The Naked Truth/Jamala Rogers
Eliminating School Resource Officers is Necessary for Child Safety
Recently a School Resource Office (SRO) in Kenosha tackled and restrained a girl-child after allegedly intervening in a lunchtime scuffle at Lincoln Middle School. Off-duty cop Shawn Guetschow was captured on school video with his knee on the 12-year-old’s neck — a scene painfully reminiscent of the George Floyd murder by Minneapolis cops. Guetschow’s brutal actions and other documented actions by SROs are sound justifications why police have no business being in schools with kids.
Over the last forty years, SROs have crept their way into more and more schools once policy makers declared youth super predators, a misguided sentiment echoed by then First Lady Hillary Clinton. Their racist calculations helped to fuel the school-to-prison pipeline. That’s when misbehaving went from violations of school policies to violations of criminal codes. A fist fight that once may have sent a student to detention or suspension is now an assault charge.
I have been opposed to cops in school from the start. Their training day experiences are not transferable to dealing with kids. Kids whose brains are not fully developed to make rational decisions. Adolescents with raging hormones and raw emotions. Teens pushing boundaries and testing their independence. This is a hallowed place for trained, patient and understanding educators.
Police unions and associations have fought publicly or quietly to expand their reach and their budgets by pushing the concept of SROs. Being an SRO can be a secondary job for a full-time cop. But it could mean a weary, stressed-out police officer will over-react to the normal antics of a teen. Like officer Guetschow.
The type of restraint that Guetschow used on his victim was apparently banned for Wisconsin law enforcement last year. The child’s father is rightfully calling for criminal charges against the cop. His daughter received injuries that will have lasting consequences.
Youth crime has been going down for a couple of generations, yet Wisconsin Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require school districts to hire school cops based on the number of incidents of violence and arrests. There’s no data that shows any positive impact of cops in schools.
Rep. Cindi Duchow admitted that COVID-19 was putting a strain on students, disrupting the normality of their lives. Her solution is to hire more cops, not more social workers and psychologists. It’s a sad state of affairs when elected officials believe a cop putting his knee on the neck of a girl, cuffing and dragging her in humiliation out of the school is the best solution to a conflict.
Sadly, it is reported that there are 14 million students in schools with police but no social worker, psychologist, counselor or nurse. This is where SRO programs meet Defund the Police. Nearly half of U.S. schools have one or more full or part-time cops at a hefty price tag. Those tens of millions of dollars could be re-allocated to actually solving the problems that young people face in a violent, homophobic, racist and generally hostile environment.
The movement to eliminate school cops is gathering steam. Some 33 school systems have completely booted police out of their schools. Others have made other adjustments that minimized police presence and authority. Madison is moving in the right direction, replacing its school police officers with restorative justice coordinators. The goal is to put building trusting relationships over failed punitive discipline policies.
Children are safer. Districts are saving money. Parents are happy. Teachers can teach. I say it’s a win-win for everyone. Well, maybe not everyone.
