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School Safety Agents: We're Misunderstood

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“About 90 percent of the Agents don’t want to go under the Department of Education,” said Harold Wise, a Level III School Safety Agent who has worked in city public schools for 20 years.

The controversial plan to transfer jurisdiction of School Safety Agents from the Police Department to the DOE was announced in June 2020 after advocates for defunding the police called for police-free schools. They argued that the Agents contributed to the school-to-prison pipeline and the high suspension rates among black and Latino students.

Williams, Floyd Clash

Some—notably Public Advocate Jumaane Williams—stated that the Agents physically and sexually abused students, a claim that sparked outrage from Gregory Floyd, President of Teamsters Local 237, which represents the Agents.


 A few of our stories and columns are now in front of the paywall. We at The Chief-Leader remain committed to independent reporting on labor and civil service. It's been our mission since 1897. You can have a hand in ensuring that our reporting remains relevant in the decades to come. Consider supporting The Chief, which you can do for as little as $2.25 a month.

The role of School Safety Agents will be transformed: they will receive training on de-escalation and restorative- justice practices, and they won’t be able to arrest students or use handcuffs. The transition, which was set in motion by the City Council, is expected to be complete by July 2022.

But three School Safety Agents said the narratives being pushed about them were false. Although advocates for police-free schools attributed the disproportionately high number of black and Latino students being suspended to the Agents, “School Safety doesn’t have the power to suspend kids—that’s the administration,” Mr. Wise noted.

Although a City Council bill called for the Agents “to no longer carry weapons,” they are not armed.

'Scan Because Principal Asks'

And the criticism that the use of metal detectors make students feel like they’re in prison?

“Random scanning happens because a Principal asks for it,” Mr. Wise explained.

Many of the false narratives developed because “people really don’t understand what School Safety does,” he stated.

Quiann Simpkins, a School Safety Agent at a Brooklyn school serving students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, said she was “confused and alarmed” when she first heard about the transfer.

“We were the low-hanging fruit because they couldn’t go after the NYPD,” she said of the proponents for police-free schools.

But the Agents argued that they have often served as mentors to the kids. Ninety percent of the Agents are black and Latino, and 70 percent are women, a workforce that reflects the city’s students, who are predominantly people of color. Many live in the same neighborhoods as the students they serve.

'They Call Me Grandpa'

“The kids call us ‘Uncle.’ They call me ‘Grandpa,’” said Charles Greene, a School Safety Agent Level III in the Bronx who has been on the job since 2002. “I tell the kids, ‘I am you. When you succeed, I succeed.’”

Mr. Wise started a mentoring program for students at Port Richmond High School, while Mr. Greene holds an event called ‘Battle of the School Stars’ where students from different schools put on performances.

“School Safety is not the enemy. We love the kids,” Mr. Greene said.

“We do a lot of mediation,” Mr. Wise noted. “We talk things out with the kids.”

Oversight of School Safety Agents shifted from the Board of Education to the NYPD in 1998 because schools had proved incapable of managing the unit, with many hires the product of political patronage and background checks shoddy at best.

'Didn't Work First Time'

“I don’t know why they would want to transfer us to the DOE when it didn’t work in the first place,” said Mr. Wise, who attended city public-schools when the Agents were under the Board’s jurisdiction. He recalled encountering Agents who were gangbangers or were in inappropriate relationships with students.

“I believe the best thing would be to stay under NYPD,” he said. “We get trained properly and we’re vetted thoroughly.”

The Agents, as well as Mr. Floyd, feared that students would be left vulnerable if the transition takes effect, and have held several rallies opposing the plan.

“There’s no way you can do restorative justice when there are still criminals out there,” Mr. Greene said. “What are we going to do to stop gang violence?”

Can't Count on Principals

He also worried crimes would be swept under the rug, because some Principals believe reporting serious crimes in their schools will reflect negatively on their leadership.

“If the Principals are in charge of us, it’s going to be a problem,” Mr. Greene said. “It’s a conflict of interest.”

Mr. Wise worried about weapons going undetected without the Police Department infrastructure. According to NYPD data, School Safety employees confiscated 2,701 weapons during the 2018-2019 school year, a 60-percent increase from the 2014-2015 school year.

“You don’t know how many weapons are in these schools,” he said.

Although school has only been in session for a month, there have been several violent incidents, including a stabbing inside the library at Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School and two teens being stabbed outside of Harry S. Truman High School.

'Will Get Worse'

Ms. Simpkins, who has been on the job since 2006, feared it was “going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.”

School Safety Agents have been understaffed thanks to attrition and a recent slate of retirements.

“A lot of people were tired of feeling worthless,” Mr. Greene noted.

Contributing to the problem was that there hasn’t been a new class of Agents since 2019. Although a 475-person class was supposed to be scheduled, advocates for police-free schools opposed the new Agents being hired after hearing about the plans during a February City Council hearing.

More than 100 organizations sent a letter to Mayor de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea demanding that the hiring plans be cancelled. The City Council ended up scrapping the proposed class as part of the city budget deal in late June.

Staff Shortages Grew

After concerns were raised about the understaffing, a new class of 250 Agents was announced in August. But the shortages were once again exacerbated by the vaccine mandate, with about 700 Agents taken off of payroll because they were unvaccinated. And that August class won't be working in schools for another couple of months.

“They messed up school safety so bad when they stopped the classes,” Mr. Wise said. “Schools that usually had six to seven Agents now have one.”

“If somebody’s out, it’s chaos,” Mr. Greene added.

The Agents said that the parents and staff they’ve spoken with think the plan is “crazy.”

“People say we’re worried about losing our jobs. Yeah, we want to keep our jobs but we care about having a safe environment for our kids,” Mr. Greene said.

Adams to Reassess

Ms. Simpkins was hopeful that the transfer would not happen. Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for Mayor, has said he would reassess the changes. She believed that whoever was elected Mayor would hurt their chances of getting a second term if schools become less-safe.  

And if the shift does occur and crime increases in schools, “that person is going to have the bloodiest hands ever,” Ms. Simpkins stated.

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