But imagine what your school could do with training, hiring more social workers, more teachers for smaller classes and more skills appropriate remediation, more space, more extra curriculars to make school interesting, more edible foods. The Mayor of LA was talking about reducing millions off the Police budget and it Would not make a dent. Seattle is proposing an 11 million dollar increase to the police budget for next year (wel, was before this). Albany (I think) announced cutting its SRO contract - at 1 million dollars. Can you imagine what your school could do with it a share of 1 million, 11 million, 44 million dollars??

And imagine if kids and families experiencing trauma or mental health concerns had community resources they could access (instead of a 7 month wait for kids who have already attempted suicide once to be seen regularly by a mental health service). And imagine if there was not food instability or housing instability or other family stresses. How would kids show up to school then? Again, what could homeless youth services do with 1 million or 11 million dollars.

And then you would actually just get to teach.

Anonymous wrote:The idea would not be for the teacher to step in where the SRO used to be. The idea is to bring a variety of other professional resources to bear, mostly to prevent the problems in the first place but also to resolve problems in a non-violent or less violent manner. It's not out of reach -- how many of us grew up with cops in our schools? Not me, and yet there were few fights. Many believe the attitude that these kids are dangerous criminals who will fight if a cop is not present, is part of why the school environment has changed since we were young.

What professionals are going to stop two kids trying to kill each other in a class, do tell?

Anonymous wrote:We just call the regular cops.

Oh and we usually have more issues with the crazy parents than the students.

We just call the regular cops.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People aren't thinking this through. I am a social worker and no way I'd go to some houses without police.

Are you worried about attacks from 11 year olds?

NP but the social workers are probably afraid of the adults when they do home visits. My sister worked for Child Protective Services in NYC for awhile and she was in some really dangerous situations.

Then she’s dealing with a different circumstance than school settings. Social workers making home visits should have police protection if they feel it is necessary. Most teachers in their classrooms do not need armed guards. Even in alternative schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People aren't thinking this through. I am a social worker and no way I'd go to some houses without police.

Are you worried about attacks from 11 year olds?

11 year olds have families. I have made unannounced home visits in some rough neighborhoods. Unannounced because I did not have a working phone number for anyone in the household. It would have been great to be able to tell a SRO where I was going, when I expected to be back, and to have their number on speed dial. Similarly, I have had to call the school police to transport students in emergency situations. It would have been a bonus to be able to do this with officers who were familiar, positive figures to the students. (DP)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaaaand this is why my kids go to private school.

Why don’t you work to find solutions that aren’t cops.

Private schools have security too.

Yeah and they don’t school-to-prison pipeline our kids.

I hope your kids turn out more enlightened and less of an a$$ than you.

You're an ass for realizing that not everyone has this option and your response is tone deaf.

My response (to the teacher who fears dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline) that I will do whatever I can to protect my biracial kids from the school-to-prison pipeline is tone deaf? Ok.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaaaand this is why my kids go to private school.

Why don’t you work to find solutions that aren’t cops.

Private schools have security too.

Yeah and they don’t school-to-prison pipeline our kids.

I hope your kids turn out more enlightened and less of an a$$ than you.

You're an ass for realizing that not everyone has this option and your response is tone deaf.

Anonymous wrote:Schools will still have security. SROs are only needed if you are arresting students on a regular basis. If that’s happening, your school is not meeting the needs to students and probably needs to be completely restructured. I also taught in a tough HS. Our security built relationships with students and the students would warn them when there was something big going down. We only needed our SRO when a man entered the school off the street looking for his wife.

The schools I attended were arresting kids regularly in elementary and beyond.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People aren't thinking this through. I am a social worker and no way I'd go to some houses without police.

Are you worried about attacks from 11 year olds?

NP but the social workers are probably afraid of the adults when they do home visits. My sister worked for Child Protective Services in NYC for awhile and she was in some really dangerous situations.

I think schools need better trained personnel to deal with physical issues. Also schools should be given a chance and time to implement better discipline programs. Parents stepping it up would help too.

Anonymous wrote:It depends on training. In our elementary the SRO is better trained in de-escalation than our special ed staff. They offered to testify against the faculty for inappropriate restraints used on autistic kids.

But if SROs are untrained, I would worry.

I work in education and have seen multiple SROs deal "ineffectually" at best with younger and special needs children.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/briannasacks/florida-school-officer-fired-arresting-6-year-old

https://www.courthousenews.com/moms-complain-of-school-cops-handcuffing-kids/

https://eji.org/news/family-sues-pittsburgh-public-school-for-abusing-and-handcuffing-7-year-old-child/

https://foxsanantonio.com/news/local/7-year-old-student-with-autism-taken-from-school-in-handcuffs-09-18-2019

https://trib.com/news/local/education/a-9-year-old-autistic-student-was-handcuffed-at-a-casper-school-now-the-feds/article_83cc6a5f-9c82-5c56-8282-2e6901df4d99.html


I could go on and on and on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaaaand this is why my kids go to private school.

Why don’t you work to find solutions that aren’t cops.

Private schools have security too.

Yeah and they don’t school-to-prison pipeline our kids.

I hope your kids turn out more enlightened and less of an a$$ than you.

I'm an ass because I oppose the school-to-prison pipeline? Interesting.

It depends on training. In our elementary the SRO is better trained in de-escalation than our special ed staff. They offered to testify against the faculty for inappropriate restraints used on autistic kids.

But if SROs are untrained, I would worry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aaaaand this is why my kids go to private school.

Why don’t you work to find solutions that aren’t cops.

Private schools have security too.

Yeah and they don’t school-to-prison pipeline our kids.

I hope your kids turn out more enlightened and less of an a$$ than you.