Backlash about the use of electric shock gloves in schools continued Monday night as parents, former teachers and alumni of Westside Community Schools spoke against their use at the district’s board meeting.
About 14 community members denounced the use of the gloves, officially called G.L.O.V.E., in the district and requested they no longer be used.
Juliet Summers, who has three children in Westside and is executive director of Voices for Children in Nebraska, said schools should not be the training grounds for these gloves.
“We are deeply concerned that outfitting SROs with relatively new, unknown and untested instruments of pain for use on students is not only inconsistent but at odds of the stated mission of SROs in public schools: teacher security, mentorship and creating a safe learning environment,” Summers said.
She added that while school resource officers have firearms, pepper spray and tasers, those are standard issue.
Jennifer Maddocks, who has a daughter in sixth grade in the Westside district and another who graduated in 2025, had concerns with how these electric shock gloves could harm students with undiagnosed health conditions, especially heart conditions.
“My question is simple: why introduce that risk to our schools when there are other options?” Maddocks asked. “If a child is struggling behaviorally, we have teachers, administrators, counselors, behavioral specialists, parents and deescalation techniques. If a student presents a truly dangerous situation, our SROs already have emergency response tools available to them.”
Jensyn Bell, a former Westside educator and current parent of a student in the district, said Westside spends about $230,000 a year for two school resource officers.
“We should ask whether that investment is truly the best way to support our students,” Bell said. “We have students coming to us who have suffered abuse, who are hungry, who are in poverty. How can we use that money better to serve our students?”
Bell went on to say that school policing could have a role in the school-to-prison pipeline. She cited data from 2018 that showed students of color and students with disabilities at Westside were referred to law enforcement at disproportionate rates.
Last week, Westside superintendent Mike Lucas sent a message to families explaining that school safety and security personnel were made aware of the potential use of the gloves in March 2025. The Board of Education was made aware the week before his message to families.
Ahead of public comment at Monday night’s board meeting, Lucas said that three of the board members were able to meet with Omaha police leaders to learn more about the training school resource officers go through along with the thought process behind what equipment they are issued.
“Our district leadership team and the Board of Education are committed to listening and learning as we continue to prioritize safety, security, well-being of our students and community,” Lucas said.
Westside is one of four Omaha-area school districts that the Omaha Police Department said the gloves were deployed in. The other three are Elkhorn, Millard and Omaha.
Omaha Public Schools superintendent Matthew Ray requested school resource officers stop carrying the gloves following public outcry from parents, students and community members at the OPS board meeting last week. While officers with the Omaha Police Department will no longer use them, the gloves will still be used by Bellevue police officers in Bryan middle and high schools.
“It’s my understanding that Bellevue has them throughout the city,” Ray said in a back-to-school press conference last week, “and so it’s a little bit different in the Bellevue Police Department. And by no means do I want to speak for Bellevue, but my understanding is it’s standard in all the city of Bellevue.”
The gloves have been used twice in OPS. The first on a high school student who was trespassing at Omaha South High School, and the second time on a student in the integrated learning program who had thrown a chair and punched a guard in the head.
The gloves have not been used in any other schools, including Westside.