, we are perpetuating harm upon our most vulnerable young people,” the statement said.
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