Parents want more security in LA schools, but student activists push back. Inside the debate

LOS ANGELES — As a parent in South Los Angeles, Prentis Hill has no doubt where he stands in the debate over school police and whether to eliminate them. He wants more security in schools — citing an incident of a student allegedly bringing a gun onto his son's middle school campus last year.

Maria Agueda, the parent of a student at the Bernstein High School campus in Hollywood, would go even further. In the wake of a 15-year-old student's overdose death in September, she said she supports police bringing in canines and conducting random drug searches.

Their demands, however, run counter to those of high school activists and labor, legal and community organizations pushing to eliminate school police and redirect those resources to drug awareness, student mental health support and Black student achievement programs — a goal that they fear is being overtaken by concerns over crime. They saw partial success in 2020 when the Board of Education cut the school police budget by a third and took away the police officer stationed at every high school.

Though there's broad agreement among parents and students on the need for strong mental health services