Adam Allen, 18, who graduated this year from Canyon Springs High School, holds a sign during a protest organized by Make The Road Nevada to demand the defunding of Clark County School District Police Department at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Wednesday, June 24, 2020, as School support specialist Angelica Montenegro speaks. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Erik_Verduzco
People attend a protest organized by Make The Road Nevada to demand the defunding of Clark County School District Police Department at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Erik_Verduzco
School support specialist Angelica Montenegro speaks during a protest, Wednesday, June 24, 2020, at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, to demand the defunding of Clark County School District Police Department. Marvin Valdez, 18, who graduated from El Dorado High School in 2019, left and Adam Allen, 18, who graduated in 2020 from Canyon Springs High School, hold signs. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Erik_Verduzco
Marcos Maderos, 17, a senior in high school, attends a protest organized by Make The Road Nevada to demand the defunding of Clark County School District Police Department at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Erik_Verduzco
Jordan McRae, who graduated from Mojave High School in 2018, speaks during a protest organized by Make The Road Nevada to demand the defunding of Clark County School District Police Department at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Erik_Verduzco
Political organizer Bianca Balderez speaks during a protest organized by Make The Road Nevada to demand the defunding of Clark County School District Police Department at Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Wednesday, June 24, 2020. (Erik Verduzco / Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Erik_Verduzco
Students and school counselors gathered Wednesday afternoon to call on the School Board to defund the Clark County School District Police Department.
About a dozen Las Vegas Valley students stood outside Desert Pines High School, 3800 E. Harris Ave., to share their experiences with officers and to encourage the School Board to get rid of campus police. They argued the money should instead be used for resources such as college and mental health counselors.
The rally came ahead of the School Board meeting scheduled for Thursday.
Attempts to reach the Police Department were not immediately successful Wednesday evening.
Adam Allen, 18, said he graduated from Canyon Springs High School in 2019 and remembers the way school police were spread across campus, with more than a dozen officers at times.
“It made me feel like I was in a prison yard,” he said.
Allen is a first-generation college student and said he had to use YouTube videos to help him understand the college admission process because there were too few counselors on his campus. He said the money being used to fund campus police should go to more college counseling.
Rico Ocampo, the youth and program organizer for the Youth Power Project, said they “demand CCSD defund the school-to-prison pipeline,” which he said disproportionately affects minority students.
