School Resource Officers for MCC?

[XLFD]

The Mason County Press lays out the case for having a School Resource Officer (SRO) in the Scottville Mason County Central (MCC) High School by quoting MCC's Superintendent Jeff Mount in a recent article.

“When we’re looking at enhancing school safety, it’s a big plus partnering with the City of Scottville.  Doing so has benefits for both of us. This is all about the safety of our children. This is a win-win partnership for both of us and I’m really excited about that on both ends. 

A big part of the school resource officer position is educating children on the law and creating a positive relationship with them. It’s a good thing for our kids to see a uniformed officer who is there to keep them safe and to teach them the differences between the right way and the wrong way of doing things. The SRO will be a part of our school family.”

The City and MCC are planning to create the SRO position in time for the 2019-2020 school year.  The proposal is for the SRO to be a full time Scottville Police Department officer, with 75% of funding coming from Mason County Central Schools.  It was reviewed by the City's public safety and personnel committees and was referred to the full commission to be discussed at their June 3 meeting (mistakenly put down as a June 1st meeting in the article).

Rob Alway, the MCP editor who wrote this article, fails to disclose his conflicts of interest in this matter.  Rob sits on the Scottville City Commission and will vote on this issue, he has already voted to refer it to the full commission as the chairman of the public safety committee.  His wife Becky serves on the MCC School Board, and so will not only have a vote when it comes before that body, but also evaluates Superintendent Mount's performance at his job. 

With his committee approval vote and his article that effectively portrays one side of the issue, let's review the generalizations proposed in the article in favor of having a SRO at MCC High School and consider them in weighing in some of the negative consequences too.  Accordingly, Alway and Mount suggest that the following benefits come from having an SRO:

1) enhancing school safety

2) educating children on the law

3) creating a positive relationship with them

4) teach [students] the differences between the right way and the wrong way of doing things

5) creating a positive role model for the students

It seems clear that if the school district hired the right teachers and other staff, that the students would already know right from wrong, know enough law to keep themselves out of trouble, and have plenty of positive role models.  So the arguments for SROs amount to creating a positive relationship with them, whoever them are, and enhancing school safety.  Let's look at some arguments against.

                      This image from a t-shirt sold by an SRO union in Northern California reveals a common mindset among SROs

Let's first look at the cost.  A full-time police officer in our area costs around $100,000:  Over $60,000 of that cost is their salary, and $30K more is their benefits package.  The City would need to pay $25K of that extra cost, the school would pick up $75K.   Without an increase in taxes, that money would come out of money used for providing City services and from your MCC child's education resources.  Is 'enhanced school safety' worth those costs?

A 2009 study by Dr. Matthew Theriot of the University of Tennessee compared arrest and court records of a number of schools that had SROs and those without.  It was found that there was no difference in serious crime between the two entities.  However, students at SRO patrolled schools were a lot more likely to be arrested for such crimes, but weren't any more likely in getting charged in court with those offenses.

There was one exception:  Students at 'policed schools' were almost five times as likely to face criminal charges for 'disorderly conduct', in other words students were being arrested for conduct that a law enforcement officer felt was disruptive rather than violent. 

Chief Juvenile Court Judge Steven Teske, an outspoken opponent of police in schools testified in front of a Senate panel in 2012 clarified and simplified what the problem was:  "the prosecutor’s attention was taken from the more difficult evidentiary and 'scary' cases — burglary, robberies, car thefts, aggravated assaults with weapons — to prosecuting kids that are not 'scary,' but made an adult mad."

A 2015 study published in the Washington University Law Review came to similar conclusions. From the executive summary: 

"Drawing on recent restricted data from the US Department of Education, this Article presents an original empirical analysis revealing that a police officer’s regular presence at a school is predictive of greater odds that school officials refer students to law enforcement for committing various offenses, including these lower-level offenses. This trend holds true even after controlling for: (1) state statutes that require schools to report certain incidents to law enforcement; (2) general levels of criminal activity and disorder that occur at schools; (3) neighborhood crime; and (4) other demographic variables. The consequences of involving students in the criminal justice system are severe, especially for students of color, and may negatively affect the trajectory of students’ lives. Therefore, lawmakers and school officials should consider alternative methods to create safer learning environments."

Neither the school, City of Scottville, or the Mason County Press have offered an alternative method.  Yet it isn't just a bureaucratic problem of clogging up juvenile court. The reason the school-to-prison pipeline is an issue is that students are much less likely to succeed in school and in their subsequent life when they're in the grip of the juvenile justice system.

