In the wake of the terrible tragedy next door in Sandy Hook, there has been a lot of discussion about having a law enforcement officer in each school.
In most parts of the country, having a police officer in the school is called a School Resource Officer or SRO. A SRO is a law enforcement officer who has been assigned to a school. The main purpose is to protect and serve the school community... to provide a safe and secure campus for the children, teachers and adminstrators. This often includes the building, the parking lot and the school grounds.
Abbott Tech, in Danbury, (being a state school) had a uniformed, armed State Trooper at the entrance to the school for years and a State Police car parked prominently in the front of the school. Many areas of the country have had SROs serving their schools for years, even decades now.
Besides the protection and law enforcement duties, the SROs become a liaison between the police department and the school community. In some communities, they function in the role of ombudsman to create a positive impression of the police force. Depending upon the community's wishes, some SROs (especially if there is more than one officer in a large school) spend time giving safety instruction, counseling students and being a mentor and role model to the students. A well trained SRO, who was well liked and trusted by the students, could have a significant impact on behavior and especially alcohol and drug behavior.
What a SRO is NOT is a school disciplinarian. If a school incident is a possible law enforcement violation, the SRO can be contacted to determine if law enforcement action is appropriate. An SRO does not do things like lunchroom or hall duty.
Unfortunately, America is not the country that we grew up in. Andy Griffith, of Mayberry, USA, and Barney, his 'trusted' deputy with the one bullet in his shirt pocket... is a lovely memory of how we used to live. In light of the reality of the country that we have become, we need to strongly consider having an armed, uniformed police officer in each of our schools.
Duties include safety programs and education, drug and alcohol laws education, liaison to juvenile court, truancy issues. He has a flexible schedule which allows him to attend games, events, etc. An SRO is typically assigned to a particular building and receives specialized training - Our Youth Officer moves between our schools as needed and is not assigned to any one building. I have been informed that Brookfield has never had a formal "SRO" either through the Police Dept. or BOE budget.
Thanks for clarifying that security precautions proposed were already funded and implemented over the last several years. It's important that the community is reminded of that fact.
They are too busy watching the violent videos, listening to the violent music, going to the violent movies and playing violent video games since their mothers and fathers either permit and/or give them money for them...or worse even buy them. The true problem is parental permissiveness due to absentee parents who consider their adult toy collections and residence more important that the upbringing of the children they brought into this world and hence don't spend even dinner time with them any more - just leave $20 for the pizza delivery guy to feed their kids.
Given the new resources of the schools (the panic buttons and the radios to be delivered tomorrow), I'm not sure a solitary guard would help. Even in terms of their position discouraging someone, that appears to not be the case for the two students at Columbine whom were likely aware of their SRO being present. The focus should be stalling a threat and getting a response team on scene ASAP. Which brings up the point if the other duties of a SRO are needed at all of our buildings (duties other than being an armed guard). I'm far not familiar enough with the full extent of their duties and their level of requirement at each building, but given that we don't even have one dedicated SRO at any building, nor there being a request for one until now, leads me to believe that there isn't a huge demand for these other duties. Even so, would the demand at each building warrant a dedicated SRO? My intuition tells me that a SRO would be much more utilized at WMS and BHS than at CES and HHES.
As to funding the 4 SROs (one in each school), Chief Montgomery estimates that it would be about $ 300,000 per year, or slightly more than one half of one percent of the budget. As to how to pay for these police officers, without even the skeleton of a budget in front of us, it is way premature to get into the details of where to get the money, what trade offs to make, what is important. The town needs to have a set of the top 50-100 priorities. We have been working on this for a while. I think that protecting the citizens, esp. the young, is the FIRST priority of government.....more than all the fluff....Greenways, bike trails, new library building, new beach houses, artificial turf, buying more open spaces, etc. As I have said many times, I put the Police, Fire, Emergency Services and Town Crew as the FIRST priority (why town crew.....like they say, if you're having a heart attack and we dont plow to your door...the ambulance isnt getting through). Mr. Lasser, since we are trying to stay on topic, and not get dragged into the underbrush.....the topic is: having a police officer at each school....what do you think ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEb18fkA-bU
This youtube video is a snapshot of the educated, productive, courteous citizens of America doing a little shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Imagine how life will be if these citizens had missed a few meals..........instead of a good deal on a $ 10 dollar toaster.
And yet it seems like the world trends towards the better. More equal rights for more people. More global prosperity (Look at India or Brazil 30 years ago...) Better technology. Longer lifespans. More leisure time. More opportunities in more places. The whole, "kids ain't learning the right lessons" just doesn't hold water. You're hearing about more violence, because there's more communication in the world and more people get to hear about the atrocities. What do you think would have happened if there had been internet during the Donner party fiasco? If Jews had tweeted from the camps? All you fogeys who fear the future are looking through a distorted lens. The younger generation is looking forward to bringing more civility and more tolerance to the world in general, so if you all could just retire and let us do that sooner, we'd be happy to provide you with the better world you so desire.
Talk to the India girl who died last week that was gang raped. Talk to the girl who wanted to go to school and was stoned. Talk about all their rights. The world is different. Violence is idolitized. It's not the older generation that playing Black Ops II until sunrise eating cold pizza slices and drinking 5 hour energy drinks to stay awake.
Perhaps if children weren't so coddled from such a young age, protected from all dangers, not allowed to fight and tumble outside, get hurt, solve problems, learn through experience. Parents always rush in telling kids to share, or not to hit. Let it play out. It is how one learns. Tragedies happen, and when they happen to ones you know it hurts more, but so is life. Maybe teach children self-defense and reasoning and awareness? I'm not sure. On a side point, while tragedies like what has happened are truly sad, what is even worse is US sponsored killings of children and civilians via drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen, etc . . .That is a much more scary of a thing, Ponder that for awhile while your cry for restricted speech and increased police state. . . .
Those are the facts. However, with the rise of cable news, the reporting of these violent crimes has multiplied at an exponential rate.
http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/Danbury-parents-call-for-secure-schools-4167264.php http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Armed-security-guards-on-radar-of-Greenwich-4168789.php Depending on how its done, just a person with firepower to bribe or co-opt or what not paid for by???? protecting "us" from something that happens so rarely it is a statistical blip. Using parent's fear ---> the most used tool of the past 100+ years
In replying to your post of Jan 4 @ 3:35 pm. I agree with you. My biggest fear/hesitation about having armed police presence in the schools, is getting the kids used to seeing police/military "everywhere", checkpoints, metal detectors, prison-like facilities....I worry that we are getting them used to living in a police state. Thank you for your thoughtful comment.
I also agree that you will never prevent all tragedies....on the playground, bus, school trips. We do have to worry about putting up a 'facade of safety' (good expression) and not really making them safer. I think that we do need to look at the 'root causes" of why their is so much decline in our society and also your suggestions about what to teach our children. Thank you for your incisive thoughts.
FACT: Obama has signed off on over 300 strikes (almost one per day) last year - six times more than George Bush did in his entire second term. REASON BUSH DIDN'T? Concern over collateral damage.
In 1776, an anonymous book was published in Philadelphia called Common Sense. Written by Thomas Paine, it sold 500,000 copies in its first year when there were only 2.5 million colonists. That's 20% of the population. Think people were fed up and wanted to change their government? After looking at this year's budget proposal, perhaps it's time for more Common Sense. People should not be enslaved by taxes on their homes.