Are Schools Safer with Cops in the Building?

Are Schools Safer with Cops in the Building?

The Parkland Florida mass school shooting murders have blinded many people from making an objective and rational evaluation of the benefits or hindrances of armed police officers permanently stationed in public schools. Are the schools safer with them and could the costs of the police officers be better used?

 The Worcester Telegram has said recently the debate about School Resources Officers (school police officers) is “over”, meaning that irrationality and subjectivity has won out. As evidence recently the Tamaqua MA School District allocated money for a school resource officer.

The fact remains, however, that school resource officers have not prevented a single mass shooting anywhere in the US. Admittedly school resource officers have mitigated some shooting, but they have not prevented any.

I waited for the details of the Great Mills High School shooting in Maryland before writing this article. Initial reports were that a school resource officer shot and killed a student who had shot another student. The Sheriff Department later said that the student shooter took his own life. In either case the school resource officer did not prevent the shooting.

What have prevented school shootings are students reporting other students in need of services? This include social media monitoring and counselling. It is clear that the shooter in Parkland signaled his intent. This should not be left to the police alone. The School Safety Administrator should take the lead with the help of additional counselors.

The other proven method to prevent mass school shootings is the improvement of authorized entry to a school buildings. This issue was raised in the Good Harbor Safety Analysis report to the Worcester School Committee. The report cited a need for increased front door and other entrances safety at all of the schools.

There were no mass shooting in Worcester Public Schools before armed police officers were assigned an office in each public high school in Worcester MA.

These assignments were the result of bad publicity initiated by a racist blogger (Turtleboy), racist City Councillors (Lukes and Rosen), and an overzealous School Committee woman (Biancheria). They wanted armed police in the schools due to negative stereotypes of young Black and Latino male students.

The Worcester School District is invoiced by the police department one and one-half million dollars a year for the five officers in the high schools and for other protective patrols. The five police officers in the high schools could be reduced to two or three police officers dedicated to high school mobile patrols with additional duties in the patrol of middle and elementary schools. This alternate system should be looked at objectively as there were no mass shootings in Worcester Schools before or after the deployment of armed police in each high school.

The dollar savings could be used to hire qualified counselors, set up social media monitoring by counselors, and improved front door safety.

 It seems that any internal school problems can be handled first by the school staff and then by calling the police dedicated to mobile patrols of the schools.

When the public has asked for an evaluation of the permanent assignment of police to each high school, the Worcester School Administration has consistently responded with the mantra “the kids love them”. Although there is no material evidence of abuse of their police powers, there are antidotal articles of such abuse.

The police assigned to the high schools in Worcester do not meet the training, educational, and the experience requirements of a teacher or counselor. The police have consistently refuse to work under the supervision of a school administrator.

The police system of school patrols and assignments have been in place long enough for an objective review and analysis. It is time the Worcester School Committee and Worcester Police Department stop brushing off such an evaluation by saying “the kids love us”. It is time also to review front door safety