, that are reversing the school police bans they adopted after George Floyd was murdered in 2020. In D.C., a new committee approved by the council will also explore alternate options for school safety.
“Even today I took an AP test and I was in the building that overlooks the area where the kid was shot. It was just very uncomfortable.” But last week’s shooting complicated things. “It’s a lot of conflicting emotions because they can make you feel safe, but also have that sense and aura of bad energy the way they walk around sometimes.” As long as police are in schools, she added, officers should work to have positive relationships with students.
Part of the problem, she said, is that there are too few adults in the building to keep a watchful eye or notice when something is amiss. “There’s just not enough teachers or staff to be on top of everybody,” Alcoser said. “The teachers don’t know us at all. There’s no type of connection with the teachers and the students because there’s so many of us, they don’t even know who we are.”
“The fights in school are a joke to me. I’m always the person walking past,” Alemayehu said. “The fights outside, however, that’s where people feel as though they have a lot of freedom … you don’t want to be there.”Still, Alemayehu said he feels safe at Dunbar — despite incidents includinglast school year and a recent lockdown after “an individual unknown to the Dunbar community” tried to enter the school, officials said.
Dawson, however, said she does not trust the police and does not want them in schools. The mere presence of officers makes her feel anxious, and she worries about being criminalized in a place where her focus should be on essays and algebra. She’d rather have additional teachers, counselors and other trusted adults. “Maybe they should hire staff specifically for breaking up fights or mediations.”
Dawson took the stage and looked out at the growing crowd. “Every single dollar that is spent on police or policing in our schools should be instead invested into something that can help students thrive and be safe,” she said.Unlike many high schools in D.C., BASIS, a charter campus in Northwest, doesn’t have security guards or metal detectors. Noemie Durand, a senior, said it’s their absence that makes her feel safe.