Reply to What is MCPS doing to make schools safer?

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[quote=Anonymous]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.

[quote]Using national school-level data from 2014 to 2018 collected by the U.S. Department of Education, the paper found that while SROs "do effectively reduce some forms of violence in schools," they do not prevent school shootings or gun-related incidents.

"We also find that SROs intensify the use of suspensions, expulsions, police referrals, and arrests of students," researchers wrote. "These effects are consistently over two times larger for Black students than White students."[/quote]

[quote]The study further found that SROs increase chronic absenteeism, especially for students with disabilities.[/quote]

[quote]Other recent research has come to similar conclusions as the new working paper. For example, a study published last August by researchers at the University of Maryland and the firm Westat found that increasing the number of police in schools doesn't make school safer and leads to harsher discipline for infractions. The study found that increasing the number of SROs led to both immediate and persistent increases in the number of drug and weapon offenses and the number of exclusionary disciplinary actions against students.

After Florida mandated that all K-12 schools have at least one SRO or armed guardian following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, a study found that the number of school arrests—which had been declining for years—suddenly started to rise. There was also a sharp increase in the use of physical restraint against students.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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