High school students interviewed by school police officer must have an advocate present privateofficer.org

Chicago March 4 2020  Amid calls to end the presence of a police resource officer at Oak Park and River Forest High School, the school board has made changes to the student interview policy.

Previously, the policy said officers should “make a reasonable effort” to contact a student’s parent or guardian before any interview or interrogation.

The amended policy now includes language calling on officers to recognize the potential impact an interview may have on an individual student.

The new procedures include making reasonable efforts to ensure the student’s parent/guardian is present during questioning or ensuring that a school employee, such as a social worker, psychologist, nurse, guidance counselor or any other mental health professional, is present during any interview or interrogation.

School board members unanimously approved the change under the Feb. 27 consent agenda.

Prior to the board vote, several attendees spoke against the school resource officer program, with many saying armed officers should not be placed inside a public school.

“I don’t believe having armed police in our schools is a productive or practical method for building relationships with youth who have possibly suffered trauma,” Cate Readling said. “If there is any possibility of causing harm to even one youth, we have a duty to find other ways to achieve the goals intended with this agreement.”

The school resource officer position was created in 1999 in response to the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, officials said.

The agreement between OPRF and the village of Oak Park is in its final year. Last month, the Oak Park village board tabled an agenda item that would have amended the contract to include changes in state law to the Illinois School Code and the Juvenile Court Act related to records and information sharing.

Trustee Arti Walker-Peddakotla had the item removed from the village board’s Feb. 18 consent agenda, and was also present to speak to the OPRF board at its meeting.

 “We do not need police in our schools,” Walker-Peddakotla said. “It is my belief as a parent and village trustee that the intergovernmental agreement between District 200 and the village be completely revoked. I’m happy one of the most problematic areas of the IGA is now being remedied tonight.”

During the village board discussion, police chief LaDon Reynolds said it is not the department’s mandate to arrest kids, and said this was the first time he’d ever heard anything negative about the school resource program.

Shobha Mahadev, a clinical associate professor of law at the children and family justice center at Northwestern University, spoke at both meetings, telling OPRF board members what she had already told village trustees.

“Nearly all local and national school experts I have worked with agree the presence of police is problematic in terms of school safety and in respect to the school-to-prison pipeline,” Mahadev said. “Students of color and students with disabilities experience a lack of safety when school resource officers are present. The feeling of safety is not the same as taking steps to actually being safe.”

Last month, dozens of OPRF students walked out of classes and staged a sit-in at village hall that lasted more than four hours. Among their demands was for the village to end the school resource officer program.