Gwinnett SToPP has worked to end overly harsh and ineffective discipline at Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) since our founding in 2008. We won the demand to denote Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) violations in the GCPS Student/Parent Handbook that could result in a referral to a School Resource Officer (SRO) and possible criminal charges. Once identified, we then reduced the number of disciplinary infractions that could garner police interaction by 33%. Gwinnett SToPP discovered and eliminated a county wide SRO contact quota.

It is past time for GCPS to invest in a restorative, not punitive, discipline system. Training sessions for officers will not help. We need more culturally competent counselors and others trained in child development, not cops! We are ready for a discipline system that is led by the community, counselors, and restorative justice practitioners that examines the root cause of misbehavior and seeks to end the cycle of suspensions. SROs have no place in our schools. We developed seven demands that will begin the process of removing SROs and implementing a fully-funded alternative discipline system led by the community and counselors that will restore students, not criminalize them.

Our Demands:

1. Eliminate SROs from GCPS
2. Reinvest $10.4m+ GCPS Police Budget into Hiring Additional School Mental & Behavioral Health and Restorative Justice Staff.
3. Revise the student discipline policies and practices to include Restorative Practices within the PBIS Framework
4. Implement a culturally relevant inclusive curriculum in elementary, middle, and high school.
5. Transparent review and reporting of student achievement and discipline including arrests and use of force.
6. Ongoing anti-racism and cultural competency professional development for all GCPS staff.
7. Establish a protocol for the rare occasions that local police are called to school.

Read more about our demands and our reasoning behind them