Portland Votes 7-2 to End School Resource Officers in Two Schools
The Portland school board voted Wednesday morning to remove resource officers from Deering and Portland High School.
According to News Center Maine, the superintendent, Xavier Botana, recommended the school board get rid of SROs. That saves more than $150,000 in the budget.
Now that money will be used for security at large events (if we ever have those again) and de-escalation training for staff, the news station reported.
There was an amendment to try and push off a decision for a year while they did more studies, but that was voted down, according to News Center Maine.
The news station reported that two students from Portland High School started a petition supporting their SROs, but two parents with students in the school district also collected more than 1,000 signatures in opposition.
Superintendent Botana said that the schools are relying too heavily on resource officers to handle disciplinary things that aren't crimes, according to the news station. The debate went on for about 6 hours and the vote happened in the early morning.
The majority of public debate seemed to favor ending the contract with the Portland Police, News Center Maine reported.