La Crosse School Board hosts SRO open forum

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — Earlier this evening, the La Crosse School Board hosted a forum for community members to voice their opinions on school resource officers.  The vast majority of speakers at the open forum urged for the ending of the contract with the city’s police department.  Many argued that stationing officers in schools to provide safety and maintain order often has the opposite effect.

“As a black student seeing SROs in my school makes me feel uncomfortable and unsafe,” said Chaya Davis, a member of Black Student Leaders at Logan.

But others urged for the school district to keep officers in schools, citing times when an officer has intervened in a hostile situation.

“Why I’m really here today is to fight for the SRO’s to stay in the School District of La Crosse. Not because they have bought some school supplies for a student, not because they gave a student a ride to school, but because my student has needed the SRO to get out of school safely on more than one occasion,” said Stephanie Croninger, a concerned community member.

The school board will get a report on November, 16th. But it is still unclear whether they’ll vote that night on the future of SROs.

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