I’ll admit it, my kids all knew their school resource officer well. Usually, it was for their loud (ahem, fast) cars, or being around the school for the extracurricular events.
They knew and respected the officer and knew that he would put his life on the line for their lives if needed. Thankfully they never had to experience anything like that.
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/get-to-know-and-thank-a-school-resource-officer/
Are you assuming my kids schools have resource officers? Because many dont!
No SRO at my kids school either.
Except in the most violent neighborhoods in the country an SRO was just not something you ever saw until the 90’s.
Remember our violent crime rate today is less than half what it was when it peaked in the 90’s as violent drug gains began terrorizing particularly the inner cities first but began to spread from there.
Numerous state and federal crime prevention and suppression intiatives were passed in the late 80’s through the 90’s and in conjunction with the safe schools acts the federal gov’t heavily subsidized cities and school districts hiring PO’s.
Under both Bush and Obama there were supplemental programs focusing even more on putting cops in schools as a way of creating “safe zones” that mass/school shooters would avoid.
Today with the exception of small rural school systems and many private schools they have pretty well become the rule in most of the country.
I forgot, my kids school doesn’t have an SRO, but the county is “renting” an office for a Deputy to have a place to do his paperwork. The Sherriff’s Department is on the east end of the county, my kids school is on the west end so this allows a Deputy to be on the west end of the county for his entire shift.
You should discuss getting one with your local school board.
As a child, I recall having one ever since elementary school. These days all schools should have one available(Personal opinion). However, growing up, I also always respected my school staff security. They were just as tough, if not more so! I suppose that came with experience working with children.
Unfortunately that’s really not an option in a lot of poorer/small school districts which is why the option of training faculty and staff and allowing them to be armed at school during school hours first became an issue.
I know a lot of schools don’t, but the SRO is on the rise throughout the country.
My kids went to a small rural school system and we did have an RSO. The school is fed by a large geographical area (not as large as you would see in some western states).
My kids go to school in the affluent neighborhood one town over. Their elementary school has no sea, judt a neighborhood cop who shows up occasionally. The middle school does have one sro though.
Ibdont think SRO’s are nearly as common as some people think. Then again Illinois has fought very hard to keep teacher disarmed, there has been big push on multiple levels, but it gets blocked.
While it’s true that alot of schoold don’t have SROs it isn’t true that they can’t have one because of $. All public schools in America are under local control. This means the people of the district decide if a school hires a SRO. Show up with other residents at the next board meeting and let the board members, that you elected, know what you want. If they don’t honor your request, vote them out. Better yet, get yourself elected and press the issue. There is nowhere else in American politics where a few individuals can have a more direct impact on the decision making process.
In much of the country hiring a cop can cost 80-100k. For the same money they can pay two to three teachers.
In many cases yes it’s very much about the money.
Not really. It’s a matter of priorities which are set by the voters
Every district has limited finances and teachers come first.
SRO’s are a luxury item in most rural school districts rather than a requirement to keep the schools from melting down.
Sorry WildRose but since Columbine student safety has been the most important thing. I taught for decades in a small rural district with very limited finances. The first thing we did was to secure the campus and train the staff in active shooter counter measures, next we hired a SRO. After that we held quarterly training with all staff, local Leo’s and the Stste Police. Districts that dont take similar steps are ignoring recommendations from both State and Federal education departments and they are failing to apply for grant monies. They are also incurring additional insurance cost due to lack of appropriate security measures. Sure, some districts skip all this, but that’s where the voters come in.
I just talked with the SRO at my great granddaughter’s school last week - I think they have one officer shared between the 4 district schools (head-start, elementary, jr. high, and high school). We’re pretty rural - my gr.granddaughter’s class is 12 students, the class ahead of her is 8 students. While he’s just one guy, the schools are all within about a half mile of each other, so likely response time isn’t an issue.
I actually called to discuss their firearms policy, safety plan, mass shooter response, etc. They seem to have a plan and strategy well in place, and they use materials available from state or federal resources to develop their plans.
I’d like to meet the officer face-to-face some time to discuss more details, but I didn’t want to dig too far on the phone lest he think my questions were intended for nefarious purposes.