Police-in-schools review raises questions, concerns
Harmful effects minimized in study of Catholic district program, analysis finds
Harmful experiences with school resource officers were minimized in a review of the Edmonton Catholic School District's school resource officer program, a researcher says.
Alexandre Da Costa, an associate professor of educational policy studies at the University of Alberta who is also behind the Edmonton SRO Research Project examining a decade of data from the school resource officer (SRO) program, analyzed an executive summary of the review of the Catholic School District's program.
The review, released in May, found upwards of 90 per cent of school staff and 80 per cent of parents and students supported keeping SROS. However, nearly 20 per cent of Black and Indigenous students reported feeling targeted, compared to just 11.5 per cent of students who identified as white or other racial backgrounds.
In his analysis, Da Costa found the review raises more questions than it answers about what researchers, schools, and the larger community should prioritize when evaluating whether or not to have SRO programs.
He found the review minimizes racism and other potential oppressions that would be relevant to understanding the harmful effects of police in schools, by concluding the majority of people find the program popular and evidence to terminate it is limited.
“Are you centring the experiences of those most harmed like in an equity-based framework, which I raised in my analysis, or are you going for `the majority think it's popular, so we keep the program,'” he said in an interview Monday.
Another concern Da Costa had was how quickly ECSD decided to keep the program based on the report that notes there are multiple areas with inconclusive data.
“If you don't have the right information to make a good decision, which to me is what came out of the report, then why would you choose the option to keep it rather than just terminate it and then collect more data until you actually have the evidence to put it into place?” he said.
School resource officers may also be tasked with teaching about alcohol and drug consumption, the legal system or even coaching a sports team. But Da Costa notes the review does not explore alternatives to police in those positions; instead, participants were asked if they prefer an SRO or regular officer.
“They didn't ask `what are other types of personnel that you believe would be good at creating and carrying out a healthy and equitable school environment?'” he said. “As I emphasized in the analysis, that's potentially problematic, given our public discourse and debate around issues of policing, which are very much alive in the city.”
In a statement, ECSD spokeswoman Christine Meadows said the study provided by three experienced researchers offered a clear path forward with the program, including committing to gathering data and evaluations to assure the program's efficacy and quality.
“Since the release of the study, ECSD has begun to act on several of the recommendations,” Meadows said. “Including developing a communications plan with EPS to ensure all stakeholders understand the purpose and operations of the SRO program and the many roles that SROS play in supporting student growth and wellbeing and creating a more formalized process for the oversight of staffing SRO positions.”
But Da Costa said there's enough “overwhelming evidence” from other cities similar to Edmonton of other ways than police officers to create caring, healthy and equitable schools, and more reviews aren't needed to know what's happening to people.
“We have a lot of evidence, and other reviews that have been done in other cities ... and they have eliminated programs based on the evidence that they're getting.”