Akron Mayor Shammas Malik on Monday night made a rare appearance at the Akron Board of Education meeting, imploring its leaders to sign a school resource officer contract ahead of the start of the school year.
“I, you know, really strongly say that if we want to move forward with the program this school year, we do need to have a contract today,” Malik said.
He did not get his wish.
After an hours-long executive session, the school board reconvened after 11 p.m. to announce there was no action to take on the SRO contract with the city. Problem is, most buildings in Akron Public Schools begin classes on Aug. 21, leaving the school board less than two weeks to sign a contract, secure alternative school security or go without.
Five months ago, the SRO contract was voted down by the same school board over the same impasse they’re working to navigate now — a question of autonomy.
Asked after the school board meeting by reporters if school officials would consider a private security firm, Board President Carla Jackson seemed open to the idea but added the school board had not discussed the option. Meanwhile, the mayor’s office told Signal Akron on Tuesday that, without a contract, Akron Police officers cannot be in the schools as SROs.
The previous SRO contract expired at the end of 2024, but police officers who receive special training through the state to work with school-aged populations remained in schools through the end of the academic year.
During the 2024-25 school year, 14 Akron police officers were stationed at the following Akron public schools:
- Buchtel CLC
- East CLC
- Ellet CLC
- Firestone CLC
- Garfield CLC
- North High School
- Hyre CLC
- Innes CLC
- Jennings CLC
- Litchfield CLC
- Miller South School for the Visual and Performing Arts
- National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle School
Two additional SROs floated between schools as needed.
For at least one officer who worked last year as an SRO at Garfield CLC, the assignment was a way for him to interact positively with students without entering the education landscape.
“I never really wanted to go the teaching route, but I definitely want to have some type of impact on children’s lives,” officer Orlando Romine told Signal Akron in an interview last November.
Why hasn’t the Akron school board signed the SRO contract?
Akron Public Schools wants language in the contract that allows principals to temporarily keep officers out of their buildings if there’s a use-of-force incident or an otherwise awkward cultural fit. The board also wants to ensure its ability to permanently pull an officer out of the SRO program.
These questions of autonomy came into the spotlight last school year. A police officer made headlines for repeatedly punching a teenaged student in the head while trying to detain him at Firestone Community Learning Center. The student was trying to circumvent a metal detector so he could keep his phone on him.
“Ultimately, my decision to vote ‘No’ was based on my belief that the Board should retain the authority to act in the best interest of our schools and that a critical protection — our ability to remove an SRO if needed — should not be compromised, even in the short term,” Jackson told Signal Akron after the school board voted down the SRO contract in April.
The Firestone CLC incident was eventually reviewed by Anthony Finnell, Akron’s independent police auditor. Finnell concluded the punches thrown at the 16-year-old were “problematic” but not inherently unreasonable.
How has APS worked in recent years to improve school safety?
Yondr Bags, which APS uses to keep kids from using their phones during the school day, and metal detectors are two physical ways the district has worked in recent years to deter school violence.
Last year, APS implemented a visitor identification system that scans identification cards and checks those identities against the National Sex Offender Registry before printing a pass for visitors.
The school district has never seriously considered authorizing teachers or staff to carry firearms in schools, something the state allowed in 2022.
So where does APS go from here?
It’s a bit unclear what alternatives school officials are considering. They could come to an agreement with the Summit County Sheriff’s Department, but there are questions about whether it has enough deputies to fill the 14 SRO positions APS relies on.
The next full board meeting falls after the start of the school year, but the school board could call a special meeting, which they do on a semi-regular basis.
