SRO Program Research Paper

The use of police in schools has been on the increase since the shootings at Columbine High school in 1999. However, over the last 10-12 years the increase is due mainly to available government funding. These “Special Police” are now called “School Resource Officers” (SROs). While the proponents of the SRO program believe that the presence of a Police officer represents all that is right and moral and what our children should aspire to be.

The School Resource officer program provides the use of trained full-time Police Officers who will work within the educational system. The objectives of the School Recourse Officer Program is to promote and assist schools in providing a safe learning environment which will also improve relationships between law enforcement and the youth of today. The program attempts to promote a better understanding of the Law Enforcement Officers' role in society while educating students, parents, school personnel, and the community on important issues such as gangs, violent crime, drugs, and other related topics. The program also provides a positive role model in the educational system. The Primary focus of this program is

Out of school suspensions (OSS) are often enforced with the assumption that students receiving the suspension are less likely to repeat the problem behavior in the future. However, this has been proven to be false. Suspending a student for engaging in a certain behavior does not in fact serve as a deterrent from the behavior but as a deterrent from attending school instead. In actuality, receiving just a single suspension can increase the probability of a student experiencing academic failure, school dropout, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Knowing this, some educators still believe that for many students, suspension can serve as an effective lesson. One of the greatest concerns that educators and administrators face is the matter of classroom management. It is part of their job to ensure a safe, productive and supportive classroom allowing students to learn and grow to their greatest potential. Though there are several strategies gauged towards managing a classroom, the most severe offences often lead to either in or out of school suspension. Some of the largest concerns faced with out of school suspensions is that they are often ineptly applied, used unfairly against students of color and seemingly ineffective at producing better behavior. Also known as exclusionary discipline, the majority of offenses that led to OSS have not been centered around violence but instead emphasised issues of classroom insubordination and defiance. In some rather extreme cases

1. Use school resource officers (SROs) who may be provided by local law enforcement. SROs often provide law enforcement, law-related counseling, and law-related education to students, faculty, and staff. Continuity of officers in individual schools should be encouraged, so that students and SROs develop a rapport.

In a recent article from US News, they ask a question that is stirring much debate nationwide, whether school resource officers (SRO’s) are doing more harm than good. The rate of children becoming involved in the Juvenile Justice system through SRO’s is alarming. “In theory, so called school resource officers are supposed to foster exactly what many civil right groups are campaigning for: better relations between law enforcement and citizens, particularly minorities and lower-income families” (Sneed, 2015). The word resource originated from Old French meaning to rise again and in Latin a resurrection. Today’s meaning of resource can be defined as a source of support or something that enhances the quality of human life (Merriam-Webster, 2015). When considering what the title of SRO stands for, children should be given more options and assistance rather than fear based compliance tactics traditionally used on adult criminals. I feel we are almost telling kids well we can’t put you all in jail, so we will bring the jail to your school. How could a cop in a school be non-threatening? Children see a bullet proof vest, Taser, gun, handcuffs, pepper spray and I really doubt they are thinking this person is there to help them.

While researching School Resource officers or law enforcement officers in schools it has been discovered that the research is on the effectiveness of SRO’s is mixed or limited on keeping schools safe (Justice Policy Institute, 2011). There has also been research that was conducted in the last few years that concluded that the safety of schools can be improved without the help of SRO’s and or Law Enforcement’s approach on discipline (Justice Policy Institute, 2011). While reviewing the research of Dewey Correll at the University of Virginia , he suggested that when using highly structured and defined rules that are created to be strict and fairly enforced, while having the support of adults, SRO’s are not necessary

Schools around the nation are contracting polices officer to patrol their schools and students. Police officers are known as School Resource Officer’s (SRO’s) like if given them a different name would matter, instead of being resourceful they are up holding the law in harsh ways. There are many SRO’s in schools and this has led to high number of arrests and criminal charges, instead of keeping a safer environment for the children it is becoming a hunting ground (Schept, Wall, & Brisman). Before when a child did something wrong they were given detention, standards, a parent-meeting or maybe even sent to the office, but now the student are sent to the police officer in their schools. Once they are sent to her/him they are punish in such a different way where they can be expelled, suspense or even taken to jail.

Sixth the executive management team must define the procedures that all employees and essential vendors will use during emergency situations. Seventh, the employee training team must define and execute an awareness campaign that properly informs each employee of their role within the DRP/ECP plan and confirm that employee's understanding of their role. Last, the emergency management team’s members must maintain documentation of the DRP/ECP plan including updating when needed, changing the plan to meet organization changes, and recording of observations post plan execution.

