Pat McCargo, the Chair of the Education Committee for the Cherry Hill African American Civic Association, argued at a public school board meeting on student safety that police might use “brown boys” as “target practice” if they were placed in schools.
On March 6, during a community discussion on how the district could improve school security in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, Pat McCargo argued that placing cops in the school might prove dangerous.
Reading from a prepared message, McCargo, the Chair of the Education Committee for the Cherry Hill African-American Civic Association, argued that the district should be cautious about placing local law enforcement inside of the schools because “brown boys” might be used as “target practice.”
“We have to be careful when selecting police officers to serve in this school,” McCargo began.
“Now let me read to you a comment that I received earlier today: ‘Your conversation about armed police in this school without consideration and for and acknowledgment of the fact that the views of African-American young men, in particular, are not necessarily positive. You have to be careful that the brown boys do not become targets or target practice while playing…” McCargo said.
“If you think Cherry Hill doesn’t have problems with racism in this school … or in this district or in this community, you have your head buried in the sand,” McCargo said to applause from those in attendance.
In a Facebook post linking to a Courier Post article, McCargo denied saying that local law enforcement would use “students of color” as “target practice.”
“This is a more accurate description of what I said,” she wrote. “If you are still offended I will not apologize. However, I never said anything about students of color being used as target practice. You know all too well my family comes from a long line of Law Enforcement Officers and they congratulated me on stating what needed to be said.”
The conversation was spurred, in part, by the mysterious suspension of a teacher who condemned Cherry Hill High School East’s lack of security in the wake of recent school shootings. Teacher Timothy Locke was allegedly ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after a concerned student told the administration that Locke led a classroom conversation about school security. The school district has yet to provide clarity as to why exactly Locke was suspended.
Breitbart News reached out to Cherry Hill East Principal Dr. Dennis Perry last week but did not receive a response.