After a lengthy, and at times emotional, debate about the implications of school police in buildings, the Pittsburgh Public Schools board approved in a 5-4 vote Wednesday to use $27,000 in grant funds to cover costs of police training for four district security guards.
While the dollar amount is relatively small, some board members argued that the precedent it sets is huge.
Those who supported paying for the nearly one year of training said that schools would be safer if they filled four existing vacancies with police officers who have already worked in the schools as security.
While those who voted against it took issue with that claim and said that police disproportionately issue citations to Black and brown students and those with disabilities, making it an unsafe environment. They advocated for intervention programs or improved infrastructure.
Last month the board voted 4-3 to remove the training line item from the proposal but two board members — Bill Gallagher and Kevin Carter — were absent during that vote. On Wednesday, at the end of the board’s monthly meeting, Gallagher moved to return the police training to the grant proposal saying he wanted to “grow our own." The same four members who voted "no" last month — Devon Taliaferro, Tracey Reed, Pam Harbin and Jamie Piotrowski — repeated the vote. But "yes" votes from Gallagher, Carter, Sala Udin, Sylvia Wilson, and Gene Walker carried the amendment.
Ultimately, the board voted to pay for police training at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while reducing the number of exterior lighting projects it had planned to use grant funding for.
Opponents of paying for the IUP training said that the daily interactions with school police punishes students rather than getting to the root cause of misbehavior. They also noted that police officers have arresting authority while security aides do not.
An ACLU report released last year found that Pittsburgh Public students were more than three times as likely to be arrested in schools compared to students in other Allegheny County schools.
There are several ways the district could propose to use the state grant funding for safer schools. For example, administrators proposed using $150,000 of the money on exterior lighting projects at 17 sites and nearly $200,000 on a management system at 55 sites to allow security to track visitors in buildings.
Last year, the district employed 18 school police officers; PPS is now down to 12. McNamara said 4 positions are open. A district spokesperson did not know at the time of publication if positions had been eliminated.
McNamara described the training as career advancement for the guards because the pay is better. He said the program would be a unique opportunity to offset costs for security who are interested in filling the jobs.
Some board members argued the district should pay security guards more and noted that the district doesn’t pay for teachers or other staff to pursue advanced degrees.
‘Grow our own’
The reversal came two days after the board heard from members and representatives of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers who were upset about removing what they called a professional development opportunity. The union represents police and security personnel in the district in addition to teachers and paraprofessionals.
During the board’s monthly public hearing, Perry High School teacher Misty Doy said the March vote told her, “You’re on your own.”
“What you communicated was the complete disconnect between where you sit and our increasingly dangerous buildings,” she said. “Student behaviors are violent and unpredictable, spontaneous and without concern for consequences.”
She said when students returned after more than a year of remote learning, behaviors escalated and it hasn’t gotten better. She said that her North Side school needs a stable police force and she urged the board to reinstate the training in the proposal.
PFT president Nina Esposito-Visgitis said on Monday that the proposal would train eight new officers, though district officials have said the funding would cover four employees. She said that the district leaned heavily on officers and security aides during recent swatting attacks and a shooting outside of Westinghouse High School that injured several students and staff.
“Do you even care?” she asked.
Westinghouse school police officer Diane Davis graduated from the IUP program the district will soon use. She said on Monday that the district’s police force can’t serve to the best of its ability when short-staffed.
“There is no justification for holding back the advancement of employees because of your own political messages,” she said.
Board member Walker echoed that sentiment Wednesday night.
“I know that there is lots of disagreement over the need for school police. The reality is that we live in a country where there is a school shooting almost daily. We’ve been fortunate in Pittsburgh that nothing has happened inside of our schools, but imagine if it did and we decided that it wasn’t worth $27,000 to bring in more help, even if it takes a year,” he said. “And we have to come back to our parents, our students, our teachers and say we could have helped a year ago but we decided not to because we were afraid or because it didn’t fit our political ideology.”
Student consequences
Board president Udin said school shootings have happened in Pittsburgh.
“Tell that to the family of Marquis Campbell who was assassinated right outside of the school. Don’t say it hasn’t happened, it has,” he said Wednesday.
Two arrests were made last week in connection to the killing of Campbell in January 2022. The 15-year-old was shot in a school van parked outside of Oliver Citywide Academy during dismissal.
Udin approved using grant money to train police officers because he said he supported filling vacancies but not growing the force. He said he would hold McNamara and Superintendent Wayne Walters accountable for hiring the “right kind of personnel."
Both Reed and Taliaferro said that whoever is hired needs to be trained to work with students and as Reed said, “recognize the humanity of our children.”
Harbin asked why the district was preparing for a large act of violence in schools rather than addressing daily negative interactions students have with school police.
“I don’t understand what we’re doing,” she said.
Carter said Wednesday that the board must make safety a priority and mandate the superintendent to create a safety plan. He referenced a 2016 report by the Council of Great City Schools that called out the high number of arrests and citations issued on school grounds.
“This should have happened when that kid got shot on our property,” he said. “But now we have to address this issue but we haven’t been committed to a vision.”
