school resource officer
(Andreas Fuhrmann/The Record Searchlight via AP, File)
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While most school districts across the country still ban teachers and staff from carrying firearms to protect their students, there are about 25,000 school resource officers on campuses. Cops stationed in schools who can provide some level of defense should the worst happen.

But in the wake of the George Floyd killing all things cop are now radioactive. Cities are considering de-funding their police forces and channeling the money instead toward social services. To the extent that happens, that would mean fewer cops on the streets and even longer response times. When seconds count, a cop will be only hours away.

In a similar vein, many school districts are looking to dump their school resource officers. Minneapolis has already done exactly that. Not to be out-woked, Portland will be doing the same, replacing the city’s RSOs with social workers.

School Resource Officer
Dara Van Antwerp, the school resource officer at Panther Run Elementary School Pembroke Pines, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

What these mayors and district superintendents don’t talk about in their proclamations announcing the purge of the “armed occupiers” from the halls of their educational institutions is how they intend to handle a kid who brings a knife or a gun to school. What, exactly, will a social worker do to stop an active shooter?

Outside of Broward County, who will stop or slow down the next kid who opens fire in a classroom? Don’t expect an answer to that question any time soon. At least not until there’s an incident in a school that formerly had someone armed walking the halls.

Here’s a report from the AP:

By Gillian Flaccus

An increasing number of cities are rethinking the presence of school resource officers as they respond to the concerns of thousands of demonstrators — many of them young — who have filled the streets night after night to protest the death of George Floyd.

Portland Public Schools, Oregon’s largest school district, on Thursday cut its ties with the Portland Police Bureau, joining other urban districts from Minneapolis to Denver that are mulling the fate of such programs. Protesters in some cities, including Portland, have demanded the removal of the officers from schools.

Floyd, who was handcuffed and prone on his stomach, died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest on May 25.

Minneapolis suspended its school resource officer program on Tuesday. Districts in St. Paul, Minnesota and Denver are considering doing the same. Protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, have made the end of the school resource officer program in their district one of their demands.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said Thursday that he would also discontinue using school resource officers in two smaller metropolitan districts under a program that in total costs the city $1.6 million a year and has been in place for more than two decades. The three districts have a combined student population of nearly 53,000, with more than 49,000 in Portland schools alone.

Having the officers in high schools has been a touchy topic for several years in this liberal city. Students have protested in recent years for an end to the program, at one point even overwhelming a school board meeting.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer, File)

“Leaders must listen and respond to community. We must disrupt the patterns of racism and injustice,” Wheeler said Thursday of the most recent demonstrations. “I am pulling police officers from schools.”

The presence of armed police officers in schools is a contentious one.

While many Portland residents applauded the decision, others raised immediate concerns about student safety in the event of a school shooting or other emergency. A suicidal student last year brought a gun to a high school at one of the districts that will be affected by the decision and was tackled by the track coach in an incident that got national attention.

“Over the last several years there have been ongoing conversations about the police and their role in public schools,” said Portland Police Chief Jami Resch. “I want to reassure the public that if there is a public safety emergency at a school, PPB will respond.”

The move is “a knee-jerk reaction,” and the decision by a few districts to stop their programs could snowball — to the detriment of students nationwide, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, which represents about 10,000 dues-paying officers.

There are an estimated 25,000 school resource officers nationwide, he said.

“What happened last Monday is atrocious. I don’t know how someone who wears a uniform, like I used to do, could get to that point. That’s evil,” Canady said of Floyd’s death. “But … I think there’s some shortsightedness here. When it’s done right, the SRO program really is the epitome of community-based policing. I hate to see the baby thrown out with the bathwater.”

Beyond their law enforcement role, the model for school resource officers endorsed by the U.S. Justice Department enlists them also as mentors, informal counselors and educators on topics ranging from bullying to drunk driving with the goal of promoting school safety.

