10/24/2024
DC Public School Security Officer Testimony
Andrea Palmer
My name is Andrea Palmer, I live in ward 7 and I’m a member of 32BJ SEIU.
I’ve been a DC Public School security officer for 25 years.
I’ve been at Ballou since 2013 and because of officers like me, no guns have gotten inside our building!
I’ve stopped parents who’ve tried to bum-rush the doors and come through, thinking their kids jumped by other students due to their children telling them.
One parent said his daughter was in a fight and was trying to get through and when the father came around on the other side, we were able to close the gate.
Parents come in cursing, saying they’re going to beat somebody up – they would’ve hurt other kids and us if we weren’t there to stop them.
I was assaulted in 2021. A young lady who was fighting a male threw a chair which hit me in the head.
I got a concussion and had to take medical leave for a month.
I help my daughter take care of her 8- and 4-year-old, but during this time I couldn’t help her because of the constant headache.
It was two weeks of extreme mental distress.
It really does something to your mental state, I cried a lot.
When we break up fights, we can get hit.
The boys are big brawls, so we are ducking trying not to get hurt, but we get pushed around and knocked down.
What I do is I stop them while they’re on the floor, I’ll grab their legs so they can’t continue kicking someone.
If we weren’t there, it would be utter chaos – people being hurt – anyone could come through who wasn’t screened.
They could get knives through, like the ones that we’ve been able to confiscate.
If we weren’t there, the kids wouldn’t be safe – the staff wouldn’t be safe – look at the news where kids get weapons in because they don’t have security.
Anything could happen, people could get seriously hurt.
People try to come in through unauthorized doors that students will open, and we’ll follow them seeing them on camera – put them out of the building – kids who’ve been suspended trying to get back.
When there was a shooting in the area, I helped get the kids back inside.
It’s all very worthwhile for security to be in the schools.
Teachers always thank us, telling us that we do a good job and appreciate us and say that we really are needed.
Geneya Johnson
My name is Geneya Johnson, and I’ve been a DCPS security officer for 18 years at schools like Brown Educational Campus in Northeast, Eastern High School and Phelps.
I’m also a member of 32BJ SEIU and I live in Waldorf, Maryland.
Yes, that is a very long drive, but I do it for the love of the kids, even if they hit us.
At Phelps, a student come right through the front door and hit an officer in the head twice times with a hand wand.
In high school, students try to fight each other, the teachers and disrupt the classroom.
That’s why teachers thank me for having their backs.
I’m always looking and I’m able to bring students out and talk them down because we have relationships with them.
Sometimes students come to us first, not the counselors, then we bring them to the counselors.
We are eyes the and ears of the school, we take time to talk to students before class and walk them to class.
We know when they have problems at home and are able to give them information about safe places to go.
We are why the buildings run smoothly by preventing fights and other issues.
I’m trained to make sure we’re noticing everything going on, before it happens.
I can identify the telltale signs, like when a group of students are moving quickly through the building or planning in the hallway.
I was able to stop a fight from breaking out between two groups of girls at Eastern.
I stopped one of them at door after I heard a student point her out and say she was going to catch her on other side to beat her up — so we had someone follow her to prevent this from going down.
I’ve helped prevent weapons from getting inside the school when students try to sneak them inside bags, and we can spot them on the x-ray.
I don’t believe there’s enough security to man 5 floors, so there’s tons of blind spots and empty floors where students can start fights.
There’s doors left wide open and x-ray machines with no one to man them.
The other day there was a huge brawl between 10 kids at Luke Seymour and only one officer with no back up – so he had to call the police.
We had a drunk parent who was slurring and wobbling into street try to pick up her child.
We kept her outside of gate and had to call DC public school police and MPD to get control over the situation.
She was able to make it inside because we were down a few officers which meant the front gate was unguarded.
The parent got confrontational with officers and staff.
But I was able to keep the situation from escalating while we waited for police.
We don’t do this for money, it’s our love of kids, they’re like family.
A lot of kids would quit school without us. Lots of students I never thought would graduate become firefighters, police and teachers.
They thank me for playing a role in their lives, that’s why I do what I do.
I’m the first person they come to see when they graduate – I appreciate them, and they appreciate me.
Emily Williams
My name is Emily Williams and I’m a member of 32BJ SEIU.
I’ve been a DC public school security officer for 19 years at schools on Capitol Hill, Wilson and others.
There’s more crime going on than you know because there’s not enough officers to report it and not enough to cover all of the doors so we can’t know about everyone entering the school.
We are the only thing standing between the outside world and the kids.
Last week a parent came inside saying she was going to hurt somebody because her kid was in a fight.
I had to call for back up but was I able to calm her down and prevent it from escalating.
I help deescalate situations all of the time where someone could’ve gotten hurt.
There’s parents cussing and ready to fight but I handle it and they leave calmly.
And we use the cameras to help them locate culprits.
I have to step in middle of fights, but most of the time they back up because they see me as a positive figure, and they respect me.
It’s the way I say it – I give them respect – if I respect you – you respect me.
There’s not enough security for all brawls that happen at all of the schools because the kids out-rule security.
But because some of us are there, we haven’t had a shooting since ’03 or ’04 and we’ve never had a stabbing in our building.
Because of us, no weapons get in.
If you think the schools don’t need security or you want to cut us back further, you need to shadow us and see our daily activity.
People are always trying to get in and fight.
We also see what the social workers don’t see because they have a select caseload, but we see everyone.
We are first responders, so we see when kids are dirty and smell like pee.
We notice if kids are hungry – we do it on our own and we talk to the parents more often.
We always go beyond our duty. We make sure they eat even though it’s not our job. We make sure they get home safe.
I love the kids, and I’ve buried a lot of kids. Making a difference is so important to me.
We are much more than security officers – we are parents to these kids, social workers, babysitters, best friends – they remember you and they trust you!
My 36-year-old daughter still remembers her officers’ names – more than her teachers.