Impact of School Resource Officers on School Violence

Author Introduction

Education is an essential part of the human development system in the contemporary world. It not only allows the learners to acquire new skills and competencies that make them more resourceful but also allows the learners to develop their reasoning skills as well as decision-making techniques. Educational facilities are critical pillars in supporting the childhood development of the learners. Learners spend more than half of their daily activities in schools where they receive academic nourishment, socialization with their colleagues as well as adults and learn new skills as well. Scholars opine that education is a tool for shaping the character of individuals through proper guidance and counselling, acquisition of new skills and enhancing creativity and innovativeness among the learners. School seeks to help better society by equipping the members of every community with problem-solving skills that work to make the world a better place. Since educational institutions admit learners from divergent families with different values and beliefs as the diversity in their societal norms and social principles, there is a need to have a system of regulation and control that would help to check the unwarranted behaviours.  As an educationist, I consider education to be embedded in developing an all-round and holistic person who can fit into society. The quality education system, therefore, should address social needs, interpersonal relationships, as well as morality. Understanding of ethical values and the ability to distinguish moral values from vices is one of the underpinning pedagogies of any education system.

Topic Introduction

Violence and the fear of potential occurrence of violence are some of the severe problems in today’s schools. There is no doubt that force has invaded most of the public schools in our communities and the nation at large. The violent activities range from bullying, fighting, assault, to arson in some extreme cases. Besides, there is a growing concern for gun shooting incidents in most public schools. No doubt, if no stringent measures are taken, the safety of learners shall be compromised (Police Foundation 2016)..

Since the presence of school resource officers in institutions is perceived as a remedy to the volatility of security to the learners, and because of the high level of significance attached to the safety of learners while in school, the following paper shall explicitly impact of school resource officers (SROs) on the occurrence of school violence among the learners. Findings indicate that the presence of SROs in schools negates the very objective of taking students to school since it encourages exclusionary punishment. Besides, it is founded on racism and selective justice, where students of colour are subjected to more severe punishment as compared to white students.

There is a divergent view of how schools with SROs affect schools without such personnel. One school of thought posits that schools with SROs help in streamlining behaviour of the learners across the board by deterring any would-be misdemeanour from learners. Lynch (2017) believes that the presence of SROs in individual schools may help in reducing cases of student shootings by arresting the delinquent students. In this respect, the act is perceived as a deterrent measure that allows checking the misconduct and general student behaviour even in schools without resource officers.

The primary role of SRO is crime prevention in schools with the view of making schools safer and secure for learning activities. According to the US department of education, the creation of SRO was an idea meant to help improve the safety of learners in schools by having a threat assessment team based in schools to assist in detecting and mitigating cases of criminal activities among the learners.  According to psychologists, SRO plays a pivotal role in ensuring the comprehensive safety and security of learners in schools. The SRPO uses a collaborative approach to mitigation of criminal activities among the learners. It has to have regular meetings to enable the sharing of their findings and implementations of proposed strategies. Resource officers also help in gathering security intelligence as well as maintaining surveillance around the clock (Police Foundation 2016). The collection of intelligence reports and continuous monitoring allows schools with SROs to mitigate cases of crimes in schools, thereby making the schools much safer for learning. On the other hand, this implies that for schools without SROs in place, the risk of criminal activities is more compounded since there is a lack of security data on student behaviour. Besides, schools without SRO do not have surveillance systems that would help them in detecting any sinister moves, thus making them more vulnerable to school violence.

The presence of SRO in schools also helps in reducing the possibility of an outbreak of threats in schools. The SRO has a mandate of making follow-ups with students identified to be engaged in criminal activities immediately after a warning has occurred. This helps in suppressing any further plans for similar events since the SRO team can crack down the suspected criminals and act with speed to either excommunicate them or restore their behaviours through referrals to the juvenile justice system (Police Foundation 2016). In such a case, it is apparent that the absence of SRO in an institution would predispose such an institution to a multitude of examples of school violence because of a lack of proper mitigation approaches to deal with such cases even after the initial incident.

A report by the National Association of School Resource Officers in 2012 indicated that schools with resource officers recorded a decrease in the number of cases of school criminal activities. The report also indicated that following the establishment of SRO in schools, there had been a remarkable decline in juvenile crime index. Therefore, based on this result, it is indicative that the presence of a resource officer in a school helps in detecting and combating the negative student behaviour in a reasonable time (Lynch, 2017).

Diversity & Ethics

SROs are associated with exclusionary discipline where the learners are either suspended or expelled out of school following the commitment of any act that is perceived to be equivalent to indiscipline in nature. Such actions hinder students from maximizing their gains in school since they interfere with the learning time of the learners. Reports indicate that between 2009 and 2010 academic calendars, close to 83% of high schools in the USA engaged in one form of exclusionary punishment (expulsion or suspension) of learners. It is pragmatic that when students are suspended or expelled out of school, they not only miss instructional time but also affect their academic performance in school (Lynch, 2017).  Besides, exclusionary discipline does not effectively help in correcting the future behaviour of a learner. It, therefore, does not present a lasting solution to deter future misbehaviour of a learner. Students who have been suspended from school are even at a higher risk of becoming deliquescent in the future, including increased cases of incarcerations and contact with juvenile justice (Lynch, 2017). Exclusionary punishment is also linked to deterioration in academic standards. Research indicates that schools that rely on exclusionary punishment post poor results. In essence, the presence of SROs in a school may have negative implications on discipline and academic performance. Thus the schools that do not have SROs in their stations may have better scores in such areas sometimes.

