Gun violence surge forces armed cops back into Denver schools

Denver Public Schools have moved to reinstate armed cops on the premises of their campuses — just a few years after removing them, reported the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

"After the killing of George Floyd in 2020, the school board in a unanimous vote removed the district’s 17 Denver Police Department officers from their posts at 18 middle- and high-school campuses. More than three dozen school districts around the U.S. also ended school-policing programs," reported Sara Randazzo, Dan Frosch, and Shannon Najmabadi.

"The Denver board made its decision at a time of nationwide protests over police mistreatment of people of color. Parents and others who backed the school police ban said they believed officers unfairly targeted Black and Latino students, a group comprising around two-thirds of the district’s student body."

However, a rash of violent incidents and threats has now caused the board to reverse its decision — amid controversy and disagreement.

"Public schools Superintendent Alex Marrero stood at the hospital bed of a 14-year-old boy who had been struck in the face by a stray bullet across the street from East High School," said the report. "The 40-year-old schools chief had left New York to take the job in 2021, accepting responsibility for the instruction and safety of nearly 90,000 students. 'I felt like I had failed for the first time as an educator,' he said about the boy. Denver school authorities would by the end of the school year catch 16 students around the city bringing guns to campus, a five-year high."

The vote to reinstate the officers saw passionate argument for and against. “We cannot think of a model that has existed in the United States of America, where police have been a benefit to the Black community,” said local advocate Robert Davis, who opposed bringing them back," the Post reported.

“The Black kids that share my skin will be arrested,” said school board Vice President Auon'tai Anderson. “Those are the children I’m looking out for.” Board member Scott Balderman, however, who previously voted in favor of the ban in 2020, said, “If it stops one kid from bringing a loaded gun into a school, I think it’s worth it.”

Resource officers have been a common policy around the country to prevent gun violence in schools. Their results, however, have been mixed, and often students end up being arrested or terrorized by the officers themselves, causing worse disruptions and problems over time.