Livestreamed forum on SROs this evening - My MC Media

[Anonymous]

A nice article in the Bethesda Beat. It's nice to see local media covering the other side of the debate for once. Nobody else seems to.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/school-community-members-say-mcps-was-safer-with-sros/

Magruder Principal Dr. Evans:

Magruder Principal Lee Evans, who also participated in the forum, said he also believes it’s important for officers to be in the community and understand the family situations of students.

“We need people who are in the communities and people who have contact with the kinds of things that occur, that for whatever reasons, can be dangerous [and] cause harm. So I think there’s a significant role to play in this partnership,” he said.

Evans said there is a misperception that having SROs in schools contributes to students getting caught up in a so-called school-to-prison pipeline.

“It starts not with school discipline, and certainly not with the SROs. This has been going on for decades,” he said. “It has a lot to do with whether or not we have the ability to make hope happen in the lives of children at the very earliest level of school, so that they’re willing to take the time to invest in themselves in school, so that they have options and opportunities that are far away from the evils of society.”

Evans and others during Wednesday’s discussion said they recognize that there is a national debate about policing that has been happening for several years, but it shouldn’t mean the end of officers in schools.

“I fully understand the perils of social injustice, and there’s a lot left to do with that,” Evans said. “But we do ourselves a disservice when we politicize things and don’t get to the root cause of things because we don’t dig down deep enough and make the changes in the lives of children that’s gonna make a difference.”