Letter to Chicago Board of Education: #PoliceFreeSchools is both possible and necessary

We write on behalf of Advancement Project National Office and the Alliance for Educational Justice (AEJ) to fully and enthusiastically support the call to terminate the contract between the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and remove
police from schools. If we have learned anything from this historic moment spurred by the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, it is that police cannot be trusted to keep us safe. Years of CPS data reflecting a relentless school-to-prison pipeline indicate disparate criminalization of students of color by the police. CPS has a duty to protect students from a police department whose culture allows for the brutal and violent use of force against peaceful protestors. Officers that roam school hallways are no different from the officers on the streets of Chicago and thus, a new vision for safety must emerge from this crisis. Over the past two weeks, school boards
in Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Oakland, Portland, and West Contra Costa, California, have all taken historic action to remove police from schools, demonstrating that a police-free schools future is both possible and necessary to protect the safety and humanity of Black and Brown children.