South San Francisco Unified College District officers again new college policing protocol | Native Information

John Baker

Amid the uncertainty and disruption of police services in the South San Francisco Unified School District, school officials have signed a new agreement with the city and its law enforcement agency detailing how and when officers should be on campus.

“I don’t think it’s perfect, but it’s leaps and bounds beyond what we had before,” said Trustee John Baker during a special meeting of the SSFUSD Board of Trustees Tuesday.

For more than a year now, county and city officials have been drafting a letter of intent to clearly define when or not to involve school liaison officers in disciplinary matters and student programming.

Failing to come to an agreement before the new school year, the SSFUSD trustees decided to suspend the use of SLOs on school grounds this summer until a formal letter of intent could be adopted by both parties.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Superintendent Dr. Shawnterra Moore said the district has had some issues since suspending the use of SLOs on campus. Without a letter of intent, teachers and administrators were “rightly” reluctant to contact the police.

“I think it has created some confusion and challenges across the board because people need clarity,” said Moore, noting that neighbors have also complained about increasing traffic problems.

Dr. Ryan Sebers, director of the student union, said teachers and school administrators had hesitated to call the police even in the cases clearly outlined in the education law. Although the board has suspended the SLO program on campus, school staff are still required and instructed to follow the disciplinary protocol set out in the code, Moore said.

Instead, Sebers said he and other district administrators had received calls asking school staff for instructions on whether a call to law enforcement was acceptable. The calls and hesitation have resulted in delayed responses to issues that require quicker responses, he said.

“While everyone could have different definitions of security and so on, I think it’s pretty clear that the administrators are very interested in the physical and emotional safety of the students and the school staff,” Sebers said. “So we have the question of where administrators would normally exercise their instincts.”

Given that the county and police have had some kind of relationship for decades, vice president of the board Mina Richardson said the community has gotten used to the program and needs time to adjust to the changing partnership.

“We have had the police force in our district for over 40 years. That’s a generation, ”said Richardson. “If we resign, these programs will continue, they will continue.”

Moore said responsiveness and communication between the two agencies are also tense, making district officials wonder if they’ll get a response when services are requested.

In response to the concerns, Baker accused the police department of “metaphorical baton swinging” by senior management. He suggested that the department hadn’t responded quickly to issues like traffic assistance as the role was previously the responsibility of an SLO, adding, “It was very worrying”.

As the trustee who recommended most of the changes to the MOU, he doubled three deal-breaker issues that he needed to see in the document before he could give his approval to the agreement.

To earn his support, agencies must agree to review the document annually without an automatic renewal process, share data demonstrating the effectiveness of the program, and agree that officials would not enter campus for occasional disciplinary action or without an adequate complaint process.

The board supported Baker’s key inquiries but also agreed to a request from Trustee Patricia Murray to remove granular language from the document. Instead, the Board agreed that details regarding the handling of disciplinary matters or officials should be included in an internal manual.

“It’s not the job of the board of directors or the city council to micromanage this process,” said Murray.

Board chairman Daina Lujan and trustee Chialin Hsieh also noted that the district catered for students from kindergarten through adulthood, whose experiences are likely to vary widely, and recommended that data collected across campus be collected in a tier-appropriate manner.

Additional language will be included in the document to further elaborate on protections for undocumented students who may interact with SLOs, as requested by Student Trustee Samantha Avila Gomez.

Murray also suggested the district resume the program after receiving complaints from some parishioners who said they felt unsafe without the officials on campus.

Police presence on campus has been greatly reduced, but officers have been recruited from counselors or local child protection services. Moore said she could count on one hand the number of times that had happened that school year.

Murray’s motion did not find widespread support on the board and left the suspension of the SLO program in effect until both parties could agree on a letter of intent. The latest draft contract will now be presented to the city for review after Moore and the lawyer signed the document.

If the city does not approve of the updated version of the MOU, the revisions will again be sent back to the board for further consideration.