The local school board in Oakland, California, unanimously voted on Wednesday night to eliminate the district’s agreement with local police.
The board cited the disproportionate arrest of black students and suggested several alternative ways to handle discipline inside schools, according to local station KRON.
Black students, who make up just over 25% of the district’s enrollment, have accounted for 73% of arrests in city schools since 2015, school officials said.
The district has spent nearly $10 million on its security and police force in the last five years, according to the resolution passed Wednesday.
The news comes the same day that California’s top education executive announced his office is working to reshape the role of police and security officers in schools statewide.
“As a former school board member, I spent four years working very closely with school resource officers,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said. “But I’ve already seen data that shows when there’s police on campus, this results in more suspensions and arrests, particularly for African American students and other students of color.”
Since the deaths of Floyd and Rayshard Brooks, calls for sweeping police reform have reverberated across the nation.
Parents and activists have been calling on the district to eliminate the police force and redirect the money to social programs for the students, calling it the George Floyd Resolution to Eliminate the Oakland School Police Department.
In Los Angeles, the school board this week tossed out a proposal to defund the school’s police force by 90% by 2024.
