In wake of Madison school shooting, how do Chicago Public Schools handle security?
CHICAGO (CBS) -- After yet another school shooting in America, the community of Madison, Wisconsin, has been left in shock and mourning.
A teacher and a student were killed and a teenage suspect — later identified as a 15-year-old girl — was found dead in a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Monday. Five other students and another teacher were injured.
The shooting came as Chicago Public Schools are in the thick of a new security plan, after removing police officers from schools this school year, focusing on other strategies to keep students and staff safe. CPS still has more than 1,400 security officers who are not members of the Police Department.
According to the news organization Education Week, there have been 38 school shootings that resulted in injuries or deaths nationwide year.
In the last four years, school shootings have killed more than 200 people and injured more than 600, according to a CBS News analysis of the K-12 school shooting database.
Former Chicago Police First Deputy Supt. Anthony Riccio discussed how Chicago Public Schools might be thinking about security in light of the shooting in Madison.
"In Chicago, resource officers were pulled out of the schools for a lot of reasons, a lot of different reasons. But the most important thing we can do in a shooter situation like this is get police on the scene as quickly as possible, and the police have to react immediately when they get there. So having police officers in the schools, stationed, even if it's right outside the door, is critical to stopping some of this," Riccio said.
Earlier this year, the Chicago Board of Education voted to pull the school resource officer program and remove all Chicago police officers from public schools. The issue sparked intense debate on whether officers make students feel more or less safe.
Those who oppose officers on campus pushed for the money to hire officers be invested in school programming or to pay for school counselors instead. They argued a police presence impacts Black students more and strengthens the school to prison pipeline.
Others argued removing police could leave students and staff vulnerable to violence.
As it stands now, police officers are allowed outside of school doors but not inside public schools in Chicago.
Schools now are relying more on security cameras on campus.
Mayor Brandon Johnson supported the plan in removing police from schools.
