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Councilman Street sharply criticizes SWAT deployment at Wilmington elementary school
Summary
During public comment at the March 11 New Castle County Public Safety Committee meeting, Councilman Street recounted a 1968 incident and condemned a SWAT-team deployment at Trident Academy, calling for accountability and warning of lasting psychological harm to students.
Councilman Street used the public-comment portion of the New Castle County Public Safety Committee meeting on March 11 to condemn what he described as an unnecessary SWAT deployment at Trident Academy, a Wilmington K–8 school, and to compare the incident to a 1968 episode he said led the community to restrict county police jurisdiction in schools.
Street said he was a student at Wilmington High in 1968 and described lasting anger over the deployment of heavily armed officers during school desegregation efforts. He said an apparent recent melee at Trident Academy prompted school or district leaders to bring in a SWAT team, which Street said was inappropriate for an elementary school. “If they do it again… those children who are psychologically and emotionally damaged … have every right, and their parents have every responsibility to sue for damages,” Street said.
Street framed his remarks as a civil-rights and child-welfare concern and urged accountability for whoever authorized the deployment. His comments were given during the meeting’s “other” and public-comment sections; the committee did not take action during the meeting based on those remarks.
