Activist ‘deeply disappointed’ after Fayette district cancels meeting on school police

National civil rights activist Shaun King on Thursday said that Fayette County Public Schools canceled a scheduled afternoon meeting with himself, high school students, school board members and others to discuss the “harms of school based policing” and that he was “deeply disappointed.”

As a co-founder and executive director of the Grassroots Law Project, King is heavily followed on social media.

One of the students who expected to attend the meeting told the Herald-Leader Thursday that he was also unhappy about the cancellation.

But district officials said the meeting cancellation had been mischaracterized..

“We want to meet with our students,” said district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall. “We want to hear their ideas about how to improve the services we provide. We embrace their creativity and fresh perspectives and want their honest reflections on their experiences with officers in our schools. And we will have those conversations, but not on terms driven by national organizations whose premise fails to take into account the true nature of our school district.”

A Wednesday announcement from the Grassroots Law Project about the meeting said King, Fayette high school students in the group Counselors Over Cops, Kosha Tucker, described as a juvenile justice expert and Cameo Kendrick, the National Education Association’s Aspiring Educators Chair, would discuss school-based policing and outline an alternative approach to school safety.

The Grassroots statement said district officials, instead of holding the Thursday meeting, asked the students and speakers to hold a combined meeting with the district acting superintendent, police chief, and general counsel at a later date.

King’s statement was headlined, “FCPS Abruptly Cancels Meeting on School-Based Policing with Civil Rights Activist Shaun King and Counselors Over Cops.”

“We are deeply disappointed that Fayette County school leaders chose to cancel this important discussion given the urgent need to end the policing and criminalization of students,” King said in a statement. “By canceling this meeting, board members won’t hear from students in their district about their experiences with police in schools or learn why they’re organizing for a new approach to school safety.”

But Deffendall said “nothing could be further from the truth.”

Every member of the Fayette County Board of Education has met with students from the FCPS Counselors Over Cops group at least once, she said. The Fayette County Board of Education chair and vice chair “have met not only with our student advocates, but also the very adults from outside our community who are currently mischaracterizing the situation.”

Deffendall said a high school student who is a member of the FCPS Counselors Over Cops organization approached two school board members to set up a meeting with students from their group. It would have been a third meeting for one board member and a second for the other, she said.

Separately, the same students asked for a meeting with the Acting Superintendent, which district officials were scheduling. Rather than continuing to have separate, multiple meetings, district officials suggested combining the meetings for a more productive conversation, Deffendall said.

Benjamin Shapere, a Bryan Station High School senior in the group Counselors Over Cops, which wants a reduction of police officers in schools , said Thursday that “Counselors Over Cops is totally in alignment with Shaun’s statements.”

“My fellow students and I have had conversations with the chair and vice chair and we were looking forward to speaking with another two board members today to share our experiences and talk about why we need to change the district’s policies,” said Shapere. “Dialogue between board members and students is necessary to have a functioning school district, so it’s disappointing FCPS dodged it today. We look forward to speaking with board members and the acting superintendent soon.”

At Thursday’s meeting King planned to discuss the need to end the policing and criminalization of students and how the school board could lead this effort. The three Fayette high school students were going talk about their experiences with police in schools and why they want a new approach to school safety, the announcement said.

Tucker was to outline a policy proposal for the district that included reducing the number of police officers in schools, changing the role they play in schools, and reinvesting in mental health staff. Kendrick was going to provide an educator’s perspective on the need to change the approach to school safety and put students first.

Speakers planned to discuss “the harms of school-based policing and to outline an alternative approach to school safety that treats kids like kids and protects the safety and well-being of all students,” said the Grassroots Law Project’s Thursday’s statement following the cancellation.

“Dodging this conversation will not stop it from happening. FCPS should waste no more time and should begin implementing alternatives to policing right now, as demanded by the very students impacted by school-based policing. We hope to have a fruitful discussion with school officials in the future about the need for a different approach,” King said.

King was born in Kentucky in 1979. He attended Woodford County High School.

This story was originally published March 4, 2021 at 4:52 PM.