- Westside Community Schools will keep shock gloves for SROs at Westside Middle and Westside High School
- OPD removed shock gloves from most OPS schools last week after the district requested their removal
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) – Westside Community Schools will keep shock gloves in use by school resource officers at Westside Middle School and Westside High School, despite opposition from some parents who spoke out at Monday night's school board meeting.
SROs will continue carrying Complaint Technologies' shock gloves at both schools. Three Westside parents — Jensyn Bell, Jennifer Maddocks, and Sandra Borchers — spoke in opposition at the meeting. 3 News Now's Jeremy Fredricks spoke with them after the meeting ended.
"I'm concerned about how these can be used against black and brown students and students with disabilities," Bell said.
"This is a punishment, more for the streets, more for adults, not for children," Maddocks said.
"What I would like to see is the gloves out of the school immediately. Beyond that, I think this brings up another point that we need to reevaluate SROs in the schools entirely," Borchers said.
The Omaha Police Department provides SROs to local school districts, including Westside and Omaha Public Schools. Last week, OPD removed shock gloves from most OPS schools after the district requested their removal.
Westside Superintendent Dr. Mike Lucas said 3 board members met last week with OPD.
"Our district leadership team, and the board of education are committed to listening and learning as we continue to prioritize safety, security and well-being of our students," Lucas said.
Last week, Westside was still gathering information before making a decision on the future of shock gloves in the district. Besides Lucas' remarks, the board did not discuss shock gloves or respond to parents' statements at the meeting.
3 News Now's Jeremy Fredricks reached out to OPD to ask whether the gloves log every time they are used.
A spokesperson said: "The GLOVE does log or record when they are used on the device itself, however, we do not have the subscription to get the data. It's an added cost on top of the device itself."
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