SROs are also associated with selective justice when handling disciplinary cases. For instance, African American learners and students from other minority groups were mostly subjected to harsh punishments while the natives were given soft sport. Besides, female students and students who had been victims of student misconduct have indicated concerns over their safety. Female students are susceptible to preying by some unscrupulous SROs, while the SROs always victimize those who had been victims of disciplinary actions. In this regard, schools with resource officers at their disposal are believed to have no positive impact on schools that do not have them since learners in schools without resource officers feel better off because there are minimal cases of victimization (Ryan et al. 2017).  Increasing investments in school resource officers do not lead to safer schools if the racial disparities in arresting students by SROs are anything to go by. It has been confirmed that student arrests are increased with the presence of resource officers in schools. Most students perceive racial discrimination in arresting students as being partisan in delivering justice. It thus lowers trust and confidence in the SRO s by students as well as the society (Wolf, 2017).

The Role of Schools & Families

For the effectiveness of SRO programs, there is a severe need for having a well-knit link between the schools, the families/community and the government to have a collaborative approach to mitigation of school violence. Schools have a serious role to play in ensuring that this is realized. At the same time, the community is at the center of enhancing activities that support positive behaviour. Different approaches may be used by both the schools and the families/communities. One of the fundamental strategies that can foster the effectiveness of SRO programs in schools is community policing. The philosophy of community policing is that the community should be responsible for supporting the mainstream law enforcement agencies in identifying and mitigating incidences of crime and misconduct/misbehaviour from the members of the community through a partnership between the police and the community. Family plays a lot in influencing the personality of the members of the society. Values and principles upheld by the community sink deep into shaping the character of an individual. Therefore, families with children in schools should work hand in hand with the school administration, especially the threat assessment team(s) in identifying any strange behaviour in their children. Through such a collaborative approach involving the community and the school as well as other organs of the government-mandated with law enforcement services, the desire to reinforce the concept of good citizenship can be realized.  Again it is imperative to underscore that school is a particular type of community that has its structure. Therefore other than the establishment of the SRO program, the school should have additional facilities that help in modelling positive behaviour among the learners. Having school rules and regulations is one way of ensuring that the law bounds the learners. No doubt, the conflict would occasionally arise even in schools that are perceived to be peaceful and cooperative. Therefore, there is a need for attitude modelling and conflict resolution skills shared regularly with the learners.  It is in this line that the SRO comes in handy as experts to support the schools in creating working problem-solving plans/strategies.

Another critical factor that the schools and the families need to put in place is a strong community partnership.  The SRO needs to develop an adequate understanding of the communities where they work and subsequently establish a working relationship with the district. The SRO needs to identify and work the opinion leaders such as elected officials, the clergy, prominent and respected individuals such as prominent businessmen to help them in disseminating the information regarding the significance of virtuous life. Since the community plays a vital role in the lives of the students, synchronizing the educational program with the community kingpins may help the SRO in combating the causes of delinquency since the learners have respect for their cultural and societal norms as well. Through community partnerships, the schools and the community will be able to create a mutual understanding that will help in controlling the students without having to suspend or expel them.

Additionally, the school systems and law enforcement agencies need to work in harmony and collaboratively to help in the effective implementation of SRO programs in schools. School administrations must understand that the SRO team is not meant to subvert their leadership in any way but rather to support them to have effective administration. Therefore, schools need to sign a memorandum of understanding with the law enforcement institutions in which they commit to accommodate, support and work with SRO in their facilities. To ensure compliance with these expectations, local school boards must establish clear policies about reporting requirements. Besides, there must be a seamless flow of information through a two-way communication circuit. The schools need to ensure that the resource officers are given adequate support and a favourable working environment that would allow them to execute and discharge their duties without unnecessary pressure. More importantly, school heads must create and equip disciplinary departments that we mandated to handle such cases as student violence whenever they arise (Ryan et al. 2017).

Last but not least, schools need to have an assessment plan for their SRO programs. Having an effective evaluation system in place is an essential element in ensuring successful law enforcement in schools.  The school heads need to have an elaborate student evaluation plan that would help them in identifying the milestones achieved and areas that require adjustments.  Evaluation and assessment would assist the schools in revealing to the stakeholder’s areas that need to be addressed.

Conclusion

The presence of SRO in schools has the potential of enhancing student safety and minimizing the possibility of school violence. The SRO program helps in putting the learners on the constant check. However, racial discrimination by resource officers is one of the limiting factors to the effectiveness of the program. It is also essential for the schools, the RO and the community to have a collaborative approach to the problems identified if the plan is to be effective.  The school heads also need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills in crime prevention and intervention to help in boosting the effectiveness of the SRO programs. Moreover, the SRO needs to be allowed time and space to fully implement their duties.

References

Lynch, C. G (Summer 2017). School Resource Officers and the School-to-Prison Pipeline: A Mixed Methods Application of the Behavior of Law in Schools. Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations.

Police Foundation (2016). Defining the Role of School-Based Police Officers. Police Foundation.

Ryan, J. B et al. (2017) The Growing Concerns Regarding School Resource Officers. Sage Journals, Vol. 53 (3), 188-192

Wolf, K (2017). Assessing Students’ Civil Rights Claims against School Resource Officers. Rochester, NY