Do police belong in Rochester schools? The local school board candidates weigh in
On this week’s edition of the Rundown, we continue our coverage of Med City Beat’s town hall debate series. Thursday night, the six candidates vying for a spot on the Rochester School Board joined Sean for a 90-minute forum on topics ranging from distance learning and Covid-19 precautions to racial equity among students and staff members, as well as the future of district-wide public choice schools like Friedell and Lincoln.
On the podcast, however, we zero on one question: where do the candidates stand on having police personnel inside Rochester schools? Listen to their answers here, then head to our Facebook page to listen to the full forum.
Listen to the full episode
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Seat 3: Deborah Seelinger (incumbent) vs. Karen MacLaughlin
MacLaughlin: “I take the position that I would not support SROs in the school in their current form. I would propose modifications to their current form so that, for example, they’re not wearing uniforms. I don’t think that’s necessary. But I do think they play an important role in the school community, in that when people in the school — both students and staff — have relationships with one particular officer, that officer gets to know them and the building, and can be responsive to the needs of that community. But I would like to see modifications, so it’s not so much physical authority. I don’t support adding additional officers at this time.”
Seelinger: “I think there are still some unanswered questions. My recommendation to the superintendent is that we circle back and take a closer look at that data. Besides yes or no, how do we make an informed decision? I think we’ve seen across the state, districts have made a very hasty decision to remove SROs and have not had a plan to replace them with something. So I’m following districts that are a little more thoughtful in their approach.”
Seat 7: Mark Schleusner (incumbent) vs. Jess Garcia
Schleusner: “I'm certainly not in favor of keeping them in their uniforms. That’s just an intimidating presence by somebody who’s not trying to be intimidating. As we listened to the study session, they’re basically filling the roles of social workers — even though they’re not social workers. At this point in time, after hearing stories from police officers saying they’re working as social workers, I’m left wondering why we don’t just have social workers there instead.”
Garcia: “I believe an effective change needs to be made. Everybody’s mentioning this study session, where there were law enforcement officers and staff throughout the district who were providing anecdotal evidence. Even though they were making the point that we should keep SROs in schools, they were also saying there’s a reported increase in mental health needs for the students, this year in particular. So if a mental health response is what the students need, then that’s the response we should be sending.”
Seat 1: Don Barlow (incumbent) vs. Justin Cook
Cook: “Their training is optimal for de-escalation and so forth, and they're dedicated to the best outcomes possible for our students. I want to stress that that is not the most relevant issue to focus on here. It’s never been about whether the individual SROs are good, bad, indifferent. It’s absolutely the case that the program is good for the police department, that the officers themselves are very good, but the issue is what’s in the best interest of our students and bringing out their full potential. At this time, I don’t think keeping school resource officers in the schools is in their best interest.”
Barlow: With school resource officers comes a great responsibility. The majority of referrals which RPS had made the past two years have been non-criminal offenses… they were misdemeanors, for things like alcohol, tobacco, paraphernalia, drugs. At the study session, I asked the captain in charge of community policing, ‘was that a proper use of policing?’ He said no. So, these are things that we, together, need to rethink and perhaps address the issue of mental health as has been suggested.”