After two decades of organizing to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline in Denver, students and families with Padres y Jóvenes Unidos pressured the Denver Public School Board to unanimously vote to end the contract between Denver Public Schools (DPS) and the Denver Police Department on June 11th, 2020. This was a long-overdue victory for students and parents who led the fight to overhaul DPS’ discipline policies in 2008 and enacted the country’s first-ever MOU between a school district and police department limiting the role of police in schools in 2013.
In 2017, PJU launched their campaign for Counselors Not Cops, calling on DPS to remove all police from DPS schools and to reinvest those funds into culturally-affirming restorative justice practitioners and programming; culturally-affirming school psychologists, social workers, and other mental and behavioral health specialists; and other wraparound services for youth. PJU leaders are currently organizing to ensure that DPS protects Black and Brown students from the impact of systemic racism and fully removes police and policing practices from all schools, fighting for the implementation of the 2020 school board resolution.
