Instead of calling local police any time a student is suspected of a crime, the Long Beach Unified School District may soon empower its in-house safety officers to handle low-level offences.
At a school board meeting Wednesday, the district proposed allowing school safety officers, or SSOs, to cite and arrest students for small crimes. Under the plan, SSOs would refer cited students to an LBUSD diversion program. If students participate in diversion, their citations would be dismissed without ever being filed in court.
“We are looking to take over handling all infractions and misdemeanors that originate from our school sites,” Cameron Smith, the district’s director of school safety, said in a presentation to the board. This strategy would allow the district to maintain control over how these incidents are handled, he said.
The changes Smith laid out are part of a multi-year process for reimagining school safety, spurred in part by the reforms community members demanded after 18-year-old Mona Rodriguez was shot and killed by an SSO in 2021. A wave of changes, from better training to standardized policies, have already been implemented to improve how SSOs respond to incidents. This proposed policy now aims to reduce reliance on police departments, increase diversion pathways for students and recruit and retain SSOs. It elicited both concern and support from board members, who will vote on the plan on Oct. 1.
“I don’t want our school safety team to be seen as a law enforcement agency,” said board member Juan Benitez, following Smith’s presentation. “We’re not going to do what law enforcement does,” he said, citing negative experiences Long Beach community members have had with police officers and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But under this plan, SSOs will be formally aligned with state law enforcement categories, Smith said, and their powers will expand to look more like those of police. Currently, SSOs are armed officers who have undergone the state-required training to become sworn peace officers in California.
Smith said that the district standardizes its policies through a contract with Lexipol, a national company that provides policy manuals, training and consulting to about 95% of California police departments. Lexipol has received criticism for deceptive tactics, language that can encourage racial profiling and lack of oversight and transparency.
Still, there are key differences: SSOs will handle low-level incidents such as trespassing, vandalism, petty theft, simple battery, possession of a knife on school grounds and simple drug possession. Anything that rises to the level of a felony will require police involvement, Smith said, though more details will be ironed out in memorandums of understanding with external law enforcement agencies.
SSOs are also trained differently than police, Smith said. While police de-escalation training focuses on adults, SSOs focus on youth, Smith said, asking questions like: “How do we de-escalate that ninth grader who’s in crisis?” SSOs also receive daily briefings during which they discuss safety scenarios they might encounter.
“Those efforts were absolutely magnified and accelerated following the death of Mona Rodriguez,” said Deputy Superintendent Tiffany Brown.
She credited Safer LBUSD, a group of community organizers and activists, for starting a conversation with the district to rethink school safety. Those conversations have shaped the proposed plan and already led to many changes — from data collection to messaging to mental health resources, she said.
Chris Covington and Kim Tabari, co-leads of Safer LBUSD, echoed that progress. Smith brought a fresh perspective to his role, Tabari said, and Safer LBUSD had “an opportunity to work in restorative justice,” an alternative process to traditional disciplinary action that involves the offender, victims and community in dialogue to repair harm. “The district was on board for that,” she added.
Still, Covington and Tabari expressed some concern about the plan. “We actually believe in abolishing all policing practices within the district and actually moving towards a violence prevention model that is community healing first,” Covington said. “It’s going to take time.”
Safer LBUSD plans to monitor the plan if it is implemented. And Smith expressed the intent to install an oversight committee to review citations SSOs issue to ensure accountability.
Board member Douglas Otto signaled his support. “You’ve got my vote,” he said at the end of Wednesday’s meeting. Community members will have the opportunity to voice their opinions at the Oct. 1 meeting prior to the full board’s vote.