Let's take another look at school resource officers
Law enforcement became embedded in schools in 1939 when the Indianapolis Public Schools hired a "special investigator".
SROs were first positioned in Flint, Michigan in 1953 and by the 1970s a majority of states had some form of school wide policing. This same period saw the creation of the "War on Drugs" policies that targeted people of color and increased the over policing of black and brown people.
When two white students murdered other students at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, another large increase in school policing was seen. However, the increase in police presence in our schools has largely been a negative element for our black and brown students and has done little to deter school shootings.
The presence of police in our schools serves to promote an environment of fear for black and brown students based on unreasonable scrutiny and overzealous enforcement of policies made for and by white administrators and power structures.
In my own community I have seen deliberate efforts to hold students for "criminal behavior" until the end of the day in order to parade a student in handcuffs to the squad car in full view of all the school. This is a poor example of building rapport with students and community.
I would like to see a pause in the use of SROs in our schools to give time and space for re-evaluation and repair of our use of police in our schools and society as a whole.
Gregory Stewart, Bremerton, MVMS student advocate