Given such information, a school that agrees to put a police officer on its grounds is unknowingly agreeing to send some of its students to juvenile court for behavior they would never be prosecuted for if there weren't a cop in the hall to witness them.  It's condemning at least some of those students to failure.

But what about all those school shootings?  Between 1990 and 2018,  there have been 22 shootings at schools in which two or more people were shot-- about two every three years.  At this rate, your school has about a 1 in 150,000 chance of having a mass shooting event this year.  Nor does an RSO guarantee things won't go bad.  Recall that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School did have a sheriff’s deputy named Scott Peterson on duty at time of the shooting, but that he was not a factor in mitigating the matter.

Lastly, let's look at the use of force issue. Police are authorized to use force in a way that teachers and school administrators are not. This is because all officers are trained to use force. Administrators and teachers are trained to counsel, de-escalate and discipline in other ways. When administrators increasingly turn to on-site police officers to discipline students, it means more kids will be handcuffed, Tased and beaten. There have been a number of incidents over the years that made national headlines.  Even more national headlines exist concerning inappropriate sexual behavior, where the officer uses their power and position to get their jollies.

Michigan is one of 37 states that require no specialized training for SROs, so do not be surprised when every problem looks like a nail to the hammer that may be stationed at MCC High School.  Kids require patience, subtlety and empathy.  Police officers on average get 120 hours of training in using force for every 8 hours in conflict resolution.

County schools have invested hundreds of thousands in hardware for doors, practiced live-action shooting drills with area law enforcement, and have made building security a priority.  Yet, now they want to justify a significant annual expense which only seems to get negative returns, on average.  You may want to let your school and city board know the full facts before they use your tax dollars for this addition.

[Willy]

Before reading X's article I read the Mason County Press story linked in this topic. Something didn't seem right with what I was reading. Out of the blue the school wants to put an officer amidst the students without so much as a hint of trouble in the school unless problems that require an officer have been covered up and not reported. If this were a big city school with problems of violence I could see the need but then again we should have been hearing about those problems. So what is really behind this decision? Is there a drug problem in the school, sexual assaults, robbery or gang activity? Why no explanation as to the reasoning behind this decision other than a Mr. Rogers love your local school cop fest. Something about this scenario has a fishy smell . It's time the Superintendent and other officials come clean and explain what is really going on. One other thing. Why are they called "Resource Officers"? It's going to take a special type of person with incredibly thick skin to put up with students especially the pranksters and smart asses. I personally wouldn't do this job for all of the tea in China.
Thanks for the article, related information and links X.

[XLFD]

Great observation about the MCP article's lack of any sort of specific justification for this move, and what motivated me to write this follow-up piece to question the decision-- which is likely to pass unanimously without discussion if somebody doesn't come forward and say "Whoa, what are we doing here?  Is this really necessary, will this really accomplish our goals most effectively?"

Ever since I found out there were three LPD reserve officers teaching at Ludington's high/middle school complex back in 2014, I have wondered why they would need to hire an untrained 'resource officer' in the first place; if anything, it seems like an added liability, one that many school districts are finding out about when their 'enhanced safety' goes rogue.  Plenty of material around about that, just search "school resource officer" and 'arrested'.

You might think you'd find articles of SROs arresting kids, but you'd actually see SROs getting nabbed for doing extremely bad things, such as (in the last three months):

5-20-2019 Ovid, NY:  A former Interlaken police officer and school resource officer accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a South Seneca student was arrested

5-07- 2019 Jacksonville:  A police lieutenant with Duval County Public Schools was arrested Tuesday on an arrest warrant from Michigan

3-27-2019 Kansas City:  Kansas Bureau of Investigation arrested a KCK school resource officer following allegations of rape and other sex crimes against children.

3-02-2019 St. Cloud FL:   A St. Cloud man who once served as a school resource officer was arrested on child pornography charges

So when you see four 11 year old girls formally arrested by a SRO because they are too scared to report on a bully, or a girl's gym class get strip searched because of a SRO's suspicion that one is hiding a $50 bill in their panties or brassieres (incidents that have happened), do not be surprised when your school and city is sued in federal court for crimes against the children in your community by those supposedly enhancing your school's safety and security.

[Willy]

Rob Alway is to involved with local politics to be an impartial reporter so everything that comes out of his news reporting must be considered tainted, biased and unreliable. He's like the wolf dressed up like grandma telling Little Red Riding Hood to trust that what he is saying is true. Sure thing Rob.

