President Barack Obama’s executive order banning government agencies from giving certain military equipment to police also completely excludes school police from receiving equipment.
President Obama’s order doesn’t allow police departments exclusively serving K-12 schools to receive anything under the 1033 program. Since its inception in 1997, the 1033 program had been giving school police things like assault rifles and SWAT equipment, according to Rolling Stone Magazine.
Campus Safety Magazine had previously reported on the recent executive order, which prohibits the federal government from giving police specific things, like grenade launchers and some tank-like vehicles.
The administration did not specify if school districts that have already received weapons under the program will have to return them
The Legal Defense Fund and the social justice advocacy group Texas Appleseed had written a letter to the Obama administration last year asking the Department of Defense to end the program’s handouts to K-12 school police.
Through the 1033 program the Los Angeles Unified School District, or LAUSD, had received 61 M-16 rifles, three grenade launchers and a mine-resistant ambush protected vehicle.
