Governor McKee believes student resource officers are needed - Students disagree

[TexasTowelie]

Since the mid-90s, the Providence Public School Department has employed Student Resource Officers (SROs), which has resulted in hundreds of students being arrested and criminalized nationwide. Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee met by phone with the Providence Alliance for Student Safety, a youth-led coalition of multiple organizations fighting for the removal of SROs. The governor expressed the opinion that SROs should remain in schools, drawing upon his experience as an educator, saying that we need to “bring communities together, not apart.” However, the students he spoke to have been fighting for the removal of SROs from schools through the Counselors Not Cops campaign for years. In fact, the call was full of students currently enrolled in Providence Public Schools who presented the history of the campaign as well as their concerns about keeping SROs in schools.

Governor McKee claims that SROs are needed to protect students, yet students pointed out that the school he founded – Blackstone Valley Prep – has no SROs. Why does the Governor finds it so necessary for “every Providence public student to have interactions with SROs” while his concern for “safety” falls short when it comes to charter schools, asked students.

The concern about SROs is widespread among Providence Public School students. In a survey of students conducted by the Center for Youth and Community Leadership in Education (CYCLE) which was presented to the governor, 50% or more disagreed with the statement: “I feel safe with SROs in schools” and over 70% disagreed with the statement: “I am comfortable with SROs having guns in my school.”

The role of SROs in disciplining students is unclear, because there is no set of guidelines specifying how they are supposed to respond. Often, SROs are used to threaten students when they’re misbehaving. Whether or not a minor behavioral issue leads to a referral to a guidance counselor or an arrest frequently and most often comes down to race and ethnicity. Black students are overrepresented in arrest data. From 2016-2020, black students made up 30% of all arrests despite making up only 16% of the student population, a trend common in arrest data across the nation.

Read more: https://upriseri.com/daniel-mckee-sros-providence-alliance-for-student-safety/

[tulipsandroses]

1. They should get rid of them. Schools are not jails. Kids should be allowed to be kids

The money spent on police officers in school should be put into mental health/counseling/resources that actually help.

Just imagine if back in the day all the people that got into a fight at school were arrested? Or kids that threw a pencil or balled up paper at a teacher arrested

School personnel know who " the bad kids" are. How about providing resources that actually make a difference. Family outreach programs. Is the kid acting out because parents/caregivers are unable to provide for them, care for them?

I read about one school's program that did exactly that. Not only helped the child, but reached out to find out what was going on at home. For parents struggling with substance abuse, help was provided.

We can't arrest our way out of every problem.

[Claire Oh Nette]

2. Alternative High School

I taught at the Alternative High School for four years. One of our resource officers is currently a guest of the State, since he opted to have an affair with a student. He was, until that story broke, well regarded, nice guy, a cop I called a friend and colleague. The other RO was also a good guy, but it was still police on campus.

Some of our students were involved with drugs, and there were arrests on campus. We had students on parole and probation, and we had a few fights that were clearly assault and battery. That said, we didn't need a resource officer every day. In an emergency, the RO takes time to get to the right classroom, too. The officers create a layer of surveillance and Us/Them.

There are no where near enough counselors and social workers in the schools. Not even close.