Fremont Unified walks back plans to remove cops from campuses

Only about three months after Fremont Unified school board officials voted to remove police officers from school sites, board members this week voted to reverse the decision and reinstate the district’s school resource officer program.

Fremont Unified was one of several California school districts that voted to eliminate campus police following the killing of George Floyd last summer, which sparked protests over police brutality across the country.

Some parents support bringing cops back to schools, citing safety reasons and that they believe having officers on campus deters violence, the Mercury News reports.

But the news came as a major blow to students, parents and alumni who have been pushing for new safety strategies that don’t involve officers, who are more likely to arrest and use force against Black and Latino students in Fremont Unified. A 25-member task force created by the school board found that between 2015 and 2018, Black students made up more than 21% of the arrests in the district, but only made up 2% of the district’s enrollment. Latino students made up 27.4% of arrests, while comprising about 14.4% of students, the task force found.