But critics of the concept say the officers’ presence can also lead to the criminalization of students, particularly students of color, who may be labeled as troublemakers for things such as not paying attention in class, using a cellphone or other minor infractions. In 2015, a school resource officer in South Carolina was caught on video flipping a female student to the floor and dragging her across a classroom after she refused to surrender her cellphone.

Nationwide, 43% of public schools had an armed law enforcement officer present at least once a week in the 2015-2016 school year, the last time the National Center for Education Statistics released data on this topic.

Properly trained officers work closely with school administrators, Canady said. Generally there is an understanding that anything short of illegal activity should be handled by school officials, he said.

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100 COMMENTS

  1. I am afraid this will make school a more attractive softer target for wannabe school shooters looking for their 15 minutes of fame. Now they know for sure there will be no armed resistance and the response time will be much longer.

    This is like trying to fix a broken leg by amputation.

    • Wait for it…and “assault weapons” bans to make sure that no miscreants like Cruz, who was protected from justice by the school and by the police for years, will invade a campus and start shooting.

      • That’s clearly the idea here – soften the targets back up, have a few mass shootings occur, and then pass a sweeping, draconian AWB that makes current California gun laws look tame in comparison. My question is, with growing calls for police to be “de-funded”, who do the anti’s think is going to carry out their confiscations? Do they imagine with increased rioting and bedlam that people are just going to turn them in?

        • HP said: ” My question is, with growing calls for police to be “de-funded”, who do the anti’s think is going to carry out their confiscations? ”

          BO said: “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. ” ( Antifa ).

          They are willing to perpetrate violence on innocent people and places, why not go into the confiscation business? A means to self arm on the cheap… /s

  2. we can now prepare for more school shootings, the demoncraps are short a few killings to support their ANTI-GUN agenda..

  3. Considering that the School Resource officer in Parkland waited outside, maybe it won’t be such a loss.

    • Exactly- the only time a so-called SRO was actually needed, they cowered instead of acting. Why keep paying them for nothing?

  4. “When it’s done right, the SRO program really is the epitome of community-based policing”

    That’s the single most important point in the article. The problem is that examples of SRO’s going way out of line hit the news and nothing is done to change training, policies or selection of officers. The job and challenges of an SRO are very different from a patrol officer, while also including those of a patrol officer.

    Overreaction is a very American trait. When an officer is videod slamming some kid around for being disrespectful or non-compliant, but in no way a threat, the reputation of every SRO is stained. The future of the program is weakened.

    And what happens?

    Simple. Instead of working on how we get SRO’s that escalate an encounter with a child or teen, we get officers who exaggerate their response. Followed by instead of trying to fix the failures of the system , we get people demanding to trash the whole thing.

    Which if successful only ignores the problems that the SRO concept was meant to address. Those problems remain and worsen.

    All because of our societal tendency to panic and over react. Preferring to destroy a thing so we can pretend the problem has been addressed, instead of fixing it.

    • Note: There are some obvious typos in phrasing, oops. But the site tells me I am not authorized to edit my comments even though the clock for editing is still ticking down with minutes to spare. Oh well.

    • I disagree. See my comment below.

      Military veterans as maintenance personnel are a much better solution. Us military veterans would more readily run towards the sound of gunfire, much more so than “school resource officers” whose only purpose is to make it to retirement. Maintenance personnel have the run of the school campus and, being in plain clothes rather than police uniforms would be able to get close enough to the shooter to “neutralize the threat”.

      • A number of veterans working as teachers and principals is also helpful. Permit faculty and staff to CCW. That is far less expensive than having SRO’s, and less confrontational to boot.

        Frankly, we should be looking at gradually fading out the public school system. Parents should be raising their children, not agents of the state.

        • “gradually fading out the public school system”, all that will happen is the middle class will pay for school, and anyone who can’t afford it, oh well. As it is the majority of upper middle class would definitely be happy to see it go away, because they will be able to spend money DIRECTLY into schools. Don’t kid yourself, it will fix nothing. As it is, ANY school district when push comes to shove is actual controlled by the parents. People who have good public schools will just have good private ones. If you want to fix the education system, look to Germany.

