South San Francisco Schools Revisit Police on Campus
School board discussing liaison officers program
By Austin Walsh Daily Journal staff
Jan 21, 2021
Education officials are revisiting the South San Francisco Unified School District’s partnership with the local police department, continuing an ongoing conversation over the future of the system’s school liaison officers.
The district Board of Trustees will meet Thursday, Jan. 21, to discuss the placement of officers from the South San Francisco Police Department on local campuses, plus hear the perspectives of progressive activists and school community members on the issue.
Local officials will continue their conversation initiated last year in the wake of the George Floyd killing, which sparked national debate over the value of the programs and whether they feed the school to prison pipeline.
South San Francisco officials in August signaled they favored amending terms of the agreement which rotates two officers through district sites, but requested more information regarding the partnership before making a decision.
At the upcoming meeting, officials will host members of progressive activism group Change SSF who have long criticized the school liaison office program and urged school board members to end the partnership.
Change SSF will echo those calls at the meeting, according to presentation which demands officials end the liaison program and have those redirected to other initiatives designed to better meet the needs of students.
Mental health services, support for undocumented families, sex education programs and additional counselors are among the programs which would be more suitable to accommodate the South San Francisco school community, according to the Change SSF report.
“The board needs to urge City Council to reinvest money in effective programs that can partner with the district to better serve students with properly-trained staff,” according to the Change SSF presentation.
Funding for the school liaison program is provided through the South San Francisco Police Department and not the school district’s budget. Police Chief Jeff Azzopardi previously said his department has had a presence on district campuses for more than three decades, and credits the partnership for building trust between police and the local community.
“The program works for the South San Francisco Unified School District, works for the South San Francisco Police Department and most importantly works for the students that attend our schools,” Azzopardi said in July, when officials first examined the nature of the relationship.
Azzopardi is a staunch advocate for preserving the program, and has said the district has never registered complaints with the department about the conduct of officers. Furthermore, he suggested having trained officers on site is preferable to patrol personnel responding to calls at campuses.
Similarly, a survey which featured 680 respondents found that school community members also valued having a department with officers trained to appropriately address issues experienced by students.
“Any police officers assigned to work with the school district on a regular or frequent basis should have some training/education in child development. Working with children and teens requires understanding of issues and challenges faced at different age levels,” was the most highly-rated survey response by the school community.
Survey responses were not universally supportive of the program.
“Keep police out of our schools. Police should only be called if a suspected crime has taken place,” read another response criticizing the program.
Students chimed in on the program too, according to a focus group report which recommended that officials more clearly define the role of police on campuses.
Ensuring all school community members are aware of what the expectations are for campus officers; developing clear protocol for officers; offering outlets for students feeling threatened by officers; and tracking data regarding interactions between police and officers which can be shared with the community are among the proposals from the student groups.
Following presentations of the data, the board is slated to determine next steps to best support the needs of students, according to a district report.
The South San Francisco Unified School District Board of Trustees is slated to meet at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21. Visit ssfusd.org/onlineboardmeeting to watch, or participate in, the meeting.