Philadelphia Weekly

Change you can't believe in: Ada Banks (left) doesn't want armed school police officers around her granddaughter Briana (right)

Just before 3 o’clock on a March afternoon, parents gather to pick up their kids outside Samuel Daroff elementary school in West Philly.

To their dismay, no one is being allowed in or out of the building because of a shooting nearby at 60th and Market. The school is under protective lockdown—standard practice in Philadelphia.

In the next 10 minutes a crowd of 20 to 30 visibly irritable adults gathers. A few parents scurry around trying to get information, some talk on cell phones while others chat among themselves about the barrage of violence surrounding their children. But the discussion heats up when the possibility of arming school police officers is raised.

“I don’t think they should, ’cause the cops today is too hotheaded ’cause so many cops got killed,” says a mother waiting for her 9-year-old daughter. “These kids is too rowdy and somethin’ might happen, and one of these cops might shoot one of these kids by accident.”

A grandfather in the thick of the crowd disagrees: “Some of ’em should [have guns],” he argues. “I can see the ones that are out here; I can see them coming to protect the schools or whatever. They here to protect the kids and all.”

One after another, they chime in on the issue. “I don’t think they should pull [a gun out] on a child,” says another mother, “but if they got to stop someone from hurting someone else ... ”

The request to arm the mobile fleet of officers who patrol public schools is perennially put forth by the officers’ union during contract negotiations, but the issue has never been more provocative.

Given the wake of recent police killings, the 18 percent increase in assaults against school officers and the alarming number of weapons being recovered at elementary and middle schools, School Police Officer Union President Michael Lodise says he’s “pushing really hard” this time to arm 100 patrol officers who apprehend truants and respond to building alarms.

While Lodise makes a strong case for arming school cops—pointing directly to the 281 school officers who have been assaulted in the last year—children’s advocates, parents and students themselves offer up the already volatile relationship between kids and cops as a reason armed school officers are a bad idea.

“A lot of kids are viewed as criminals even before they have done anything wrong,” says Sheila Simmons, education coordinator of the advocate group Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth. “Everybody has to file through the metal detector [at comprehensive high schools]; everybody has to kind of go through the suspicion of possibly carrying a weapon.”

Opponents of the idea point to the brawl at Sayre High School in September as an indicator of what could go wrong. City police were called in to break up a mass student fight, but some say the officers made matters worse. Students say the cops used batons on unarmed kids to quell the riot.

Ada Banks knows firsthand how quickly things can get out of hand when cops and kids mix, so the idea of arming school police is unacceptable to her. “That’s like bringing the criminal system inside of the school, and there should be a line drawn,” says Banks. “Being that people are too imperfect and too corrupt, I don’t want my child accidentally shot.” She’s referring to her granddaughter Briana.

Briana Thomas has a mouth so big it can hardly hold her smile. It’s what usually gets the Simon Gratz High School freshman into trouble. And it’s the thing that got her arrested at school one month before her 15th birthday.

The talkative teen claims that on Feb. 11 school police officer Tysherra Burton pushed her up against a locker and handcuffed her because she twice ignored the officer’s instruction to clear the hallway. Briana was brought to the disciplinary office where, after suspension paperwork was filed, she was going to be taken home. But she refused to budge. The school called city police and Briana was arrested for disorderly conduct. She spent the next few hours in a 39th Police District holding cell.

Briana says it’s not the first run-in she’s had with the officer. After a pep rally last November when the girl was confused as to which class to go to next, she alleges Burton put her on the elevator and said, “‘This job don’t mean shit to me. I will fuck you up for real.’” (Gratz principal Vera White declined PW’s request for comment.)

Michael Lodise realizes that people like Briana’s grandmother might have concerns about arming officers. But he insists he only wants to give weapons to well-trained patrol officers stationed outside of school buildings. “We’re not just trying to give people weapons,” he says. “We’re looking for strict guidelines.”

Lodise says there are actually very few complaints lodged against officers, and he’s sure issues are dealt with quickly. He also adds that it’s not his job to keep such records. “I always say, ‘I represent [the officers]. I don’t hire them.’”

But parents say arming school cops is the easy way out.

“I think the administrators lack creativity when it comes to the behavior issue,” says Banks, who plead not guilty to the charge of disorderly conduct on behalf of her granddaughter.