In Madison, Wisconsin, the school board unanimously voted to end its contract with the police department following the murder of Georgia Floyd. Since then, parents, students and educators have raised concerns about an increase in school violence that coincided with replacing police with restorative justice coordinators called “climate coaches.”
Minneapolis school board members also voted to remove armed police from schools and replaced them with “safety support specialists,” but with a different, more positive outcome, teachers and school officials told Youth Today. Preliminary data shows fewer students were disciplined, and students responded positively to the changes in surveys.
My gut said that the differences stemmed from more than the job titles of the replacement roles, and instead had everything to do with job expectations. In Minneapolis, where the switch was seen as positive, leaders emphasized that:
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