This week, Richmond For All members sent over 50 emails to our School Board asking them to introduce SRO policy and our district’s MOU with RPD for Board discussion. It has been one year since RPS administration committed to a 90 day review of SRO policy, and in that time our Superintendent has failed to take the action he promised RPS students in the summer of 2020: to issue a recommendation to remove police from school buildings. Our statement calls for the following steps forward:
- Set a definitive date to end RPS’s MOU with the Richmond Police Department, after which the MOU will be non-renewable.
- Establish a deadline to transition private security officers out of RPS buildings, limiting their role to securing school grounds and restricting their interaction with students.
- Commit to one-to-one replacement of all SRO’s and SSO’s who are currently staffed inside of RPS buildings with unarmed, community-sourced safety monitors formally trained in conflict de-escalation and restorative justice.
- Staff one full-time restorative practitioner and one additional full-time mental health professional at each RPS school where students with IEPs or English language learners exceed district average. Ensure these professionals are bilingual at all schools where English language learners exceed district average.
Want to support these demands? Send a letter today!