Police Won't Patrol Somerville Schools Under New Plan

SOMERVILLE, MA – The Somerville School Committee voted Monday to keep police out of city public schools and implement recommendations on when and how police are called to schools.

“Last night we won a huge victory in Somerville!” wrote the advocacy group Safe Schools Somerville over Facebook on Wednesday. “After years of public pressure from Safe Schools Somerville members, the Somerville School Committee unanimously voted to adopt policy recommendations that would permanently remove police from Somerville Public Schools!”

The group, formerly known as Justice for Flavia, is led by Flavia Peréa, whose child was involved in a November 2019 incident at the Albert F. Argenziano School, in which police were called on her 6-year-old child.

In that incident, administrators reported the child to police on a charge of indecent assault and battery against a friend.

A few months later, school resource officers were removed from Somerville Public Schools. Now, those measures have become permanent.

At the Special Policing Subcommittee’s Jan. 31 meeting, members voted to make four recommendations to the Somerville School Committee. The Subcommittee considered that proposal and deliberated on the recommendations before coming to their vote in support of such proposals, according to a memo.

The first recommendation proposed that Somerville Public Schools call two Somerville police officers specially trained to work with youth and families in emergency situations, and asked that Superintendent Jeff Curley create guidance for staff and educators on their roles when calling police.

“Until such time that this guidance is developed and in place, the school department will work with legal counsel to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and our stated values to interrupt the school to prison pipeline,” the School Committee wrote.

The second recommendation proposed Superintendent Curley work with Somerville Police on calling an off-site School Liaison Officer for incidents that pose “substantial harm.”

The third recommendation proposed cutting the second full paragraph on page three of the Memorandum of Understanding Somerville public schools have with Somerville police that is about intervening in incidents that do not meet the criteria of criminal conduct.

The last recommendation asked that the SPS budget not fund police involvement in schools.

“With the School Committee’s vote on Monday comes interim clarity of [police] roles in our schools and identification of designated, specially trained officers who will respond in emergency situations,” Curley told The Boston Globe in a statement.