In Clarksville, Arkansas many teachers, janitors, and other faculty members have already begun to act as armed guards, ready to defend and protect at any moment necessary. This school district along with the parents feel that arming their teachers and staff is the most effective way to keep their students and children safe. The writer proceeds to express some of the many concerns that this school district had. One being that their school is located twenty minutes away from the nearest police station, which is far too long of a response time to effectively stop the shooting, therefore if school officials are armed it gives everyone a “fighting chance”. Additionally, the writer further emphasizes on the fact that hiring one school officer would cost the district $50,000 while training thirteen staff members only cost $68,000.

School resource officers are a great contact for youth, who can interact with students daily. These officers can develop a trusting relationship that allows the students to have someone to speak with that is not seen as part of the school staff or a teacher. As sworn law enforcement officers, the resource officers are responsible for the safety of those at the school and the property of the school. Resource officers that openly carry a firearm give a visual deterrent to anyone who thinks about bringing a firearm to the school for harm. When a potential shooter sees that there are officers carrying firearms at the school, the potential shooter may consider that bringing a firearm to the school would not produce the results the potential shooter

Expanding police existence in schools may have appeared well and good as a response to expanding rates of youth violence and school shootings, however, these occasions can't disclose why police keep on being positioned in school structures today. Many parents believed that having police officer station in school prevents crime but research shows that it doesn’t present violence crime. Also, in retrospect, the schools that are most likely to have a daily enforcement presence on school grounds are the schools with the poorest students. Schools, where more than 75 percent of kids qualify for reduced lunch prices, are much more likely than their peers to have someone on school grounds full-time. Furthermore, A study done by Matthew Theriot of the University of Tennessee found that there wasn't much difference in serious crime between the schools that had SROs and the schools that didn't. I would inform those parents that having police present at most public should only create some problems that led to the student being delinquent at a young age because the students with police present at the school are five times likely to face criminal charges for “disorderly

Safety is a tremendous issue on college campuses, and additional procedures need to be taken to prevent crimes from happening. When walking onto a college campus as a young adult, people get a rush of the unknown. The unknown could be going to college parties and late night study groups. College should be like any high school or elementary school and have better security measures to protect their students. The reasons we need these extra steps are to prevent violence, give students a sense of security, and monitor visitors on campus.

The purpose of the Emergency Preparedness Plan is to save lives and prevent injuries in case of emergencies such as nuclear attack, fire, natural disaster, civil disorder or other, and provide the necessary best practices to ensure all possible and relevant forms of communicating with our faculty, staff, students, and parents. Mrs. Patricia Harris of the International Studies Elementary Charter School was interviewed about the International Studies Elementary Charter School’s Emergency Management Plan and the role of the school counselor during emergencies. Surprisingly, the school counselor does not play as important of a role than one would have thought. Although, the counselor does serve as one of the Designated School Emergency Team Members, some the tasks that would seem likely the counselor would perform, are performed by other administrators. Tasks such as talking to parents or being there for the students are performed by the principal while the school counselor is delegated to direct traffic. Based on the Emergency Management Plan, it would seem that the school counselor’s role is still not clearly understood. With all the expertise that counselors can bring to a crisis situation, it’s disappointing that counselors are assigned such a miniscule task as delegating traffic. Counselor Harris did discuss the Dougherty County School System’s Crisis Team. That team is

During the past decade, school safety has been at the forefront of many school districts safety polices and plans. With recent high profile school shootings, the question school districts continue to ask is how do we keep our schools safe? Administrators face heavy scrutiny when weighing approaches to school safety and student discipline. Likewise, school employees have the right to work in safe environments devoid of life-threatening behaviors (Fenning and Bohanon, 2006; Skiba and Rausch, 2006). America’s founding fathers understood the importance of a public school education. They believed educating its citizens would allow them the opportunity to learn new skills while becoming successful and productive people in society. However, our founding fathers did not predict the severe behavior changes our schools face in educating disruptive and dangerous students. America’s school districts are charged with providing solutions for disruptive and dangerous students (Fenning and Bohanon, 2006; Skiba and Rausch, 2006). School officials must address these issues with research-based interventions and collaborative resources that provide a safe learning environment for all stakeholders (Elliott and Mihalic, 2004; Schoenwald and Hoagwood, 2001). Boards of education continue to support school efforts to rethink best practices for disciplinary alternative middle schools (DAMS). Many school districts focus on research-based interventions and resources that manage aggression and

The usage of police officer's in secondary schools causes both a negative and positive impact on the student welfare. In relation to students' academic performance levels and social life, police officers are aimed to maintain a safe and secure school environment. However, this is not the case when it comes to analyzing and comparing the effects of police officer's presence in both Toronto and Peel secondary schools. The article entitled, “Students benefit from police in schools, Peel study finds” published by the Toronto Star suggests a debate if police officers are beneficial to students. To further consider the possibilities of how the research conducted in the study provides an adequate amount of information, I will thoroughly analyze the conclusion and premises present in the argument.