rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/keep-woodland-hills-students-safe-cancel-police-contracts?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-keep-woodland-hills-students-safe-cancel-police-contracts' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> The Pittsburgh Coalition to End the Deadly Exchange https://actionnetwork.org/groups/deadly-exchange-pittsburgh https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/110/899/normal/IMG_0795.jpg The children of the Woodland Hills School District need your help. They face scarce resources, unaccountable leadership, and a lack of opportunities. Worst of all, they face a much more tangible and lethal threat: the people sworn, employed, and paid by tax dollars to protect students, who have nevertheless been abusing them with impunity. Woodland Hills student Antwon Rose, Jr. was shot in the back by an East Pittsburgh police officer this past June. Last year, another student was called a homophobic slur, and then had his teeth knocked out, by a school resource officer -- just months after the school’s principal had threatened a similar act of violence against the student. The offending officer, Steve Shaulis, has still not been fired by the Churchill Police Department. And what was the Woodland Hills School Board’s response? On August 23rd, they renewed their contracts with the Churchill and Rankin departments for another year of aggressive policing inside schools. To justify this decision, School Board members referenced the threat of school shootings, ignoring the fact that there have been no documented cases of police successfully intervening in school shootings. Instead of reducing threats, these school resource officers create them. They walk school grounds carrying lethal firearms, and they are deputized to file criminal charges against students. This is a common occurrence, despite the fact that most students’ “offenses” could be easily dealt with by standard school disciplinary processes. Meanwhile, Woodland Hills is one of many school districts in Allegheny County where there are far more police employed than academic or psychological counselors. This must end. Our demands are the following: that school resource officer contracts with the Churchill and Rankin Boros be cancelled that know-your-rights trainings for students be facilitated by the ACLU’s School Policing department, not by police that a new Security Plan be put in place which does not involve police that the WH School Board contract with a new security company.* *Employees of the currently-contracted company, Dynasty Security, have also been abusive toward children. Dynasty has received multiple complaints of employee misconduct. The company does a poor job of vetting its employees, and the owner of Dynasty Security is the former Wilkins Township police chief. Sign your name to this petition to let the Woodland Hills School Board know that you will not rest until these constant threats to students’ safety and well-being are removed from schools. In the News: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/05/04/shocking-videos-show-officials-assaulting-children-at-a-high-school-attorney-says/?utm_term=.f5962ec9ac31 https://triblive.com/local/allegheny/12648513-74/new-lawsuits-filed-against-woodland-hills-administrators-school-resource-officers https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/keep-woodland-hills-students-safe-cancel-police-contracts