        • You’re probably right. I also think it might be a fair trade for dismantling the bloated Marxist propaganda apparatus that has taken control of government education.

        • “As it is, ANY school district when push comes to shove is actual controlled by the parents.”
          Nope. Unions in concert with the politicians they support. The more expensive the school district the tighter the relationship. President of the glorious NEA famously said when kids pay union dues we’ll act in their interests. Read through their monthly mag and see what their priorities are. Go to their websites for local districts and its’ talk of benefits, “rights”, victories over attempts to rein them in, etc.

          “Private” or parochial schools would be more affordable with more kids. There would be competition and and a real marketplace for solutions. We’re never going to get there, ever. People hear private school and they picture fancy boarding schools with horses. Charter schools were an attempt to carve out a private option with tax dollars and look how that was attacked.
          If the public system had their way they would do away with home schooling and religious schools to increase their grip.

          Parents are treated not as customers but taxpayers by public schools. You need to sue them to get their attention. You know how hard it is to remove a public school teacher?

          Parents are just taxpayers. The public schools act like they own the kids and do what they want.

        • @GS650G is right. Cyber-charter schooling, especially in PA, NY, and other likewise uber-liberal states, are getting strangled. Local districts hate us, so they’re drumming up arbitrary charges of “improper teaching” or “inadequate socialization,” when, in reality, most people coming out of the school choice systems are smarter on average than the dumb as rocks and highly indoctrinated kids that the public system shuttles through their systems. The biggest piece of evidence they have is standardized testing, but the only reason why we have such a gargantuan failure rate is because most students, a large number of them honor roll students, opt out of standardized testing, and their scores are automatic zeroes. Its insanity, pure propaganda, and moronic what they push against school choice.

      • I am a vet. I don’t think that posting the military in the schools and using janitor uniforms as camo is going to solve anything.

        • It isn’t about vets posing as janitors. Just have some actual men working in a school, and let them act like men, and CCW if they want to.

        • That is exactly what has been suggested. It’s just been framed differently to make it sound more practical.

    • I agree, with an added opinion that a knee-jerk response to eliminate the first line of defense in the school without a viable alternative plan is simply careless. It really makes you wonder: Are these governors just trying to save on their budget or what? What happened to keeping kids safe?

      • I really don’t use Portland,Or as a leader in the realm of security. Any jurisdiction where the police chief orders his personnel to “stand down” is NOT an example of an intelligent agenda.

      • De funding the police and pulling out of schools is the Democrats way to confiscate all guns in America. Actually the left want total power and
        Want to tie the hands of police actually eliminate
        Police and care less how many children die
        Or American citizens. The elite democrats and left can hire protection/trained professionals
        For themselves and children.
        During Katrina in New Orleans during the flooding there was no police protection and
        There was looting an many people stranded in
        Homes break in’s rape theft murder. What happened after flooding subsided 100/1000
        Dead bodies recovered and discovered many had bullet holes cause of death. Many stranded
        Had guns and shot killed criminals kicked there
        Bodies back in flooding. Never publiced but a fact.
        Democrats have been trying to eliminate 2nd
        amendment.
        Every Democratic will deny the motive getting rid
        Of police, also letting criminals out of jail.
        All lives. Matter!!

        • Forgot to mention we have an election in less than 5 months. What party wants disruption
          Riots, burning cities actually want anarchy
          To continue till the election.
          Too bad Democrats!!
          In spite of pandemic unemployment making a dramatic recovery, stock improving all because
          President Trump in 3 years made America great.
          No other President had the hate mongers
          Trashing the President.
          In spite of left/Democrats trying to trash the
          Country intentionally with the strength of the
          Presidents leadership we will continue as the strongest country in the world.
          Thank God we will have 4 more years.
          We have a warrior in the White House.
          Believe he also has a long memory.

        • “We have a warrior in the White House.”

