The Case Against School Resource Officers

Last updated on: September 30, 2019 at 5:00 am by Libby Anne

The Case Against School Resource Officers 2019-09-24T18:36:53-04:00 Libby Anne

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

You want to know a problem? This. This is a problem.

A Florida police officer has been fired after he arrested two 6-year-old students at their school on suspicion of misdemeanor battery charges, prompting outcry and an internal investigation.

I had a hunch, so I checked. The police officer was a school resource officer (SRO), a police officer assigned to the school. Do you know why I checked? Because a teacher called an SRO on a kindergarten student having a tantrum in my school district this year too. And yes, all of the children involved in these incidents have been black. Maybe because black kids are criminalized when white kids aren’t. Oh, I’m sorry, not maybe. I misspoke! I meant definitely.

Have a look at this, from the Florida incident:

Officer Dennis Turner had been working as a school resource officer at the charter school when he arrested the first-graders during separate incidents, handcuffing them with zip ties, and taking them to the station, the chief said.

See. He was an SRO. We assign cops to our schools now. We have cops working our schools. Ostensibly this is to protect school safety. But then, we saw how well that worked out at Parkland, when an SRO stood passively outside the building listening to gunshots, doing nothing, while a dozen children were murdered. It turns out SROs are a lot better at arresting the students they are ostensibly there to protect than they are at actually protecting those students.

Remember that black teenage girl who was slammed to the floor in her high school for not putting away her cell phone some time back? Acting on the same hunch, I went to see if that was an SRO too. I turned to google and found a case in 2017 when an SRO in North Carolina slammed a teenage girl into the floor so hard she got a concussion, right there in her classroom.

But that wasn’t actually the case I was thinking of. The case I remembered definitely involved a girl getting in trouble for not putting away her cell phone, and this one didn’t include that detail. I hit google again, and momentarily thought I’d found the story I remembered, but no, this wasn’t it either. This case was in Texas, and the girl who was slammed to the ground by an SRO was only 12. She was body slammed onto concrete so hard she was knocked out.

But that still wasn’t the one I was thinking of. Back to google, and I think I finally found the case I remembered. It was this one, in 2016, in South Carolina. The girl got busted for using her cell phone in class, but refused to leave because white kids used their cell phones in class all the time. So the teacher called the SRO. He grabbed the girl and threw her physically from her desk.

I am appalled that it took so long to find the case I remembered, but that it did only underscores my point. And, notice notice, all of these incidents involved SROs. What a coincidence! Or not. And by that I mean definitely not.

And I didn’t even use “school resource officer” in my search terms.

Did I mention that a school resource officer was called to respond to a kindergarten student throwing a tantrum in my own local school district? In most states and most school districts, school resource officers are never trained on working with children. But should that really be our goal, anyway? Training police to work with children? Do we need to view SROs as some sort of fixtures we must live with? It’s not as though we’ve always had SROs, after all. This is a relatively new phenomenon.

You want my honest opinion? We don’t need SROs. We need school social workers and trauma counselors. You know, professionals trained in working with students, diffusing situations, promoting mental health, versed in IEPs and 504 plans, and advocating for students, not schooled in criminalizing children and solving problems through violence.

We could also, you know, regulate high capacity magazines and the sale of body armor. The last time I visited my hometown, I ate lunch right across the street from a storefront advertising “tactical gear” and “guns.” Why do we need stores selling tactical gear? Unless you’re living in a post-apocalyptic dystopia—and to be clear, we’re not—that just seems really unnecessary.

But no! Our solution is to put cops in schools and then act surprised when six-year-old black children are arrested—in a country that criminalizes blackness, with a police force that disproportionately exercises violence against people of color.

Pay attention to your local school board elections. Ask candidates for their positions on SROs, and vote for candidates who want them OUT. School districts can sever their relationships with SROs, after all. This isn’t set in stone.

I have a Patreon! Please support my writing!

Uncategorized

school

Previous Post

September 29, 2019

Lesbian Duplex 243: An Open Thread

Next Post

October 1, 2019 Wheaton College Students Sue Millennium Park over Street Preaching

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atheism Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism Family Feminism Homeschool Meta Parenting Patriarchy Politics Purity Quiverfull Social Justice Uncategorized Worthwhile reads

Select a Month February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who cried at the tomb of Lazarus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jesus John Peter David