Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) has been ordered by a Milwaukee judge to comply with Wisconsin law and ensure that at least 25 School Resource Officers (SROs) are stationed within district schools by February 17. This ruling follows a lawsuit from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), which argued that MPS was in direct violation of Act 12, a state law passed in 2023 requiring the presence of school officers to maintain safety.

The ruling comes after MPS spent a full year out of compliance with this requirement, despite an alarming number of police calls for service within the district. In the 2022-23 school year alone, MPS schools generated 3,141 calls to the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), taking officers off neighborhood streets to respond to school incidents. As Milwaukee Police Association President Andrew Wagner pointed out, “If they [MPS] don’t want police officers at the schools, why are they calling?”

Judge Borowski’s ruling mandates that MPS either comply with the law by February 17 or appear before the court that afternoon to explain why it has failed to do so. The decision also requires WILL to amend its lawsuit and add the City of Milwaukee as a party in the case. A written order is expected to be issued by Monday.

WILL Associate Counsel Lauren Greuel called the ruling “a massive triumph for parents and kids who want to go to school in a safe environment,” emphasizing that without the court’s intervention, MPS would have continued ignoring the law. One of WILL’s clients, Milwaukee parent Charlene Abughrin, expressed relief over the court’s decision, saying, “I will sleep better knowing that my child, and others, will be protected once MPS begins to comply with the law.”

The legal battle stems from provisions in Wisconsin Act 12, which primarily focused on increasing shared revenue for municipalities but also included the requirement for school resource officers in MPS. The law explicitly required the officers to be in place by January 1, 2024, a deadline that MPS ignored.

A year after the law’s passage, critics argue that MPS’s refusal to implement the measure has contributed to disorder in schools and strained police resources. Representative Bob Donovan, a longtime advocate for public safety, noted that every police call to an MPS school diverts an officer away from neighborhoods in need. He warned that the district’s inaction could lead to further legislative intervention if compliance is not met.

Now, with a strict court-mandated deadline in place, the question remains: Will MPS finally take student safety seriously, or will it continue to defy the law and risk further legal consequences?