An advisory group consisting of teachers, police officers, community leaders, students, and parents have determined that school resource officers should remain in Alexandria City Public Schools.

The School Law Enforcement Partnership, a 16-member group formed last year to advise on the school resource officer (SRO) program, will present their findings to the school board on Thursday, Nov. 18. WTOP first reported the news.

“Removing SROs would send a message to many families and community members that ACPS does not take seriously the violence that has occurred at regular intervals in the last year,” reads the group’s recommendation, endorsing continued funding of SROs. Currently, SRO funding runs out in June of this year.

Their recommendations comes after years of debate regarding what role, if any, police officers should have in Alexandria schools, and amid a heightened focus on security after several incidents in the past two years. After incidents involving violence in school settings, calls for school resource officers often increase — even though SRO programs have not been linked directly to a decrease in crime. Instead, studies found that students in schools with SROs are more likely to be arrested and referred to the criminal justice system. They’re also more likely to face harsher punishments. Those against maintaining an SRO program argue that the presence of police only strengthens the school-to-prison pipeline, and disproportionately harms Black youth.

Like other school systems in the region after George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent protests in 2020, ACPS announced a plan to move away from maintaining officers in schools. In July 2021, the Alexandria City Council voted to divert funds from the resource officer program for 2022 and instead hire more youth mental health professionals. That October, following an incident involving a threat that put two high schools on lockdown, councilmembers voted to put resource officers back in the city’s public middle and high schools. (Just two months later, two of the officers brought back to Alexandria Public High School were placed on leave, amid an investigation into allegations that they had “sexually inappropriate conversations” with a former student while she attended ACHS.)

The city formed the advisory group in April to study the school resource officer program and other school safety initiatives, following an arrest report and transparency concerns within the school board. They were tasked with delivering a report in December. Meanwhile, as parents, teachers, and councilmembers debated what presence officers should have, if any, an 18-year-old senior at Alexandria City High School was stabbed to death in a fight involving dozens of teens at a shopping plaza near the school.

When students came back to classrooms for the 2022-2023 school year, ACPS had increased security measures; middle and high school students were required to carry their ID at all times, and schools added designated entry points for students, staff and visitors to onto campus. The new security protocols also included putting school resource officers at each middle and high school.

While it is the group’s overarching recommendation to keep officers in schools, the presentation that will be given before the board tomorrow includes more than a dozen other recommendations regarding the SRO program. These include yearly de-escalation training for SROs, development training, and a study on minority student arrest rates, among others.

Attorney General Jason Miyares, a “tough-on-crime” state official who has pushed ACPS to maintain its SRO program, applauded the group’s decision on Wednesday.

“SROs play an important role in supporting the physical safety and wellbeing of Virginia’s students,” reads a statement from spokesperson Victoria LaCivita. “The Attorney General supports SROs serving as a method of preemptive frontline protection and appreciates the advisory group’s work to further prioritize student safety.”