As students and alumni of Highline Public Schools, we demand the board to permanently end their relationship with all Police Departments. We are calling on Superintendent Enfield and the Highline School Board to terminate the school district’s existing relationships with all police departments, as well as SROS (school resource officers) and SSOs (school security officers), from Highline Public Schools. 

We demand the school district to do the following:

1) End existing relationships with the King County Sheriff’s Department and remove police officers (including SROSs and SSOs) from all schools within the Highline School District and
2) Reallocate those funds towards community chosen transformative justice programming and mental and physical health services, and invest in student wellness and holistic de-escalation spaces within our schools. This implementation must be led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color within the community.

The countless acts of police brutality that have taken place across the nation and in our community have made it undeniably clear that cops do not provide safety for Black and Brown communities, but actively harm and endanger them. Students of color make up about 77% of the school's student population. Hence the presence of SROs in our schools jeopardizes the safety, well-being, and futures of our students by adding to the racial trauma currently impacting them and their families. And so, while we acknowledge that members of the Highline community have had some positive interactions with our SROs, this alone cannot pardon what is taking place on the streets, and what history tells us is rooted in the centuries-old subjugation, brutalization, and criminalization of Black and Brown people, whom our district predominantly serves.

We as students have witnessed these effects impact our peers on countless occasions throughout our lives, and because of this, we need to make it clear that armed law enforcement officers are not physically, emotionally equipped for handling student conflicts. 

With the collective voice and the infield efforts of people within our community and across the country, we can make this change not only be possible, but successful.

Signed in warmth and solidarity

Highline Students, Alumni, and Allies