Why Isn't There a Debate Over Using Police Officers in Our Schools?

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Few things are met with more disdain by the Ludington Torch than public policy being decided unilaterally by public agencies without asking for input from the public.  Yet this is what has occurred in Mason County in regard to meaningful debate about a policy decision that may affect the future of school-age children in your family.  

This seems to have been happening here since 2014, when the Mason County Safety Planning Committee (MCSPC) was organized and would consist of up to two representatives from each county school (public, private, and college), two each from LIFE EMS and the Mason-Oceana 911, and a dozen members of the city, county, and state police.  Back then, they acted behind the scenes to mainly implement ALICE training in schools and to get "The Boot" placed on all classroom doors.  

This shadow commission has pretty much remained in the background, with no real indication that it still exists and meets except from a mention about it in 2020 and in 2023.  It does not have its own website, and none of the nine public agencies making up the MCSPC mentions that group, notices their meetings, or their own association with it in their web pages.  

This committee appears to be the catalyst (from information gained from those articles and past FOIA responses) for the proliferation of school resource officers (SROs) in the county.  The LASD Middle/High School complex featured SROs since early this century, but after the MCSPC formed and made this a priority, SROs are now also at the Ludington Elementary, MCC High School, MCE High School, and the equivalent at WSCC.  

These additions, each approaching an additional district cost of about $100,000, have never actually came before the respective boards for public discussion aforehand, at least we cannot find any such action item on any of the corresponding school board agendas.  In all instances, an SRO contract is already drafted and approved by police agencies before the public hears about it, and the school board, through their representatives on the MCSPC, have already negotiated the terms while representing the district.  Posted minutes have never indicated that there was a public outcry at any of these districts, the decision to hire and fund SROs have always been administrative exercises that come to the board for approval without fanfare.

Isn't the expenditure of about a half million dollars every year, spread throughout the county citizens, a small price to pay for the added security at our public schools, protecting our most valuable resource, our next generation?  From the perspective of officials in law enforcement and education, those who benefit from the added manpower, this is a truism that cannot be effectively debated, and that's why the public is never given a chance to do so.  That ends here.

The Ludington Torch has weighed into the debate over SROs before, back in 2019.  That article raises a lot of still-valid points that we will try not to reiterate in this treatment.  Instead, we will look at recent literature and events in order to provide an argument against the wholesale use of SROs in our local schools.  

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) put out in July 2024 a study titled "Differences in Student Arrest Rates Widen..." which used fresh statistics in determining that "Arrest rates more than doubled in schools with police present compared to similar schools without police." (see p. 2).  This doubling factor would increase further when other factors like disability and certain races were considered. 

This is a reflection of the "school to prison pipeline" educational philosophy, where before a district would use detentions, suspensions, and other civil penalties for correcting student non-compliance while keeping the child's educational route intact, replacing them with arrests, incarcerations, and other criminal penalties, to keep the local juvenile correctional system intact.

School shooting casualties are relatively rare in comparison to the amount of children who matriculate through the justice system and have their lives and careers forever altered due to the paradigm shift in education that now criminalizes misbehavior at schools that would have been treated with counseling, worse grades, and restriction of privileges in the past.  This happens locally, as seen at MCE during the first year of their SRO program, but one rarely sees the arrests of minors and young adults in the media, as it's fairly controversial when the circumstances are looked at closely, with misdemeanors being given out for what usually would be considered the exercise of basic civil rights by students.

What may surprise you is that if you Google "school resource officer" and the word "arrested", you will not find too many stories about SROs arresting students, teachers, or parents.  You will find a lot of news articles about SROs being arrested, and most of the time, being arrested for crimes that you would not want your own SRO to be arrested for if your goal is school safety.  Last year, a Washington Post investigation identified more than 200 school police officers across the country “who were charged with crimes involving child sexual abuse from 2005 through 2022.”

In February, we began compiling a list of SROs who have been arraigned during this school year using Google and only those two terms in the paragraph above.  We did this again this week to update the earlier list when appropriate and add new cases.  We filtered out some of the arrests that were less concerning in regards to their day job (such as DWI, spousal domestic violence, etc.).   

The voluminous, but by no means exhaustive list below (with links), show that most involve inappropriate sexual conduct against those who they are there to supposedly protect.  This isn't hard to understand, you have SROs who may be a just a few years out of high school go back with immense authority and power over those who they may find highly desirable, those types who may have given them a cold shoulder in the past and led them into the SRO profession. 

What you don't generally find, is many acts of using excessive violence, which is easier for police departments to cover up and minimalize even if video exists showing it.  In fact, when one considers what a blow it is to the department and the school when such arraignments of SROs occur, that a much greater number of incidents never make the news.  Typically, only when an overwhelming amount of evidence is compiled or public outcry is deafening can such arrests be made.  In reverse chronological order:

2025 5-27 Easton, PA:  SRO JT Smoke pleaded guilty to a corruption of minors charge after sending an underage pupil a sexually explicit image of himself.

