Arrests at Cedar Rapids schools up in first half of academic year

CEDAR RAPIDS — More Cedar Rapids Community School District students have been arrested at school in the first half of this academic year than in the same period last year — even though there are fewer police officers stationed at schools — but school and police officials are optimistic about the impact of changes made last summer to reduce racial disparities and increase chances for diversion from arrest.

The changes to the school resource officer contract decreased the number of police officers stationed in the Cedar Rapids district’s schools from seven to five. The two positions that were removed had been floaters, responding wherever they were needed in the district, during the 2021-22 academic year. Before that, the positions were based at McKinley and Roosevelt middle schools.

The five officers now are stationed at Kennedy, Washington, Jefferson and Metro high schools and Polk Alternative school.

Whether officers were needed in middle schools was a heated topic of discussion while reviewing the contract last year. The Cedar Rapids City Council supported a revision that would have permanently stationed two officers in McKinley and Wilson middle schools, where police had responded to a higher number of incidents in the previous year. But the revision was rejected by the school board.

Arrest and diversions

The Gazette requested data from the Cedar Rapids Police Department showing how many arrests were made in the school district during the first half of the 2022-23 school year — from August to December 2022 — compared with how many arrests were made during the same time period the previous year. The data requested included how many arrests were made at each school, the racial and gender breakdown of arrested students and a breakdown of the charges that students faced.

During the first half of the 2022-23 academic year, after the contract changes were made, there were 24 arrests made in the Cedar Rapids district by school resource officers, and 14 arrests made by patrol officers called in during school hours. During the same time period the previous year, there were 15 arrests by resource officers and 11 by patrol officers.

None of the resource officers arrests either year happened at middle schools. However, there were nine arrests made by patrol officers at middle schools during the first half of this school year, compared with seven during the first half of the last academic year.

Lt. Cory McGarvey, who oversees part of the school resource officer program for the police department, said he was concerned by the rise in numbers so far this year. But he can point to a few incidents and students that caused the majority of that increase.

Kennedy High School, he said, had one large disturbance this year that resulted in seven students being arrested. At Polk Middle, there are two students who have each been arrested three times.

“So, that's why, midyear, we're a little higher. I'll tell you, we've had a good January, a good February. These could easily stabilize and we could be back totally in line with last year,” McGarvey said.

McGarvey also noted that while the term “arrest” is used to denote a student being charged in relation to an incident, students are seldom physically arrested and taken out of the school in handcuffs. Most of the time, after resolving or de-escalating an incident, school resource officers will work with the school principal or a facilitator to determine whether criminal or school-based punishments are appropriate.

When students are not charged, but instead referred to the school for consequences and support, this is referred to as a diversion. These can involve anything from writing a 200-word paper about the negative affects of vaping to attending required counseling.

The process for diverting a student rather than charging them includes students and their parents being interviewed by school resource officers to try to determine what is causing the behavior and how to best address it. If the student’s crime is one that involves a victim, the decision to divert rather than charge must be approved by that victim, according to McGarvey.

In the first half of the 2022-23 school year, there were 28 diversions in the Cedar Rapids district. During the same time period last year, there were 30 diversions, two of them at middle schools.

McGarvey noted that more students are being diverted than are being arrested by school resource officers.

“We like diversions. We like them a lot. And the SROs know that. Diversions are always on the table for an incident,” McGarvey said.

Nicole Kooiker, deputy superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District, said that students who are diverted still face consequences, but they’re not facing the consequence of potentially living with a police record.

Racial discrepancies

Black students made up about 66 percent of the arrests and 46 percent of the diversions during the first half of academic year 2022-23, even though Black students only make up about 20 percent of the total school district population.

The large disruption at Kennedy High that resulted in seven arrests could have contributed to this racial difference, as all seven students arrested were Black, according to McGarvey.

In the first half of academic year 2021-22, Black students made up about 54 percent of arrests and 46 percent of the diversions.

Kooiker said that although the number of students being charged isn't where she wants it to be, it is much better than years ago.

"I don't want disproportionate arrest numbers. I think a lot of it is we all have biases and some training needs to happen," Kooiker said. "I don't want our academic data to have gaps and differences as well. It takes time. There's still opportunity for us to partner (with the police department), work together, learn together and continue to focus on closing those gaps."

School resource officers have various trainings related to diversity, equity and inclusion, both through the police department and through the school district, McGarvey said.

“The SROs are getting actually more training than the normal officers, because they are going to training with the school district and I’m sending them to additional trainings for SROs. And we’re all trained by NASRO, the National Association of School Resource Officers,” McGarvey said.

According to Kooiker, school resource officers all have taken the intercultural development inventory, an online survey to assess intercultural competence, as well as completed full-day trainings in restorative practices and trauma-informed care.

They’ve also undergone a two-day training in de-escalation and non-violent crisis prevention and intervention training, which focuses on prevention and equips people to safely defuse anxious, hostile or violent behavior.

Joint goals

The school district and police department have set joint goals to reduce arrests and charges filed against all students by 50 percent or more, and bring a 50 percent or greater reduction in the disproportionate number of arrests of Black students, according to Kooiker. She said the district and police are having conversations about how to be more specific in their goals, such as by "x" date only "x" number of students will be charged with a crime.

The revised goal is expected to be presented to the school board this spring when the board will be voting again on renewing the school resource officers’ contract. The current one ends June 30.

Each month, school officials meet with the Cedar Rapids Police Department to compare data of students charged or diverted. The police department shares monthly reports with the district that outline the arrests, diversions and any other police reports that occurred that month at the district. The reports include information about who made the call for service and the race and gender of the suspect and victim, if there is one, in each incident.

Police share numbers from only middle and high schools — a policy which the district agreed to — because elementary schools usually have very few, if any, arrests, McGarvey said.

The data is analyzed to see what can be put in place to decrease the number of students being charged.

"We live in two different worlds — education and law enforcement. How do those work together to best serve our kids?" Kooiker said.

The differences in data sometimes depends on who made the request for service from an officer.

McGarvey said the police department recently started tracking who makes the calls for service because of public accusations that school resource officers were actively looking to arrest students.

He said that of the 24 arrests made by the resource officers so far this school year, only one was initiated by the officer. The others were all situations where someone else — a student, parent or staff member — called for help.

“There's been this preconceived notion by people in the public that the SROs are the enforcers of the school. They’re looking to arrest kids. That's so not true,” McGarvey said. “We work really hard with the school district, and I mean the SROs and the principals, or the SROs and a facilitator. They work really hard, together to do joint decision making.”

Grace King of The Gazette contributed to this report.

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