by Alex Probert
School safety is a big topic in schools around the United States as more and more school related incidents are happening. One idea of keeping schools more safe is a School Resource Officer.
A School Resource Officer or an SRO is a police officer who is responsible for safety and crime prevention in a school setting. People have varying thoughts on a school resource officer, some being good and some being bad.
York Suburban High School principal Dr. Ellis said, “I do think an SRO would be beneficial. I worked closely with an SRO as an assistant principal in my prior district and found it to be a very positive factor for our students.” With this, other schools with an SRO are positively benefitting from them.
Ellis continued, “Where I think the real added safety comes is through the relationships that students form with the officer(s) and the instructional component that an officer provides.” An SRO would not only protect the school environment, but would put another adult in the school to form relationships with the students and that’s what it’s all about in the end.
“There is always a financial consideration with any new efforts such as bringing on the SRO. I think it is important for students to know that fact if they have questions as to why the board chose not to endorse bringing an SRO to our district,” said Ellis. It is important for any student to know why the school board voted not to bring in an SRO.
On October 7, the York Suburban School Board voted not to have a resource officer after given a grant. Ellis said, “It was for a little less than $400,000 over 2 years. Since the board decided not to add the School Police Officer positions, the district will be returning about 1/2 of that.”
With an administrator’s perspective also comes a student’s perspective. Senior Harrison Gettle said, “I think an SRO would be very beneficial to our school.” He added, “I think the presence of an SRO at our school promotes safety. I think it makes students feel safe, and eases the mind of any worries of what could happen.”
An SRO brings a lot of ideas onto the table. With the relationships to feeling safer in school, an SRO could potentially play many roles in a school setting.