          So why did he sit out Vietnam?

          Like dick Cheney, did he have ‘other priorities’, besides dying in a rice patty like the poor people?

          “I joined up on my birthday, they draft the white trash first ‘round here anyways”
          Steve Earle

    • “Overreaction is a very American trait.”

      Stoked by agenda-driven activists and ratings-driven whore media.

      Unfortunately, such is the price of free speech.

  5. Divert the funds to “social service” programs? F’ that!
    Return the funds to the taxpayers.
    Anything less will cause a tax revolt in the US.

  6. The problem with many American police departments is that “officer safety” has replaced the well-worn police mantra “to protect and serve”. “To protect and serve” is an outdated, rarely-used concept and should be abandoned.
    Most school resource officers are police officers who are close to retirement (who want to make it to retirement), and as such will not put themselves “in harms way”.
    There is a solution:
    Hire qualified armed military veterans as maintenance personnel with the understanding that they are a “quick reaction force” and are to respond to “school shooter situations”. Maintenance personnel have the run of the campus, know the “hiding spots” and would be a much better “fit” than “school resource officers”, whose primary purpose is to “stay alive”.
    This is a much better solution than “school resource officers” who use the excuse “I feahed fo mah life” to get out of doing their duty.

    • What you are really proposing is militarizing our schools and using janitor uniforms as camouflage.

      • Nobody but you has suggested taking anybody and disguising them as anything. They’re saying if you have janitors, teachers, engineers, principals, bus drivers, or anybody else who ALREADY has a job in the school, and who already has the desired training, mindset, etc, then let those people carry and respond as appropriate.

        But that seems pretty clear, and you haven’t proposed any arguments except straw men, so…

        • “There is a solution:
          Hire qualified armed military veterans as maintenance personnel with the understanding that they are a “quick reaction force” and are to respond to “school shooter situations”. Maintenance personnel have the run of the campus, know the “hiding spots” and would be a much better “fit” than “school resource officers”

          That is exactly what is being suggested. I did not suggest it. I called it for what it was.

      • So you would rather have uniformed police officers instead? At least the Veterans would A. Not hide when someone was shooting and B. Not have qualified immunity.

        I am not for either solution just pointing out the inconsistency.

        • I think it’s a knee reaction. Every time a group of people sit down and talk about this somebody always suggests we should hire veterans as janitors and allow them arms in the schools. What veteran who served twenty years and is worth his salt wants to push a broom around a school until the unlikely event occurs and he needs to go rambo on a school shooter.

  7. Just as with LEO’s the only time you hear about a school resource officer is when something has gone south. As with LEO’s, many are good people trying to do the right thing in an impossible world. Sure they have their outliers, officers with emotional issues, some thugs, some who cant deal with the pressure, and a few cowards. This will be really interesting if they are dismissed.

  8. Put em all back on beats or refund taxpayer cash. Simple. They’re window dressing on the Titanic if Parkland was any indication. I’d rather not have my tax bucks going that way. The left leaning teachers unions can fend for themselves in bad areas and maybe they’ll figure out that they need the help and having security isn’t that bad of a deal one day.

    “Race grievance money” is a slush fund for these pols. Look at ACORN.

  9. No surprise here. Leftists always ensure the vulnerable suffer justify more state intervention, the leaves the vulnerable at risk, so the state can justify even more intervention.

    Nobody expects the social workers to stop mass shootings. The social workers are there to comfort the survivors.

    • The RSOs also weren’t there to stop shootings, either, they were put there so the pols could point at them “doing something”.

      I think it’s great that we’re shaking out the victim and oppression bushes and learning where everything falls in comparison to everything else. Schools < Covid < BLM. Good to know.

  10. As long as continue to teach our children via the public school system that (1) we’re all evolved from protoplasm and monkeys, (2) there is no accountability to any Creator or even a moral code, (3) everyone’s encouraged to live for the most sensual pleasures they can achieve without consequence, (4) it’s acceptable to snuff out the most innocent and vulnerable among us before they’re born, and (5) anything you don’t like in your life can be blamed on others…we’ll continue to churn out snowflakes and malcontents who will disrespect leaders and commit crimes against others.

