Column: Retired superintendent discusses school resource officers on campuses
Former Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Superintendent Curt Dubost.
– School Resource Officers, more commonly known as SROs, are local police officers or sheriff’s deputies who are funded jointly by a local school district and the local law enforcement agency with jurisdiction. They receive special training and are carefully selected to be sure they have the right values and abilities to work positively with young people, while also being an armed presence on campus.
My first exposure to SROs was back in the late 1980s at a high school in South San Diego that was literally in sight of the border. Two uniformed San Diego City police officers were assigned to our school, its feeder schools, and other nearby high schools. I was the Dean /Activities Director and hence was present daily both on campus and at almost every night activity.
Earlier in the decade in 1984, the non-fiction book, “ Lines and Shadows” by Joseph Wambaugh, was published. It chronicled the San Diego Border Task Force which was formed to combat extreme violence by criminal street gangs against immigrants crossing the nearby border. Most of the officers who served in that unit were Vietnam veterans, some in special forces. They dressed as illegal immigrants crossing the border at night, hoping to be attacked by the gangs once in the USA. It was successful, but after some bloody shootouts, it was deemed too dangerous an operation and was ended.
Two members of that disbanded unit were assigned as the SROs for my school. Believe me, they were a welcomed presence. While in many ways a wonderful school with many graduates, especially Filipino Americans, going on to the Naval Academy and top colleges, it was also a really tough neighborhood with serious gang involvement. One weekend I recall three students were murdered, and I was present when guns were fired on campus at least three times in the years I worked there.
Fred and Tim weren’t just tough cops though, and they did everything they could to be positive with kids and steer them away from crime. The only time I ever saw either one react really angrily was one day when a teacher said she had heard a rumor there was a student who was kind of a wannabe “gangster” walking down the school hallway dressed for the part with a shiny pistol hidden in his belt. I immediately called for Tim and Fred and luckily they responded almost immediately. We decided to take a quick look around before going into a lockdown.
Sure enough, we soon saw him coming toward us with the weapon obvious. Fred immediately pulled his service revolver and ordered the kid to drop it and get on the ground. He complied and the next thing I knew Fred had him up against the wall and was getting so physical in his restraint I was afraid we’d have to intervene.
The “gun” had been a trinket…a lighter not a firearm. Fred was yelling, “ You’d be dead with no worries and I’d have to spend the rest of my life knowing I killed a kid over a cigarette lighter.”
That was it as far as any possible controversy, and I found it clearly justified. On many other occasions, I saw both officers show remarkable kindness to kids and they were respected by all. On many, many occasions I was glad they were there, with their guns, especially at night activities.
While I experienced nothing even remotely close to that level of gang activity at school while Paso Superintendent, it is important to keep it that way. I assure you without any doubt whatsoever, that the best way to accomplish that is to continue to fund the SRO program with the city. I thank then Police Chief now City Manager, Ty Lewis, for his active support of the program.
The SROs in Paso were just plain excellent. Tony Ruiz is a great example. He organized and coached an indoor soccer team that practiced and played at night in a local warehouse. Team members were all kids he was trying to rehabilitate or encourage. The only requirement to participate was they had to have no current violations whatsoever.
I similarly had great experiences with the SLO County Sheriffs Deputy SROs with whom I worked in Templeton and San Miguel. Several of those SROs, now retired, are still friends on Facebook with kids with whom they worked over a decade ago. I have never worked with a county sheriff more committed to helping kids by keeping schools safe than Ian Parkinson.
Never in all my years was I assigned a weak SRO; all were well-trained to work with kids. If I had one complaint, it would be there was so much county training they were sometimes off campus more than I liked.
The subject of training of SROs is a perfect segue to why I feel it important, beyond sincere appreciation, to defend having well-trained, uniformed law enforcement on our school campuses. You may have read some school districts in reaction to the national controversy over police brutality eliminated SROs from school campuses.
The justification was, as I recall, that too many young children were developing very bad impressions of law enforcement at an early age by being exposed negatively to them at school. I recall a statistic at the time they touted was that a very high percentage of teen felons had had a negative experience with law enforcement at an early age and at times at school.
I perhaps saw evidence of that firsthand one day outside the office of one of our elementary schools. I was to be interviewed and was standing waiting for the reporter when a little boy came up and angrily and asked who I was. I told him and he called me a liar saying he knew who I was and I was too late that the cops had already arrested his dad at home. He yelled at me to leave them alone. No matter what I said, and I wasn’t in any kind of a uniform, he wouldn’t be convinced; I was with the police and he absolutely hated me.
I reject totally, however, any suggestion that the fact a high percentage of teen felons say their problems with law enforcement started in elementary school seriously suggests having fewer law enforcement on school campuses would reduce the number of teen felons. That is simply not logical in any way, and in no way should SROs have been banned from campuses. Not as long as they were well-trained. Not surprisingly I think virtually every district that removed SROs now has them back on campus.
Notice though how many times I have stressed training. That, as with all law enforcement, is the key to good SROs. Thankfully in this county when we decide to place an officer on the campus we make sure he or she is fully prepared.
Let me share one example I think might illustrate my point. At one of the local districts where I worked we had an unfortunate incident involving an improper illegal relationship between a young female staff member and a boy. You may recall there were quite a few of those unfortunate offenses in the news for quite some time
The SRO was not available to handle the initial call and a regular beat officer responded. The male victim initially denied it all and defended her, somewhat gallantly. The officer left my office for about ten minutes then came back and said she’d confessed and to tell him it was ok to tell the truth. He did and she hadn’t. The officer had been outside on another call not with the female staff member. She was then arrested. When the SRO arrived and I shared what had happened his response initially surprised me. He said it would have taken longer, but he would have gotten the confession without lying to the boy. He added that the boy would likely never again trust nor believe any cop.
Well-trained SROs are an absolute must on our school campuses. We tragically again saw one reason just this last month in Madison Wisconsin, this time with a female shooter. More importantly, though, the SROs with whom I’ve worked have been good human beings who are well-trained, very professional, and love kids.
– Former Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Superintendent Curt Dubost
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