This week's column: Peace and peace of mind
The Guilford County school board may very well find a convincing reason to pull law enforcement officers from county middle schools. But don't bet on it.
There are too many solid arguments to keep police on school grounds, and the most important of them has absolutely nothing to do with pepper spray and handcuffs.
Foremost, a consistent presence among sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders gives officers and deputies a chance to know students by being there, day in and day out. They have the chance to build trust and familiarity with students and staff. They get to understand the rhythms and personality of a school and, more importantly, they get to become part of them.
That seems preferable to having police or sheriff's deputies parachute in only when there's a crisis. And it increases the chances of defusing a potentially ugly situation before it becomes a tragedy.
This, of course, assumes the very best of school resource officers, as campus police are called. Not all SROs are created equal. Like teachers and principals, some are better at what they do than others.
But the core concept is based on a time-tested premise that has been proven to work: the cop on a beat.
When Greensboro police placed officers in public housing, they found similar benefits: a greater regard for police, who were viewed more as part of the communities than uniformed interlopers with guns and nightsticks.
Greensboro Police Department gang expert Ernest Cuthbertson says he might have chosen the path of crime himself if not for the influence of police officers who befriended him while he was a youth growing up in Morningside Homes.
There are other reasons SROs ought to stay put:
-- the growing threat of gang activity in this community and others. The recent vandalism at Smith High School, which cost upwards of $36,000 to repair, seems to have been gang-related, police say.
-- the prospect of an intruder coming onto campus and inflicting harm on students, staff and teachers. The shootings at Orange High School in Hillsborough three weeks ago still ought to resonate here. A 19-year-old had killed his father with a rifle before mounting the campus attack. He was subdued by an SRO.
-- the unease that remains after 50 students were charged in early 2004 with selling drugs to undercover police officers in an sweeping drug sting in all of Alamance County high schools. Not one Guilford County Schools official would assure us then that it couldn't happen here.
-- and, of course, disturbing instances of violence at even the most tender ages. From May 2005 to April 2006, the schools patrolled by sheriff's deputies saw 124 assaults, 36 in the middle schools.
The SRO debate is rooted in Sheriff BJ Barnes' insistence that his deputies carry Tasers, as do all of his sworn officers. Greensboro and High Point police SROs are not equipped with the stun guns.
Personally, I've reversed course on the issue. I initially opposed stun gun use in schools but have come to see them as a lesser evil than the firing of a revolver that dispenses bullets and, without question, does lasting damage. But school board members who speak against Tasers raise valid, understandable concerns.
School board chairman Alan Duncan said Friday that SROs from the Sheriff's Office "do an excellent job. I've heard a lot of positive comments."
Yet Duncan also voted for a study of options to SROs. We'll be better educated by knowing what the alternatives are," he said.
Added board member Nancy Routh: "We want safe schools but what's the best way? What are the things we can do using the resources we have to keep schools safe but to do more prevention and intervention?"
They're both right. There's no harm in studying the question.
On balance, however, I'd sleep better at night knowing officers equipped with Tasers are patrolling Guilford middle schools as opposed to no officers at all.
We shouldn't throw out our babies with the bath water.
Comments (8)
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Allen,
Having entered my eleventh year of teaching eighth-grade language arts at Southwest Guilford Middle School, I fully appreciate how accurately and thoroughly your column captures the importance of keeping School Resource Officers in all middle and high schools in Guilford County.
In a more perfect world than the real one we all are responsible for having created, School Resource Officers would not be necessary in any schools.
Unfortunately, the reality of modern-day society is that every school probably has at least one individual who possesses the thinking and the potential means to carry out something at least as deadly and frightening as what happened at Columbine High School and some other schools.
On a more basic level, every school has many students who are enthusiastic and excited about violence and fighting. (In our country, it is almost funny to step back and observe us honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. while so few of us actually embrace his non-violent teachings in our own lives or within our government. We're certainly not encouraging our young people to adopt his philosophy about dealing with human confrontations.)
Every school has individuals who have no respect for any authority figure, no matter how kind, gentle, supportive, firm, or strict the authority figure might be when dealing with children.
With such students, they tend to have no more respect for adults who share traits with them (such as the same gender, same skin color, etc) than they have for adults who have different characteristics.
Like you, I don't mind studying the issue, and I do think there are some vital strategies that need to be a part of our comprehensive strategy for making our schools safe for all students, but it will take a lot to convince me that we are not better off with School Resource Officers in all middle and high schools.
I hope many more educators will speak up on this issue and be a part of the dialogue that might determine where we eventually head.
Sincerely,
Hardy
Posted on September 24, 2006 3:48 PM
If anyone needs any evidence that many members of the schoolboard have become totally dis-connected from reality, read today's article on "the many uses of Allen Jay Middle". Here you have members of the schoolboard chuckling that they have come up with one gimmicky program after another(at least 25) to implement at this school and thinking it's amusing. You can bet dollars to doughnuts the parents of children who once upon a time used this as their neighborhood school are not laughing. REPEAT they are NOT LAUGHING-NOT AMUSED!!!! It's sad and pathetic. You can bet that the person on the board who was doing the chuckling probably didn't have his neighborhood school where his kids attended repeatedly jacked all over creation by a bunch of clueless morons who were laughing about it.
Posted on September 25, 2006 8:59 AM
Hardy:
This whole issue is why it intrigues me so much that "The Wire" is tackling this problem in a fictional but impressively authenitc way (based on my impressions as a school volunteer).
The solution they're apparently going to undertake is an attempt to "innoculate" middle schoolers from the culture of crime, drugs and violence on the streets of Baltimore.
I'd love to create some type of discussion group on how the show plays out this season and what's real and relevant to us and what isn't.
Posted on September 25, 2006 9:14 AM
Allen,
What made you change your mind about Tasers?
You realize that this puts you in direct conflict with Deena Hayes' position. You are also in direct conflict with her position on Dudley.
What's up?
Posted on September 25, 2006 11:26 AM
I changed my mind on Tasers after looking at the results of a couple of studies, including one at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Both concluded that Tasers have not directly caused deaths. (Both do, however, point out the need for more studies.)
The other consideration was the alternative. I'd much rather an officer, if he or she must, take a chance on using a jolt from a Taser in a life-threatening situation than a bullet from a gun to stop a would-be assailant.
That said, BJ Barnes could have sold this idea much more effectively to the board, but he simply chose to say, "If you don't like it, tough."
He could have been a lot more tactful.
Posted on September 25, 2006 11:35 AM
As for Deena Hayes, not too sure why that surprises you. I didn't know I was expected to agree with her on every issue.
I don't agree with many elected officials on every issue.
Posted on September 25, 2006 11:37 AM
Allen,
It wouldn't matter if Barnes had crawled into the board room, kissed Deena Hayes' ring, and said pretty please, can I have tasers. Deena would't have allowed it because she is Deena, and, we all know, that what Deena wants, Deena gets. If she doesn't, she accuses you of being a racist, and none of us wants that, do we?
Posted on September 25, 2006 1:00 PM
Stormy, I know it is hard to imagine, but there are people out there who don't buy into the race card playing, professional Guilford county politican, meal ticket strategy of sow as much division as possible in order to keep getting elected, to keep your power brokerage intact, and keep getting paid, even if the county goes to hell in a handbasket.
Posted on September 25, 2006 3:58 PM