    All this song-and-dance about police and funding is moot, if our country will continue to insist on an anything-goes mindset. As the saying goes, “if society does not police itself from within, it will require policing from without”.

    • And there you have it!

      There is no more inherent value or dignity in a human life than there is in a rock if both are just the end result of random chemical/physical processes. And if that is the case, then anything goes as long as someone is passionate, ruthless, and/or selfish enough to “go for the gusto”, “grab life by the horns”, and indulge themselves.

      • “There is no more inherent value or dignity in a human life than there is in a rock if both are just the end result of random chemical/physical processes.”

        This is described as, “Might makes Right”. Just be sure you are not on the receiving end.

    • The best/appropriate place for children to receive faith-based education is at home- not public school. Public schools could/should have comparative religion studies, but most certainly can’t/shouldn’t have a faith-based curriculum. It is untenable to even consider “picking” which “faith” should be used in a public faith-based education system- that would mean saying one is “right”, and the others are “wrong”. Would you be willing to have your children educated in a public school system where the school gets to pick the “faith” upon which the curriculum is based? And no, science is not a faith- it is merely a method/process of knowledge derived from evidence gathering, observation, experimentation, and postulation. Science, by definition, invites challenges and admits/changes when proved wrong. People, generally- do not.

      • Peter Gunn,

        Science, by definition, invites challenges and admits/changes when proved wrong. People, generally- do not.

        Bwa, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!!! Apparently you missed the memo that all of the Science stakeholders/participants are PEOPLE.

        For brevity I will refer to said people as scientists. Word to the wise: scientists are every bit as fallible as anyone else and our current “science” is anything but rock-solid, reliable, and correct.

        And when I use the word “fallible”, I mean the entire gambit. Some scientists have egos and will not admit when they are wrong. Some scientists are greedy and will advance wrong ideas to achieve fame/fortune. Some scientists are evil and will advance wrong ideas to cause death and destruction. Some scientists are lazy and allow or even advance wrong ideas because it means less work for them. Some scientists are worried about their careers (in terms of a righteous desire to provide a modest living for themselves) and will allow bad science or fail to repudiate bad science. And some scientists advance wrong ideas because they think it will advance some otherwise noble cause for mankind.

        Look at it in simple terms: people have various wants and desires. All of human History amply demonstrates mankind’s propensity to lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want/desire. There is no magic that excepts scientists from this fundamental aspect of human nature.

        • I agree. Most of the biggest issues we face are usually the result of human nature. It can be a very ugly, ruthless thing. But I think you know what I mean about science- it is open to be proved wrong- it is not dependent upon the virtues of the humans using it to pick sides- for or against.

      • Peter,

        About that science thing…

        Back in the ’90s in an episode of Friends, Ross and Phoebe were having a discussion about the recalcitrance of scientists to allow for new theories to challenge their positions. Ross was proving this as he continued to argue that “anyone who denies that dinosaurs lived hundreds of millions of years ago instead of thousands is an idiot”. Phoebe then calmly countered “well, for a long time scientists insisted that atomic particles were the smallest building blocks in the universe, but one day someone cracked one open and all this junk [quarks] fell out…”

        Ross held his breath till his face turned red, then stomped out of the room.

        Science should be for the quest of truth, and therefore invite any challenges that refocus that path toward truth. But many prominent scientists are arm-locked with politicians and grant funding, and refuse to budge from the established mantras.

        • No argument here. Please see reply above.

          A little seredipity doo dah… Friends is on my TV now.

  11. This clears the way for a terrorist or nutjob to slaughter suburban kids and push for more gun control. Chicago sees the same level of deaths every week but they don’t advertise it. They want kids in a middle to upper middle class area instead.

