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School safety officers on School District of Philadelphia campuses will be issued “personal ballistic protection,” including bulletproof vests and handcuffs, by the beginning of next school year.
The Board of Education voted Thursday to approve a $600,000 contract with police supply store Atlantic Tactical. The funding will come out of the school safety operating budget.
The decision to outfit safety officers with protective equipment comes out of the most recent agreement between the district and the School Police Association of Philadelphia, the union representing school police.
“Our officers are the first line of defense for the safety of our students and our staff,” said Bernadette Ambrose-Smith, the association’s president and a former school safety officer. “They have to not be fearful.”
Philadelphia’s 350 school safety officers are not sworn law enforcement officers and they do not carry firearms.
In addition to vests, the officers will get handcuffs and new uniforms, Ambrose-Smith said. Since 2020, these employees have worn polos and slacks rather than police-style uniforms. The bulletproof vest will be worn under the shirt. Certain school safety officers who are assigned patrol duty will be issued pepper spray and batons.
The decision represents the latest change for school safety officers, whose presence on campuses has been controversial in Philadelphia recently. In 2020, after George Floyd’s murder, members of the Philadelphia Student Union called to eliminate all school police and replace them with community members trained in deescalation.
Later that year, the district moved from calling these employees “school police” to using the term “school safety officers.”
Multiple studies have found that school resource officers do not reduce gun-related incidents at schools, but do intensify the use of suspension, expulsion and police referral, especially for Black and Brown students.
And the changes will likely have negative psychological impacts on some children, said Monic Behnken, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Iowa State University.
“When you have someone coming into your school space in tactical gear, there is no message of calming,” she said. “An officer in full uniform is already anxiety-provoking. The more you arm them up, the more anxiety a student would naturally feel.”
Naftali Rosso-Cohen, a 10th grader at Science Leadership Academy Center City, echoed that sentiment.
“I feel like bulletproof vests have a militant feel to them,” he said. “It feels like there’s this person who feels like they could be shot at.”
Rosso-Cohen said he understands the need for safety officers to have protection. He still feels shaken about a shooting just outside his school last year.
But he also thinks the $600,000 could be spent on more urgent needs across the district, such as classrooms that are in poor condition and aren’t safe learning environments.
“We should be tackling that first, probably before the bulletproof vests. And also tackling that will help students generally just feel better,” he said. “And I think that’ll help with everyone’s safety.”
The fiscal year 2026 school safety budget is roughly $40 million, a 2% increase from the year prior. It’s about the same as what the district spends on school nurses.
Between 2020 and 2024, the school district recorded an average of 96 “weapons offenses” per year, which include “possession of a gun, knife, sharp object, or any instrument capable of causing serious bodily harm.”
But Behnken said school resource officers can still escalate situations that could be handled in other ways.
“50 years ago, [behavior] that would result in a call to mom or dad now results in a referral and police involvement that could really change the course of a student’s life,” said Behnken, of Iowa State University.
This story is part of a collaboration between Chalkbeat Philadelphia and The New York Times’s Headway Initiative, supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) via the Local Media Foundation.
Sammy Caiola covers solutions to gun violence in and around Philadelphia schools. Have ideas for her? Get in touch at scaiola@chalkbeat.org.
Sammy Caiola 2026-02-02 11:00:00
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