Some Los Angeles parents are putting up a fight against the city's most progressive activist groups, with violence in the school district nearly doubling since police were removed from school campuses following the riots over George Floyd's murder in 2020.
Maria Luisa Palma, a member of the Parents Advisory Committee in Los Angeles, organized an independent petition in February calling for the return of police on school campuses as district data revealed that violent incidents rose from 2,315 in the 2018-2019 school year to 4,569 in 2022-2023.
"We've seen a huge increase from our kids," Palma told Fox News Digital in an interview. "We hear constantly how there are fights and open drug use in the bathrooms. We see the proof in the data … so we have more clear information. This is out of control as we hear from our kids."
Palma's petition has gotten more than 2,500 signatures so far from parents from over 300 schools and all seven board districts. She said "the more, the better." There is no cap on signatures.
In 2021, Students Deserve, a progressive grassroots student organization advocating for the abolition of police in schools, pressured the LAUSD and the school board to divest money from the Los Angeles School District Police.
The group argued the presence of police officers on school campuses often led to the criminalization of students, particularly those from Black and brown communities, and contributed to a hostile and intimidating environment that hindered learning.
"We want schools to divest from criminalization and policing," the Students Deserve website states. "We want schools to invest in us as Black, Muslim, undocumented, indigenous, and queer youth in poor and working class communities of color. We follow the lead of Black Lives Matter in demanding that our schools defund the police and defend Black life."
Students Deserve, closely partnered with Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and the California Teacher's Association, was successful in getting the school district to reevaluate its budget priorities and reallocate $25 million from school police to alternative support services, such as counselors, mental health professionals and restorative justice programs.
Many Students Deserve representatives will appear at board meetings, Palma said, and urge members not to invest funds in the school's police department.
"They were the group that helped to create the situation in the first place," Palma said. "They are the group that the board listens to, and so they continue to oppose what the parents want."
The school board voted unanimously in February 2021 to do away with officers stationed in schools and already rejected a resolution in September 2021 that would have reinstated police.
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"This is not a question of whether or not the district has funds to fully fund a functioning police department to safely patrol our schools and to have officers assigned on our campuses," Palma said. "It is a political statement to appease the defund the police movement."
The LAUSD school board is developing a new safety plan. However, the board hasn't indicated whether the plan includes a return of police officers to schools.
