False Security: A Critique of Campus Cops

[XLFD]

In June of 2019, the Scottville City Commission authorized a school resource officer (SRO) position for their school system, Mason County Central (MCC). That position has yet to become a reality as funding and personnel resources haven't fell in place. At the time, the position of our editorial board was that it would not help the perceived need for it expressed by staff at MCC, rather it would just assist the local justice system in getting our children more easily criminalized.

For studies showed that the crime level at schools did not change, and suggested that the SROs did more harm than good by their presence. Nevertheless, in November, three way talks between MCC, WSCC and the Scottville Police Department (SPD, via the City of Scottville) looked to establish a position that could see a resource officer at both campuses.

Reasonable advocates for SROs may look past such statistics and point to more intangible benefits they believe come with uniformed cops in schools such as their deterrent effect and the perceived quick response for school shootings. The Parkland school shooting was an anomaly in their view, where the SRO was present and the six minute shooting spree had the shooter exiting the building and getting away five minutes before any officer stepped foot in the building where it happened.

Shooting up a school is an irrational act in the first place, but the perpetrators generally have their likely-final act planned out meticulously, and part of that is sizing up the school security and schedules. In the ten years before 2018, Ludington schools had a part-time SRO based at their high school, they were defenseless half of the time, just like their four other campuses were (and still are). If MCC and WSCC share one or even more 'resource' officers, there will be gaps in coverage that all students and many non-students would be aware of.

A single officer in uniform faces an almost impossible task in stopping mass public shootings, as they become the first targets in these attacks, as attackers know that if they kill the officer, they will have free reign to continue their massacre. If attackers don't know who is carrying a concealed firearm, however, they won’t know whom they need to attack first.

A 2019 study looking at the controversial stance of arming teachers noted a few interesting things:

1) That there has never been a school shooting at a school that allowed teachers to carry
2) That supplying armed guards or SRO's at all school campuses is very costly
3) That there has never been an instance where a student got ahold of a teacher's gun
4) Shootings at schools w/o armed teachers have been increasing in frequency

Frankly, a school advertising that some of its teachers may have guns is a lot more of a deterrent than one that proclaims it to be a 'gun-free zone'. John Stossel did a great report on this topic, highlighting those advantages and a school that allowed staff carrying handguns.

Those who claim that arming teachers on a voluntary basis is a bad idea, generally claim that teachers are a poor alternative to SROs. That reasoning is typically unsupported, it seems to be based on the reasoning that teachers aren't trained to kill or that it would be traumatic for the kids to see their teacher shoot someone who may be a classmate. Consider that most teachers would be more protective of the children than some paid contractor, and the alternative of seeing the rest of their classmates and teacher getting shot before the gun is turned on them.

Another interesting fact is that there has not been any shootings taking place in Michigan this whole millennium during normal school hours on any school campus-- the time and place that SROs are employed. The last school-day Michigan school shooting was in 1992 in Detroit. Does such a rare event merit spending around $80,000 per facility for a SRO especially when you consider that having a SRO around seems to be leading to a rash of people at schools wielding guns along with authority and taking advantage of our sons and daughters?

For there has been no actual school shootings in Michigan for 28 years, yet in just one year, 2019, at least three SROs in Michigan were arrested and/or prosecuted for sexually assaulting helpless girls and boys that they met at their job where they wield a gun and lay down the law. These sexual predators betrayed the trust they were given with the lust they were driven with.

LANSING -- (October 3, 2019) A former Michigan high school resource officer was sentenced to one year in jail after being convicted of sexually assaulting three female students.
Former Lansing Police Department Officer Matthew Priebe, 35, pleaded no contest to five charges in connection to three victims, including criminal sexual conduct against a minor, two counts of assault, misconduct in office, and attempted criminal sexual conduct. A no contest plea results in a conviction without the defendant admitting guilt.
"I was in my own prison for 3 years. I was forced to be in school, where I wasn't safe, I was abused, over and over again," a victim said in a statement.

MILAN — (July 23, 2019) A Milan police officer Michael Couture, 47, has been suspended and terminated from the department after being charged with multiple counts of sexual assault involving a minor. Couture (pictured above), a former SRO was charged with first degree criminal sexual conduct with a person younger than 13, first-degree criminal sexual conduct multiple variable between ages 13-16, second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person younger than 13, second- degree criminal sexual conduct multiple variables between ages 13-16, and accosting children for immoral purposes with a child under 16. Couture is accused of sexual conduct with a minor beginning in 2008 which continued for around a decade.

MENOMINEE, Mich. — (January 8, 2020) A former sheriff's deputy fired on December 19 who worked as a SRO in Michigan's southwestern Upper Peninsula has been charged in the sexual assault of a 16-year-old boy. Brian Helfert (pictured above) faces arraignment Jan. 22 on two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was arrested January 6th and released after posting bond. The boy told Menominee city police that sexual contact occurred Nov. 10 while he was at Helfert's home.

These twisted perverts somehow convinced their fellow officers and the school board they worked with that they were the guy to keep the foxes out of the henhouse, when they were slyly looking for young vixens themselves to prey on, perhaps making up for their shortcomings they experienced in high school. 

It is often difficult to report crimes like this, when the peers of the perpetrator are investigating and prosecuting, so you can bet that there are others still out there, and we will be finding more SROs ruining the lives and innocence of our kids in the coming years, and that will only increase if we continue to put cops in schools where their presence is at best distracting.

[Freedom Seeker]

This is disgusting. And it's not just girls they are hitting on. Brian Helfert (third mentioned from Menominee) comparing equipment with a 16-year old boy.  No shooting in Michigan schools for many years. Now three CSI in two years.  I appreciate that these pervert law enforcers are being turned in and not being let off the penalties.

[Willy]

I agree that putting armed cops in schools is not the answer. Aside from the perverts, which we have always had, it seems that people are irrationally fearful compared to early generations. Some cities now have criminalized letting children go to a park on their own. Child abduction is very rare. Out of the children considered underage, approximately 72,000,000 in the U.S, there are about 200+ kidnappings per year by non related persons and 90% of those children are returned safely. I'm not minimizing kidnapping but this is a statistic we rarely hear. Children are not given the freedom to discover things as they were several generation ago. I'm not trying to get off the subject but I bring this up to show just how modern parents are over reacting just like in the school shootings. We are scaring our kids and making them paranoid of everyday living. This paranoid thinking is why we almost lost our Government to subversive elements in the Government due to FISA courts and the Patriot Act and we may one day loose our freedoms to the Climate Change hysteria as well. All of which are over reactions.