    I didn’t have a lot of faith in a single SRO or two stopping a determined killer but the optics of cops being pulled out will get noticed and that might encourage someone to act. They won’t blame that decision any more than they blamed BCSD for ignoring the MSD shooter . We are rapidly being left completely on our own, and our kids too. Some would say it’s always been this way but this moves the Overton Window even more.

    • Being on our own would be fine if we were actually allowed to fend for ourselves. What we’re seeing now is the worst of both worlds.

      We’re on our own. Our children are tempting, helpless targets — and the progressive death cult won’t allow anyone to do anything about it.

  12. The ride towards socialism is moving faster, now that they have tested the waters in locking everyone down in their homes weather or not they were sick & decided who was relevant with little push back. Everyone is accustomed to the word “social” distancing, social media everything is social something. If Trump loses this election what out…..it’ll be a wild ride to hell!

  13. HOME SCHOOL if you can. My granddaughters are. They’re turning out great. Ditto for my brother’s TEN kid’s. Mine are grown but by some horrible happenstance my 60 year old wife has a baby we’d home school!

    • Exactly so. We home-schooled our daughter K-12. Each year, we purchased the best curriculum we could find.

      That being said, we were fortunate enough that we could survive on one income so that wife could stay home and work with her. Not every family has that luxury, HOWEVER, work-from-home is facilitating home-schooling even when both parents have to work. There has also been strong growth in the number of home school associations which provide further flexibility for families.

      BTW, if you are homeschooling in Pennsylvania, check out the PA Home Schoolers Association. Follow their program and your child actually earns a HS diploma instead of having to take the GED.
      http://www.pahomeschoolers.com/

      • Well my brother is a Doctor of Divinity Lifesavor.
        His wife has a teaching degree. That helps. Son speaks Arabic at DoD. Makes $. It help’s a LOT to be able have a hard working employed spouse. Stay safe…

  14. If anyone thinks school shooters, etc. are not out there somewhere planning then they need to think again. With news of what amounts to Cop Free School Zones rest assured some sicko somewhere is feeling giddy and emboldened.
    Parents should stand and tell such schools “No Cop Means No Kids.” If no kids show for school because of no security rest assured security will be back.

  15. What utter BS. Cops don’t belong in schools hanging out and palling around with kiddies. SRO is just a parking spot for the little girl wannabe cops and the incompetent. Stupid damn concept top to bottom.

    Anyone that graduated before _____ have a full time cop hanging out in their school doing NOTHING useful (that includes the moronic “DARE” programs)

    • Or, one-size-fits-all policies are dumb. A cop may be completely worthless in a rural White school district, but in downtown Ghettostan, he’s necessary to keep order.

  16. The bigger picture is that we should not have any government run schools. Let parents decide what school to send their kids to and the school can set their own policies.

  17. Ellison noted that police response time will be slower without school resource officers if an incident occurs. But, she said, this is a matter of values.

    In other words, those kids have no value to the people making these decisions.

    • Exactly.

      I’d say it’s nice to see a progbot come out and admit where their values lie, but the truth is masked by the virtue signal; all the progtards will just nod in agreement and then get all weeweed up and angry at you and me the next time some product of their death cult runs amok in the murderer’s playground they’ve created.

    • Was just going to post that quote.

      If a school shooting happens there and kills 20 kids before the police get there, what are those values worth?

      I’m sure they’ll then shout that all guns need to be confiscated because that doesn’t contradict their ‘values.’

  18. If you have ever interacted with those guys when you were a student you might feel differently. They are not right for a school environment and the staff isn’t afraid to weaponize them.

  19. I’ve felt for quite awhile that the answer was somewhere in the middle. Specialty training for the RSO since it’s a specialty occupation within LE and ditch the uniform, go to plainclothes like a detective.

    The former hopefully goes a ways towards solving the rare but high profile problems of the last few years and the latter makes it harder to target the RSO both in a shooting and as a “cop” because the first thing people see is someone in business casual or business attire rather than a uniform that comes with baggage.

