Experts weigh in on the value of school resource officers
By Christen Smith
The value of school resource officers has come into question again after the Parkland massacre. (Photo: National Association of School Resource Officers/Facebook)
The Valentine’s Day massacre in Parkland, Florida reignited a decade-old debate over whether cops make schools safer.
The answer appeared painfully obvious that day when School Resource Officer Scot Peterson idled outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for four minutes while a gunman hunted down students and teachers inside. Seventeen would die before officers from the Coral Springs Police Department intervened.
A month later, however, an SRO at Great Mills High School in southern Maryland would make headlines when he exchanged gunfire with a 17-year-old school shooter. St. Mary’s County Deputy Blaine Gaskill earned the praise of state and local officials impressed with his quick response to the March 20 attack that killed one student and wounded another.
The two cases illustrate the extremes of school-based policing. The experiences left in between, critics argue, put youth — particularly minority students — on an unnecessary collision course with the criminal justice system, allowing cops to impose discipline in place of school administrators.
“Students are needlessly arrested for offenses as minor as disorderly conduct, which can include swearing at a teacher or throwing spitballs,” said
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