EASTHAMPTON — After years of contention, a police officer will no longer be present in the city’s public schools.
The city will redirect its school resource officer positions to focus on community-based policing, according to Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle. The officers will still work with juveniles, but will not be based in the district’s schools.
“The biggest thing I think people will notice is there’s not a police officer assigned within our schools who might be walking the halls or talking to students in the cafeteria or during recess,” LaChapelle said.
The district previously had one school resource officer, and last year received a federal grant to hire a second person for the position. The city will reallocate this funding into community policing, according to LaChapelle.
“Nobody is losing their jobs, and the school department is not losing money,” she said.
As part of the updated community policing role, the officers will work closely with programs such as the city’s Healthy Youth Coalition and Hampshire HOPE. Students also may be referred to one of these two officers in the event that a youth liaison is not available at the school.
Criticism of school resource officer programs has increased in recent years in Easthampton and throughout the country. Locally, Northampton announced last summer that it would indefinitely remove its school resource officer.
The issue of policing in schools gained renewed attention in Easthampton after a 2017 incident on school grounds where three students of color were arrested for allegedly punching a white student who had used a racial slur in a message that circulated on social media. Two of the students who were arrested filed and later settled a lawsuit against then-school administrators, as well as Easthampton Police Chief Robert Alberti and Officer Rick Rogalski, alleging an “absolute failure to protect students of color.”
The 2017 altercation also prompted around 200 Easthampton students to walk out of school in protest of the administration the following day, and an investigation later by the state attorney general’s office found that the school’s administration “treated physical incidents involving white students less severely than incidents involving students of color.”
The students and officials reached a financial settlement of undisclosed terms on the lawsuit in February.
In August 2020, the School Committee unanimously voted in favor of waiving the state requirement to have a police officer in its schools.
Rogalski, the officer named in the lawsuit, was the most recent person to hold the school resource officer role. Rogalski was not in this position at the time of the 2017 altercation.
The issue has previously drawn strong reactions from those for and against school resource officers. Critics of the position, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union, have raised concerns that the program places students — especially students of color — at increased risk of harsh disciplinary actions and intimidation, and that it perpetuates the school-to-prison pipeline.
Advocates say that the program fosters safety and crime prevention in schools and that officers can protect students and staff in the event of an emergency. A petition in support of keeping the position had collected over 500 signatures as of Tuesday.
The petition’s creator, named only as “Support SRO Easthampton,” writes that school resource officers assist with “developing comprehensive safety plans to ensure schools are safe places for students to learn.”
“More importantly, these officers work to build positive and lasting relationships with the students,” the statement says.
Alberti could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but said last year that he would “defer to the school and the community” on the issue.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.