MILWAUKEE— For almost a year, Milwaukee Public Schools has not complied with adding 25 school resource officers (SROs) to any of the district’s schools.
This has resulted in a lawsuit and now Wisconsin State Senator John Jagler tells Wisconsin’s Afternoon News that the lack of SROs has only resulted in more incidents in which the Milwaukee Police Department have had to show up.
“Last year, cops responded to schools in Milwaukee 32.7 calls a week with an average of seven times a day,” said Jagler. “It’s only gotten worse. We think the police are coming to the schools to respond to fights. That’s no longer the case. We’re talking armed robbery, sexual assault, felony theft. The teachers I’ve talked to are the one’s that are frustrated because they know they need some help.”
Earlier in September of this year, MPS told parents that they were ready to implement SROS, but said that they didn’t have any officers that were ready.
Jagler says he’s talked with Milwaukee Police Association officers who have been waiting to be assigned to MPS schools.
Ultimately, Jagler says if SROs are not implemented or deployed to schools within the district, MPS could be facing financial holdbacks from state Republicans.
“Guess what’s going to happen when I try to go to my colleagues if I’m on the chair of the Senate Education committee and say, ‘Hey guys, we need some more money for special education funding in MPS.’ Guess what’s going to happen?” said Jagler. “What’s the response going to be? I’m guessing it’s going to be pretty bad. I don’t know how we can go to the table in good faith when we don’t have a good faith partner on the other side.”
At this time, MPS has still not given any update on whether they plan to implement SROs later this year or next year.