      • Seems like a lifetime ago now but that used to be my standard answer.

        Q: Why are we doing X this particular way.

        A: Because anything else would make far too much sense.

    • Strych9,

      Yes, ditch the uniforms. But train teachers and allow those that qualify to be armed. An armed society can protect itself. Schools should not be excepted.

    • Not plainclothes but a ‘soft’ uniform (vest with marked polo over it, duty belt with essentials) is the norm in many places.

      You want the SRO to be approachable but also immediately recognizable as a cop should the worst happen.

  20. “how they intend to handle a kid who brings a knife or a gun to school”?
    After the offender kills everyone possible they will demand gun confiscation.

  21. “how they intend to handle a kid who brings a knife or a gun to school. What, exactly, will a social worker do to stop an active shooter?” – they can cut their SNAP money!

  22. “What, exactly, will a social worker do to stop an active shooter?”
    They will take a knee in solidarity with the misunderstood product of a broken home and the victim of a white privileged, CIS centered oppressive society! Then they will lick the thugs boots by way of apology for the beating they are about to receive.*

    * Not an issue in Red Cities within Red States

  23. Looking All around at the headlines. Watching storm clouds forming and gathering. Sooner or later, they will ignite the societal powderkeg they are constructing.

    • “…has anyone ever dialed 911 and asked for a social worker?”

      Do not, do not underestimate the effectiveness of social workers. They can put you in a “time-out” box indefinitely.

    • THis is a critical missing element in the current rush to get rid of the police. Do you still call 911 for the police and social workers? Who makes the decision about whether a social worker or an armed officer is necessary? The screening factor is huge when seconds count.

    • That’s exactly what SHOULD happen in a lot of situations. Cops are not social workers but because social workers are not part of the ‘first responder’ groups in most cases, you get cops. And then because cops are not social workers, they don’t do a great job trying to fill that role, and people complain.

  24. “But critics of the concept say the officers’ presence can also lead to the criminalization of students, particularly students of color, who may be labeled as troublemakers for things such as not paying attention in class, using a cellphone or other minor infractions.”

    Or . . .how about destroying all the keyboards in a computer class, shouting to your homies across the classroom in the middle of class, directing foul language in the direction of the teacher in the middle of class, coming and going at will, and—no surprise here at all—being given passing grades (on the instruction of the school admin.) despite not having presented any evidence of having learning anything at all. All of these things happened to a relative during her first weeks of a new school year. She promptly quick.

  25. Anything the govt. is not supposed to do should be abolished. The govt. is responsible for protecting the nation and it’s people’s and ensuring fairness and equality for all. It is not the govts. responsibility to educate our children, to protect them or to raise them in any way. Home school is the solution. Who else would be more interested in a child’s education than their parents? It worked for thousands of years before the govt. usurped our power. Plus, all staff(parents) can be armed at all times. And maybe even some of the students! Haven’t ever read about a home school having a mass shooting or even a home school association when home schoolers come together for group activities. It’s not difficult just different. Additionally, we need to take back the power to police thru neighborhood militias and abolish police and just have sheriffs. I would stand my watch. Anyone else? And if SROs aren’t financed then parents and grandparents ought to be able to patrol schools armed. And any teachers that want to as well.

    • This might come as a surprise to you but there are a hell of a lot of parents that don’t give a damn about their kids education. And as far as home education goes it didn’t work for thousands of years. Knowing how to read and write has only become the norm since publicly funded education. I’m not cheer leading for public schools, just stating a fact.

  26. 25000 resource officers an we read about less than half a dozen over the top incidents ? Pretty small percentage to base a change on.

    • This ^^ Not all sro are ready to retire. The one at my youngest daughters school has children in same school, she would not stand down even if her kids didn’t go there. She’s been leo about 12 years. Kids all like her but they know she doesn’t take sh!t and will be fair to everyone.

