![]() ![]() ![]() The police department has also attempted to bridge the gap between children and police officers through the Police Activity League, where officers organize athletic, recreational, and educational activities and engage with children in the community. The officers have good relationships with students, Spagnolo said, and some have even graduated from the schools they now patrol. There are nine school resource officers in the district, along with a supervisor. In the same period last year, there were 141 arrests, he said. 8 of this year, that school resource officer had to call for a supervisor to review the circumstances of the incident prior to the arrest."įrom February through the end of the school year in June, there were 15 arrests, according to Spagnolo. “We wanted to add a layer of supervision to the process,” he said. It also recommended Waterbury reduce the number of arrests, provide more training for officers and draft an agreement between the police department and school district with new descriptions of the roles of school resource officers.Īcting on those recommendations, the community adopted new protocols in February, which are showing early signs of success in reducing school-based arrests, according to Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo. The report recommended the state prohibit the use of embedded police in schools, track the use of police and 911 calls in schools, raise the minimum age of arrest to 12, and prohibit the suspension of elementary school children. An investigation in the 2018-19 school year by the state Office of the Child Advocate found police were called roughly 200 times to pre-K through eighth grade schools in Waterbury, often for mental health disturbances, and for incidents involving children as young as 4 years old. ![]() Waterbury has recently received criticism around the policing of its schools. “I saw them arresting a lot of kids, but I also saw some of them interact positively with kids,” she said. She preferred to avoid interacting with police, but said some of her peers had a range of interactions including some that were positive and some that were negative. “It can be a very traumatic thing to witness your peers getting arrested.” Even in middle school, I kind of felt a little anxious,” she said. “As a person of color, I felt very wary of. Narlin Chimbo Once, a former student in the district who graduated in 2021, said the school resource officers who carry out the arrests in schools made her uneasy. Waterbury has consistently reported far more arrests than any other school district since at least the 2017-18 school year, according to state data. The Connecticut Technical Education and Career System had the next highest number of arrests, with 90. Superintendent Verna Ruffin said the number the school system reported to the state previously was lower than the police department’s internal figures because it didn't include some arrests off-campus, such as at bus stops, on buses, or at school events. ![]() State data shows Waterbury Public Schools reported 235 school-based arrests in the 2021-22 school year, while Waterbury police data shows there were 283 school-based arrests – more than one arrest for every school day. It’s a problem that’s been happening for years, but now district leaders and the local police say recent policy changes should reduce the number of arrests. The Waterbury School District has more student arrests than any other district in the state. ![]()
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