Study: Armed security officers are on the rise in US schools
WASHINGTON — Armed security officers are becoming more prevalent at US schools, according to a federal study released on Thursday amid a heated debate over whether teachers and other school officials should carry guns.
Armed officers were present at least once a week in 43 percent of all public schools during the 2015-16 school year, compared with 31 percent of schools a decade before, according to data from a survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Last month’s mass shooting at a Florida high school put renewed focus on the role of armed school security guards, after a video showed that a sheriff ’s deputy at the school approached but did not enter the building where the attack was taking place.
The study came out a day after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos kicked off a federal school safety panel. DeVos has said that schools should have the option to arm teachers. She’s being criticized by teachers’ unions for not including educators, students and experts in the panel, which consists only of her and three other Cabinet secretaries.
The percentage of schools with a security guard, a school resource officer or other sworn law enforcement officer on campus at least once a week has gone up from 42 percent in 2005-06 to 57 percent a decade later. While security at schools of all grade levels increased, the shift is clearer among elementary schools, where the share with security staff has gone from 26 percent to 45 percent in the same time period.
Different voices
School resource officers are sworn law enforcement personnel who have been trained to work in schools. Their duties include controlling outside traffic, patrolling the school, maintaining discipline, identifying problems and mentoring at-risk students, teaching law-related classes and serving as liaisons between schools and police.
Experts, however, are divided on whether putting such officers on school campuses will make the schools safer or frighten children and lead to more arrests.
Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Council, said that trained officers carrying weapons can help prevent a shooting inside the school and deter a possible shooter from entering.
Others have questions. A 2013 congressional report found that the available research “draws conflicting conclusions about whether SRO programs are effective at reducing school violence”.
Ron Astor, an education professor at University of Southern California who specializes in school behavior, says that putting weapons in schools will make them akin to prisons, intimidate children and hurt their studies. Instead, he says, research has shown that violence, bullying and the use of drugs and guns is reduced in warm, caring environments focused on providing support to students.
“With a lot of guns, it doesn’t create a sense of safety with the children and the teachers. It could trigger post-traumatic stress disorder. It triggers nonattendance,” Astor said.