Judge rules Milwaukee Public Schools must have police in schools by Feb. 17

Milwaukee Public Schools must return police officers to the district no later than Feb. 17, or appear in court to explain why it is not following state law. 

A shared revenue law passed in 2023 required MPS to station 25 school resource officers, or SROs, in its schools during school hours beginning on Jan. 1, 2024.

But district officials balked at the idea. They later said officers would be placed in schools when they were provided by the City of Milwaukee. Milwaukee officials said it is not their obligation to pay for the SROs.

In October, Milwaukee parent Charlene Abughrin filed a lawsuit against MPS, saying her children were repeatedly victimized because there were not cops in schools to protect them. 

On Thursday, Judge David Borowski denied an MPS motion to dismiss the case and ordered the district to comply with Wisconsin law. 

MPS officials said again on Thursday it remains “ready to implement a School Resource Officer (SRO) program as soon as officers are made available by the City of Milwaukee.”

“The Court’s decision today ordering the City of Milwaukee to participate in the implementation of the SRO program at MPS is a recognition that the City plays an integral role in implementation of the SRO program,” MPS spokesperson Stephen Davis said in a statement.

City of Milwaukee spokesperson Jeff Fleming said the city remains interested in resolving the outstanding issue with MPS about how the cost of the police officers is allocated.

Fleming said state law requires school districts and cities to split the cost. When officers were assigned to schools in the past, he said, the school district covered five-sixths of the cost.

“Right now, that issue is unresolved,” Fleming said.

Milwaukee Public Schools began removing SROs in 2016. It ended its last contract with the Milwaukee Police Department in June 2020.

But that decision stirred controversy.

State lawmakers included a provision in a bipartisan law to overhaul local government funding, requiring the school district to once again contract for school resource officers. That bill sent more state revenue back to local governments and unlocked more than $200 million for the city of Milwaukee.

“This is a massive triumph for parents and kids who want to go to school in a safe environment,” said Lauren Greuel, an attorney with the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, who represented Abughrin. “Without this ruling, MPS would have simply continued to ignore the law and parents like our client would have been left with no options.”

Abughrin said she will “sleep better knowing that my child, and others, will be protected once MPS begins to comply with the law.”