  27. Schools everywhere are in a severe financial bind. They are looking at all options to cut costs. Resource officers were forced on the schools by demands from parents for safety. This is the perfect opportunity for the schools to bail out on safety. The positions won’t be replaced except in a few high-profile instances.

  28. Of course they are. Part of the plan. This will invite more school shootings, and not just the active shooter many victim, but also revenge killings, gang and drug related, etc. WHICH the left wants so they can then use those tragedies to do more gun control. Pandemic lockdowns, riots have woken a LOT of people to the need to arm themselves. They will feel the need to counter it. Ergo this BS.

  29. If you don’t want the police in schools because it causes too many problems to make up for the unlikely case of a school shooting, fine. Take em out.

    Then train\arm staff members. They aren’t cops, they aren’t arresting anyone, but they can step in should the unlikely happen.

    But they won’t. Because having kids killed is a lot more acceptable to them than you would think based on their protesting of guns.

  30. Just think–the next time one of these power tripping fat asses body slams a 98 pound 13 year old girl, he could go to jail.

    Crazy world.

  31. this new trend will be the rave until someone gets killed again then the idiots will wonder why no one did any thing about it. and then they will demand security in the schools again. people on a whole , are very stupid. and the things that happen to them they make happen by being stupid. no one ever thinks 2 steps ahead, what will happen if this happens and so on. they just knee jerk an action, and the sheep follow.

  32. Never had police in school in my day, Boy Scouts had rifle teams, you could draw pictures of guns, point finger at each other and say bang, no signs saying “gun free zone. We had mens & womens bathrooms. No school shootings. Then again, I’m what is called old school. Murders got the ole sparky or gas, and hung….Spad

  33. I have a great idea!

    Parkland school resource officer Scot Peterson, who’s an expert on social distancing, can show schools how to designate outside safe spaces where cops can wait until after the gunfire stops.

    This is gonna work.

  34. If trucks of money are worth protecting with armed guards than so is schools full of children. They should well trained security guards like Brinks guards that way the fear of bad cops in schools is eliminated. Security guards will be capable of dealing with armed violence without needlessly causing tragedies.

  35. I am always concerned with children being indoctrinated at a young age that the Police State is normal. Having Police in schools is a very bad idea from the beginning. Getting rid of gun free zones and allowing teachers to be armed is a much better solution. There are also numerous instances where when something happened the Police either did not go in and engage or ran and hid.

  36. What is it about Americans, and their love affair with “one size fits all” solutions to problems?

    Would think the Woohoo Flu would be a teaching moment. Rather than focus on the most at risk, we shut down an entire nation. Where are the school shootings happening? Inner cities, or suburban, white-dominant campii? What is the difference? Why are inner city schools not suffering the same slaughter as the inner city neighborhoods on the weekends? If we cannot figure that out, the broad brush SRO concept (or SJW representative as an alternative) will continue to produce dismal results.

  37. “But critics of the concept say the officers’ presence can also lead to the criminalization of students, particularly students of color, who may be labeled as troublemakers for things such as not paying attention in class, using a cellphone or other minor infractions…”
    The problem here is the lack of respect being tolerated from kindergartners, 1st and 2nd graders. When a 4 or 5 year old can get away with telling their teacher “Fuck you bitch, you ain’t my mother.” you’re setting that kid up for a future behind bars or under a gravestone. Actions have consequences. If you haven’t been able to teach your kid to show respect in a civil fashion by the time they start school maybe you shouldn’t be allowed to keep them. It’s child abuse/neglect and should not be allowed to happen in a civil society. The problem with problem children getting into trouble is the parents, not the cops.

  38. BO said…….We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded. ” ( Antifa ).”

    Fortunately, reticle black contrasts nicely with UN Blue. However, we’re going to appreciate illuminated reticles for that Antifa black, and NV/thermals for when the cockroaches come out after dark.

    Patriots, it’s heating up. We’ve got enough guns. Up the ammo buying. There’s a huge chamber pot full of stupid Useful Idiots out there to get through in order to get to the real traitors working in Deep State to destroy this county.

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