In 2020 the MPS School Board, a democratically elected governing body, unanimously voted to end contracts between the district and the Milwaukee Police Department.
With the passing of Act 12 in June of 2023 Mayor Cavalier Johnson and the Trump-backed state legislature overstepped the authority of you and your fellow MPS district leaders and is forcing armed cops back into MPS. Mayor Johnson knowingly agreed to this deal with a state legislature that has chronically underfunded Wisconsin public schools for almost 2 decades. Mayor Johnson agreed to this deal without any input from district leadership and knowingly sold out students, families, teachers and staff and is now forcing you all to foot the bill.
Let’s be clear: Police officers are not trained to work with young people, and they do not belong in our schools. Rather than preventing violent crime, research has routinely shown that having cops on school campuses only results in aggressive disciplinary actions that criminalize students. This is especially true for Black, Brown, and disabled students, who experience higher rates of harassment, surveillance and unnecessary disciplinary action when cops are present.
MPS is already struggling to cover the costs of the basic necessities that students need to be successful in the classroom. Taking away an additional $2 million dollars from the classroom to pay for armed cops to police students is directly feeding into and reinforcing the school-to-prison/deportation pipeline. It is investing in the criminalization of MPS students and divesting from their future.
Join LIT in asking the MPS Board of Directors to do everything in their power to vote against the implementation AND funding of School Resource Officers.
Meeting details:
Committee on Accountability, Finance, and Personnel (AFP)
Date: 10/22/2024
Time: 5:30PM
Location: Central Services Building, Auditorium, 5225 W. Vliet
Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement 
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