St. Paul Public Schools holds emergency session as concerns about school safety increase
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- More than 300 people attended an emergency listening session with the St. Paul school board last night. Dozens of people spoke up demanding changes to the status quo.
So, what are the next steps, who's going to make the decisions, what are the options and when can students, parents and staff expect changes?
For a district of 35,000 students, this won't be easy.
The whole concept of school safety is changing instead of, or maybe in addition to protecting against an external threat, like a mass shooter, the day-to-day experience at St. Paul Public Schools is showing real dangers are already inside the halls.
"In my five years of teaching, I've witnessed more than you would expect: dozens of fights, student injuries, harassment, guns brought to school, pepper spray, gang violence, drug use," Ilana Sweeney said.
English teacher Sweeney is one of about 60 speakers Tuesday night demanding change from the district.
On Wednesday, Chief of Operations and Administration Jackie Turner promised the comments did not fall on deaf ears.
"What resonated the most is that this is not an easy topic. It's an emotional topic and the safety of schools is our number one priority," Turner said.
She also pointed specifically to a speech from Henry Scott, whose nephew, Devin, was stabbed and killed last month at Harding High School.
"He came with passion and concern, I didn't hear any anger in his voice," Turner said.
Police officers, or student resource officers, returning to St. Paul high schools is not out of the question, according to Turner. Neither is the potential addition of weapons detectors.
But what will happen first is each high school individually with create a task force of about 20 people, including students, parents and staff, to come up with recommendations specific to their school later this spring. District staff will then review those plans and pass them on to the board.
"We're really putting all things on the table and take it from there," Turner said.
St. Paul, like Minneapolis, ended the SRO program in June 2020. Harding High School, though, will continue to have two officers there for the time being.
The number of calls to police from St. Paul schools is 142 -- that's down more than 50% from last year.
