In light of recent uprisings in response to the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Marcus-David Peters, as well as many others, we have seen increased pressure around fighting for public safety that moves beyond policing. This includes finding alternatives to policing in our schools and on our campuses. We demand that universities and K-12 schools in Virginia divest from racist, anti-Black systems of policing.

By signing this pledge, we commit to building a community that goes beyond policing in educational institutions and beyond, where people do not need to fear arrest, death, or deportation when asking for help; where we are able to provide services that have been long underfunded and overlooked, and support one another. 

DIVEST FROM CAMPUS POLICE DEPARTMENTS

These universities that continue to put massive amounts of money to fund the police must completely reallocate those funds to student and community-oriented public safety alternatives. University police not only criminalize Black and brown students, but also community members, and enforce university-driven gentrification. All initiatives must include students as key decision-makers in how to build true community safety for all. Our universities also must commit to not cooperating with ICE and exposing students and their families to the deportation pipeline, and must provide resources for undocumented students.

DIVEST FROM SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS

K-12 schools in Virginia must also divest from police (such as school resource officers and school security officers) and redistribute those funds to programs that don’t criminalize and actually benefit students and their families. Schools must find alternatives to SROs (school resource officers) and SSOs (school security officers), to create a truly safe space for all students to get their education and stop the school-to-prison pipeline.