[XLFD]

And the fault for that lies totally with one person:  Rob Alway.  He had the integrity once back in early 2013 to realize that he could not effectively do two conflicting jobs when he was serving as Chairman of the Scottville Planning Commission and reporting on Scottville politics, writing:  

 "At tonight’s Scottville City Commission meeting, the commissioners will be accepted (sic) my letter of resignation as a member of the planning commission. Writing this article is a perfect example of one of the main reasons why I have chosen to resign from the Scottville Planning Commission. Over the past 14 months as the Mason County Press has grown it has become quite clear that serving on a government board is a conflict of interest."

Since then, Rob has figured out that he can both be a planning commissioner, later a city commissioner, and an objective reporter without being conflicted.  People other than him see it much differently, but Rob is too good of a reporter, planning commissioner and city commissioner to care about what they think.

[shinblind]

Are they actually going to add an additional officer or have MCC subsidize their current force. And if the position is new will the officer get his summers off to play er to further their education much like teachers.

You know that officer in Miami they went as far as buying him a house near the school, yet when the shooting started he went in the other direction, probably too  busy looking at his 401k to be bothered.

And yes that incident in Miami was reprehensible and should stand as a shining example to Sheriff Cole of the complete lack of dedication of using retired officers as security as he talked about doing for the court house. 

Did you see the way Cole pandered to the press during his conference on the shooting and murder about a month ago that there were 4 deputies that responded. Yet how were things handled better having a total of 12 officers respond to the scene rather than 10 he never explained. Nor did he get into a timline of how and when the officers from different departments arrived at the scene.

I guess Superintendent Kennedy and Sheriff Kim Cole are the Lords of Mason County, at least as voters go.

[XLFD]

It reads as if they are planning to hire an additional officer, but they may have one of Scottville's part-time officers in mind for that move.  I'm sure there are probably other conflicts of interest issues in the background behind the pick, the current ethical climate at MCC and the City of Scottville (featuring ICM Lyin' Steve Brock) being one to elicit such thoughts.  Coincidence that the COS is thinking of expanding the Scottville PD with the same interim city manager in charge that tried to hyperinflate Ludington City Hall's wages and benefits?  

Sheriff Cole loves politicking whenever he can ease it into a conversation, and you can bet that he's secretly excited in the planning of how to fool the gullible into earning him a fifth road patrol officer in the future.

[AQUAMAN]

The costly move is going to be repeated, year after year, and probably, per stats., not make much of a difference too. Why not just get a metal detector machine that's a one-time cost, and get teachers to volunteer monitoring it daily and achieve the same or better results without the repeated costs? To me at least, that is more reasonable and effective a way to enter students into the school.

[AQUAMAN]

Also of serious note: I really doubt that 90% of the local public has any idea at all what "conflict of interest" means or is. I don't think it's in their vocabulary at all as something legally against the law and ethics. And if many do know what it means, they certainly ignore it completely when it's obvious and blatant behavior. It's sad to see this reappear over and over again, esp. with city and county government people, as well as LASD.

[woodsman]

Alway was heavily involved in the Boondoggle convincing the Scottville commission into buying the Optimist Building that needs 100's of thousands dollars in repairs and future developments. He needs to get back to his statement a few years ago " the Mason County Press has grown it has become quite clear that serving on a government board is a conflict of interest." 

[XLFD]

The City of Scottville to my knowledge hasn't purchased the Optimist Hall just yet, that is contingent on whether the DNR comes through with a grant allowing that to happen.  Rob was a big part of that so he deserves the lion's share of the credit (or the blame, depending on what happens) for getting his fellow commissioners (and the Scottville Clown Band) to buy into that dream and his evolving set of journalistic ethics.  

I would advise not calling it a boondoggle just yet, there will be plenty of time to do that in the future if it becomes a money pit for Clowntown's community coffers-- provided they assume title.  It has all the looks of a boondoggle thus far and public ownership will only increase that perception when more dollars go in than are coming out.

[AQUAMAN]

I am a previous number of years member of the Optimist club. Did they move or shut down? Interested because they do so many good things in all communities nationwide, thanks.

[XLFD]

Nice knowing that a crusty cynic like yourself was once an optimist, Aquaman, LOL.  The Scottville Optimists are still around and will hopefully continue to prosper if their hall becomes a public facility.  Everyone should consider using their hall for Scottville-based events while it's still their facility.  The main problem is that the money they earn each year is only sufficient enough to put band aids on what needs to be done.