2025 5-20 Northfield, MN:  SRO Gabriel Crombie, 33, was charged with aiding an offender to avoid arrest, a felony, and failure to perform duty as a public officer, a gross misdemeanor for his part in protecting a teacher charged with felonies for sending explicit messages to students.

2025 5-5 Sumter Co., SC:  SRO Gerald Richardson charged with 3rd degree assault after allegedly grabbing a student by the neck and throwing him on the ground without warning.

2025 4-24 Bethlehem, PA:  SRO Costas Alestas pleaded guilty to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and invasion of privacy, admitting he sexually assaulted a teenage girl, and also admitted he took an “upskirt” video of a second student.

2025 3-27 Jefferson Parrish, LA:  SRO James Traylor charged with sexual communication with teen student.

2025 3-19 San Angelo, CA:  Unnamed SRO investigated for communicating improperly with a student, while another teacher is charged for having an improper relationship with the same student.

2025 3-19 Leon Co., FL:  SRO Bill Culpepper faces multiple charges of public order crimes ranging from first, second and third-degree felonies for operating a large-scale drug operation.

2025 3-14 DeKalb Co., IN:  SRO Zachary Kerley charged with rape for forcing himself on woman.

2025 3-6 Abington, PA:  SRO Jordan Jones sentenced after he plead guilty to having sex with a student.

2025 3-1 Brookfield, WI: SRO Steven Rountos charged with destroying evidence after being charged in 2022 for “passing” around nude photos of students; new evidence points at his intentionally destroying a cellphone that investigators believed had information related to the case

2025 2-19 Anderson Co. SC:  SRO Nicholas Posey charged with sexual battery with a student.

2025 2-13 Princeton, WV:  SRO Christopher Butler charged for multiple crimes reportedly engaging or attempting to engage in sexual intercourse with a minor student at PSHS.

2025 2-10 Bartlett, TN: SRO Hunter Kissinger arrested after non-consensually fondling tattoo artist.

2025 2-10 Tracy, CA:  SRO Steve Flores accused of making terrorist threats, stalking, vandalism and disorderly conduct (off campus).

2025 2-7 Sapulpa, OK:  SRO James Waltman, accused of rape and providing alcohol to a minor is facing four new additional charges, including sodomy and indecent exposure.

2025 1-28 Anderson, IN:  SRO Joshua Senseseney arrested and charged for felony counts of child solicitation and official misconduct.  He allegedly sent texts containing sexually explicit messages to several teen boys.

2024 12-20 Scranton, PA:  SRO Stephen Carroll, 49, charged with sexual abuse of five students over a period of years.

2024 12-18 Aspen CO:  SRO Sean Tatro, arrested with multiple charges including menacing, contributing to the delinquency of a minor (18-21), sexual assault, third-degree assault, use of a stun gun in the commission of a crime, harassment, reckless endangerment, and domestic violence.

2024 12-6 Manchester, NH:  SRO Ryan Moan, 33, charged with risk of injury/impairing morals of a child, enticing a minor by computer, misrepresentation of age to entice a minor and tampering with physical evidence.  April 2025 update has victim statements.

2024 11-26 Fond Du Lac, WI:  SRO Steven Rosales, 35, pleaded guilty and was convicted in September of having sex with his dog.  Prosecutors accused him of sexting a student while working at the high school.  He was charged with misconduct and sexual misconduct by school staff.

2024 11-20 Eaton, OH:  SRO Mason Williams was convicted of three third-degree felonies, stemming from an inappropriate relationship between Williams and an 18-year-old student at National Trail High School.

2024 11-11 Woodbridge, VA:  SRO Pedro Chirino, 41, was charged with assault and battery after an "inappropriate conversation" at school

2024 10-24 Ogden, UT:  SRO Colton Johanson, 55, arrested and charged with multiple crimes including sexual exploitation of a minor, tampering with evidence and official misconduct.

2024 10-10 Habersham, GA:  SRO David Jackels, faces charges of Violation of Oath of Office by a Public Officer and False Statements.  He was reportedly fired after an internal investigation revealed he sent messages to a student.

2024 9-30 Hernando, MS:  SRO Hosie Porter is charged with one count of rape and one count of sexual battery.

2024 9-27 St. Francis, WI:  SRO Dimitri Kamalov, 58, arrested and charged with two felonies: invading privacy-use surveillance device and attempting to capture an intimate representation, both involving a victim under 18 years old.  Pleads guilty in April 2025 of one felony.

The decision to hire school resource officers should not be made strictly by administrators taking advantages of grants that help fund them or who otherwise find an extra $100,000 in the budget without a better use, in their opinion.  The decision should be made with a lot of school board deliberation with the public invited to the table and a review of the benefits and drawbacks it will bring to the school district in question, with all alternatives under consideration. 

In the end of the process, the consensus of informed parents should reflect the chosen solution.  Leaving the remedy up to a committee made up primarily of superintendents and law enforcement operatives will only give us more of the same vaccine they make and that they've prescribed as an expensive cure-all, with boosters required regularly and an efficacy that authorities claim cannot be debated publicly.