Students return to school with free lunches assured, but school resource officers not guaranteed
MINNEAPOLIS — Schools across Minnesota eagerly welcomed students back to the classroom Tuesday.
"I have a lot of jitters," Emily, a new art teacher with Randolph Heights Elementary in St. Paul, said. "There's a lot to think about but I'm very ready and excited."
Across the Twin Cities metro area, learning kicked off with breakfast, and over at Oak Ridge Elementary, it included a special guest: Gov. Tim Walz. Thanks to a newly passed law, all students are eligible to receive one free breakfast and lunch every day, regardless of income status.
"We're thrilled that we are able to provide some of those resources this year to make sure that these things are happening, and to know that this is the place where students get their start in life," Walz said. "This is where they get the greatest opportunity. The American dream has really been predicated on public education for the better part of the last century, certainly providing a quality education for all students no matter how they show up here."
But new laws are also prompting police departments to pull school resource officers, or SROs. The reasoning stems from the wording in the new legislation that says officers cannot use face-down holds, including kneeling on a student's neck.
Some districts, like St. Louis Park Public Schools, are adapting.
"We were able to figure out a plan we believe will best meet the needs of our students and staff," SLPPS Astein Osei said. SLPPS will swap SROs for "Juvenile Response Officers." The position will perform a similar job without a physical presence in school buildings.
"The value of the SROs in the building, is the adult relationships that are built before anything happens," Walz said.
Anoka, Blaine, Coon Rapids, Moorhead, Wayzata are among the those pulling officer. Tuesday afternoon, Mounds View Police Department announced it too would pull its officers from Edgewood Middle School, Pinewood Elementary School and the Mounds View Bridge Program.
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"As the Chief of Police, I cannot put our SRO in a compromising situation where they are not able to use their discretion, judgement and professional police training dealing with dangerous incidents on school property. I am responsible for making sure the MVPD has the necessary training, equipment and guidance in order to provide the best possible police services to the Mounds View community," reads a statement from the Mounds View Police Chief Ben Zender. "Given this new law, I believe it would be irresponsible of me to put our SRO in that situation and set up SRO up for failure."
Walz says he doesn't believe the issue should be so complicated, and that, to his knowledge, there haven't been charges filed against an officer that's used force on a student in Minnesota.
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"The biggest thing is that we've got trusted adults in the building doing the work," he said. "Again, I want to remind folks the true value of those school resource officers is that, 99.99% of the time, they're working building relationships, they're at the football games, they're on the playground, they're doing those things. That's the focus ... use-of-force, while important, is not the bulk of the work they do."
It's a missing presence that Walz and other stakeholders want back. Walz indicated Sunday morning that he'd be willing to go into a special session to clarify language in the new law. He reiterated that sentiment again Tuesday.
"Let's find a solution where districts that want and can work out an agreement and the language is satisfactory to everyone," Walz said. "Because I think that the spirit of this thing, is all of us want our building safe and all of us want to make sure that excessive force is not used on our students, and I think finding that idle ground should not be all that difficult."