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"It's Been a Great Day so Far"
Milwaukee’s new superintendent says there are no problems with the return of police officers to the city’s schools.
Milwaukee Police returned its school resource officers to MPS schools Monday, finally complying with a 2023 state law.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, whose first day was also Monday, told reporters the district considers the long-running feud over that 2023 law settled.
“I was briefed earlier today on the officers, all 25 are on duty and doing well,” Cassellius explained at a news conference. “I checked-in with the mayor's office, and there's been no incidents, and nothing going on. It's been a great day so far.”
A Milwaukee County judge gave both MPS and the city’s police department til' Saturday to hire the 25 school resource officers, train them, and get them ready to go into Milwaukee schools.
Cassellius said she considers the court case all but closed.
“We have complied with the order, with the city, and we continue to monitor that situation,” Cassellius added. “I know that there's a required evaluation to be done, and we'll get back to that. We'll tweak it as we need to. But so far, so good.”
The judge threatened the city of Milwaukee with a $1,000 per-day fine if the officers were not back in school by the deadline.
But the issue of school resource officers in Milwaukee Public Schools is years old.
MPS cut ties with the city’s police department in 2020 during the height of the anger over George Floyd’s death.
MPS school board members said repeatedly that they didn’t feel safe with police officers in their buildings.
It was during the 2023 negotiations over shared revenue and a city of Milwaukee sales tax that Republican lawmakers insisted that MPS return the officers.
But because there weren’t any teeth to the new law, MPS avoided compliance until an MPS parent sued, and the judge finally stepped-in and ordered officers to return.
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