https://www.amazon.com/Guidelines-Responding-Student-Threats-Violence/dp/1593185022 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776515 https://www.edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai21-476.pdf https://momsdemandaction.org/ https://giffords.org/about/gabbys-story/ Educate yourself |
Intervention before an active shooter situation. Accepting that there isn't a good one once a person decides to bring a gun in. |
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Someone keeps asking for facts and proof - I'm not a PP but I also like those things so here ya go.
https://reason.com/2021/10/20/new-research-says-police-in-schools-dont-reduce-shootings-but-they-do-increase-expulsions-and-arrests/ Rather than assume anyone will actually read that, here are some takeaways.
I'm not arguing with anyone who feels they've had positive experiences with SROs in MoCo. I have no doubt you did. But the information we have so far, and we have a lot of it, points to SROs as coming with some major downsides. Pair that with the fact that they are associated with increased casualties in mass school shooting events (cited earlier by PP, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7887654/) and it's pretty hard for me to see any justification for them. If kids need mentors and role models, I really can't imagine why that person needs to be armed. And if the gun is to protect us from other guns, that is demonstrably not working - the previous article mentions knowing there is an armed guard at school may actually incentivize suicidal shooters rather than deter them. |
| Oh more facts - I read through the other link from a PP with the 12 case studies of where SROs were helpful in preventing a shooting incident. Of those 12 studies, which the authors apparently found to be the best 12 examples they could find, only 3 of them had the SRO in any sort of physical role during the event, such as defending someone or apprehending a suspect. The others were mostly cited as being involved because students told them about planned attacks, and they then told other law enforcement and helped with the investigation. Reading the narratives, administrators, custodial staff, and students were at least as helpful in preventing tragedy during almost every incident as the SRO. |
I am the PP who posted the link to the case studies. Let me start by saying a sincere "thank you" for providing facts and for typing in such a reasoned manner. I am very pro-SRO, but I am always willing to listen to opposing viewpoints. Hopefully I have time to comment on the post above later, but to start with the 12 case studies: I don't think we can discredit SROs of the 9 case studies in which they did not have a direct, physical role. SROs work as part of a team. I am also the poster above who wrote about having direct interactions with SROs. Yes, I have seen SROs remove weapons from students four times, one of which was a massive butcher knife taken from a backpack during my class. I am also aware that sometimes SROs call in other officers who then intervene. My husband, a LEO, was one who was called in at a local school. He removed a gun from a student who, from the student's own admission, brought it school in order to solve a disagreement with another student. The SRO in that case was a vital connection between the school and the squad that patrols the surrounding area. An SROs presence in the school can mean that information gets communicated immediately and in proper protocol to local law enforcement. Schools are communities and they work best when people have defined roles. The counselors are there to provide social / emotional support, teachers provide instruction, etc. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the social / emotional needs of our students blur those lines. Whether or not that is because of Covid, video games, working parents, etc.... I'm not sure that matters. As a teacher, I spend a considerably higher percentage of my day counseling students. That scares me because I am not trained in that area, so I want to fall back on a team of people who have a ton of different specialities. I want to know that I can reach out to the counselor, provided they aren't too over-burdened since their caseloads are criminally too large. I want to reach out to a health team, like the nurse who helped me when I found a student cutting herself at school. Yes, I also want to know that I can reach out to an SRO, somebody who is present and (most importantly) trained for those real, terrifying threats. What statistics can't show clearly is how many times SROs actually stopped threats. The four I mention above? I'm very certain they never made it into a case study or report. How many more thwarted attempts at violence happen that never get reported? How can we accurately report what does *not* happen? All I have to go on is my lived experience. Again... thank you. I see the concerns you raise and I respect them. It's conversations like these that will get us somewhere. |
| A teacher with a 4 year degree and trained to deal with children is worried they are not “trained” to counsel children but support cops with no 4 year degree and <2 weeks of “training” counseling and mentoring children. SMFH |
I have a Masters plus 39 credits and almost 2 decades of teaching experience. My expertise is in my subject matter, as it should be. It may surprise you to find out that an SRO still has more training than I do in social / emotional needs. Again… we all have our roles to play. You can “SMFH” all you want, but I would prefer it if you constructively contribute to the conversation. |
I should add that I am in favor of more SEL training for teachers. What I get is often rushed and at the end of an exhausting school day. I would appreciate some long-term, comprehensive instruction that I can regularly incorporate into my normal instruction. I’m taking classes this summer (on my own dime), but I would love to see MSDE provide these opportunities to all state teachers. If you would like to help campaign for that, let’s do it. |
Why don't you try, I don't know, being an actual parent and provide your kid with what they need rather than blame other people on online message boards? The problem is, parents expect everyone else in the community to raise their kids without ever looking in the mirror. |
You have no idea how cops are trained and SROs are not trained in the emotional/social needs of children. I get it, your H is a cop, but you have no idea what SROs are trained to do. |
I don’t expect teachers to counsel my children. I expect them to tell me if they see something that needs counseling. I don’t want an SRO anywhere near my child during a time of emotional or social support. Stay away, get in your lane, you are not trained for that . |
PP here. I don't think we have to discredit the SROs for their roles in the other 9 cases either (well, in the 1st one the only role the SRO is described as having was as a potential victim, so let's call it 8.) But the main role in several others was receiving tips from students and then conveying those tips to other law enforcement. This is described as being able to quickly determine the validity of the concern and act on it, but in the event there hadn't been an SRO on campus, I don't know why the students wouldn't have told someone else, like an administrator or teacher. The document didn't have enough detail to be convincing that the actions the SROs took were somehow unique to their role, and I'm sure shootings have been averted at schools without them, too. I know the counselors are overburdened, but I don't understand why that means SROs should or can fill the void. My friend will be starting work as a counselor in MCPS in the fall and according to her there aren't that many job openings, and she'll be going in knowing her caseload will be immediately extremely heavy with only enough time for the kids in crisis. Why? And why would at-risk kids turn to the school cop for help? I can appreciate the argument that not every contribution by SROs gets credited or documented, though a little skeptical. Maybe those incidents didn't make the news, but most professions are good at justifying their existence. Surely there are records concerning quantities of weapons removed, students diverted from violence, etc, that could be shared. I also don't want to lose sight of the fact that this topic is being revisted today specifically in response to a mass shooting, the kind of event where SROs have been specifically shown not to be of any help. (I don't even really blame them, one person with a handgun up against someone with an AR 15, a million bullets, and no intention of getting out alive isn't a fair fight). If people want SROs back, they shouldn't point to these events as justification. |
| Now we know at least 1 Texas child was shot by a cop. Jeez. |
So can I ask you something? Are you ok with invalidating the opinions of all 25 high school principals of MCPS because of a study or 2 that aren't relevant to MCPS? How about the data that points to the fact that only 3 percent of arrests made at MCPS schools when there were SROs were initiated by SROs? |
And it's all there for the public to see. She just chooses to be ignorant about it. |