Chicago cops getting training on working in schools for first time in 10 years

Chicago police officers are going back to school this month to get specific training on working with students and in a school setting, the first such training in at least a decade, officials said.

By the end of the month, CPD officials said, the 200 or so school resource officers who are assigned to work in CPS, along with their supervisors, will have completed the 40-hour training sessions, according to CPD spokesman Luis Agostini.

The latest round of training, the first time officers will receive a dedicated course specific to their role, will incorporate topics like “Understanding the Teen Brain,” “Understanding Special Needs Students” and “Ethics and the SRO,” Agostini said.

“The previous courses [for officers] had more of a focus on tactical scenarios,” Agostini said of an approach that focused more on topics like active-shooter training.

The new training sessions are being led by the Alabama-based nonprofit National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), whose practices were cited as a model for Chicago police by the city’s Inspector General’s Office. In a scathing report released last year, the IG found a troubling lack of oversight and poor training of school resource officers and advised immediate reforms.

The concerns highlighted by the IG came to a head earlier this year when two Chicago police officers were accused of dragging a 16-year-old student down a flight of stairs at Marshall High School, before shocking her with a stun gun and striking her repeatedly. New Mayor Lori Lightfoot has threatened to pull cops from schools in the wake of similar incidents.

D.J. Schoeff, first vice president of NASRO, said the training emphasizes that officers should use the law enforcement aspect of their jobs “as a last resort.”

“There’s such a difference between an officer working on the street and working in a school setting,” Schoeff said. “We absolutely think that carefully selected and trained officers make a huge difference in the climate of a school.”

CPD to hold upcoming public meetings on SROs

While the sessions are ongoing this month, police have also announced another round of community meetings that will address the presence of police in schools. The Sun-Times reported last month that of eight community meetings that had been held to date, only one was open to the public.

Police say all four of the upcoming sessions will be open to the public. The meetings will be held from:

• 6-8 p.m. July 17 at Eckhart Park, 1330 W. Chicago Ave.

• 10 a.m.-noon July 20 at Hamilton Park, 513 W. 72nd St.

• 6-8 p.m. July 22 at Piotrowski Park, 4247 W. 31st St.

• 6-8 p.m. July 24 at Warren Park, 6601 N. Western Ave.

Community groups, including Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Raise Your Hand and the Chicago Teachers Union, said they had not been contacted as of Wednesday by CPS or police about the upcoming meetings.

A follow-up report by the IG’s office last month was critical of the progress the department had made toward recommended reforms and of efforts to reach out to the community, including late notice of the meetings.

“We have heard nothing of these so-called public meetings, which are scheduled to start barely a week from now,” CTU spokeswoman Chris Geovanis said. “It’s also troubling that the CPD, which has for years demonstrated serious deficiencies in internal oversight, is again hosting these meetings, when in fact these should be conducted by a neutral party that can solicit public feedback in an environment free of intimidation and suspicion.”

All three organizations have been critical of the way the department’s previous community meetings have been run and publicized.

Agostini defended the meetings, saying “we’ve found that our current meeting format best facilitates productive dialogue and allows for an equitable share of input from all participants.”

Others remain skeptical of the role of police in the city’s schools.

“It’s good that CPD continues to do outreach to the community because they can only improve by involving community in honest dialogue,” BPNC Youth Organizer Veronica Rodriguez said. “We have participated in those conversations in the past. But we remain steadfast in our belief that police do not belong in our schools.”