Keeping students safe

Removing police presence from schools would cause more harm than good, officers say

As protests of police brutality continue across the country, some organizations have begun to call for school districts to remove police officers from schools, but area school officers and school resource officers (SROs) believe that would cause more harm than good.

“I don’t think they understand what the role of the school officer is,” said Officer Aaron Vanatta of the Quaker Valley School Police. He led about 40 other area school police officers at a National Association

of School Resource Officers (NASRO) training session at the Chartiers Valley Intermediate School in Scott on Monday.

All school officers and SROs are required by Pennsylvania law to take the 40-hour training seminar that includes sessions on ethics and developing relationships with increasingly diverse student populations.

Mr. Vanatta said an often-overlooked role of a school officer is establishing a positive relationship between local police and young

schoolchildren. “If there is no officer in school, their only experience [with police] might be a negative one,” he said.

“We need to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community, and what better place to do that than the schools?” Mr. Vanatta said. “In the long run, that’s what keeps kids safe.”

While school officers and SROs share the same duties, school officers report directly to their school district while SROs report to the police agency within jurisdiction of the school the officer is assigned to.

Critics of the position say school officers contribute to a “student-to-prison pipeline,” where students, especially those who are Black, are referred to the justice system at a young age, causing a “disruption of the education process,” according to a 2011 study by the Justice Policy Institute.

Duquesne University’s Youth Advocacy Clinic recently called to remove the 20 school officers from the Pittsburgh Public School District. “We know that overall, when police are in schools, it hurts more than it helps. There’s more arrests; there’s more kids being pushed into the system,” said the clinic’s director, Tiffany Sizemore, earlier in June.

Mr. Vanatta disagrees, pointing to data from the United States Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention showing juvenile arrest rates have continuously declined since 1996. According to a 2013 NASRO report, this coincides with an increase in school officers. “We bend over backwards to keep kids out of the criminal justice system,” he said.

Officer Joseph Kozarian, safety and security coordinator for the Fox Chapel School District, said a good school officer isn’t a “disciplinarian,” but rather a protector and a “witness” for students. “Never ever give up on a student,” he said while leading a session on ethics.

Other officers at the training session said the most important traits in SROs include “patience,” “people skills” and being “community oriented.” Officer Corey Swertz, a school police officer in Ringgold, said he is adamant about not being just a “shaved head with sunglasses” as an officer.

“I’m an average guy that just happens to do public work,” he said, noting he carries stuffed animals and first aid kits in the trunk of his car. Mr. Swertz also believes removing officers and SROs from schools is a bad idea.

“I think it would pose more of a target,” he said, referring to school shooters and how posted warnings of armed officers can prevent shooting incidents. “An inkling of fear is a good deterrent.”

Some school officers also serve as teachers. Officer Patrick Mazzotta of the Peters Police Department is training to be the SRO and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) officer at Peters Middle in McMurray, where he also teaches a Survival 101 class. He believes removing school officers and SROs like some want would not only interrupt a routine for students but also lead to more incidents in schools.

“I do think that kids would act up,” Mr. Mazzotta said, pointing to a rash of thefts that occurred before the Peters school district added an SRO position a few years ago. He will be at Peters Middle during the school week and other details that require additional safety for students.

Mr. Vanatta said school police should be trained in measures such as restorative justice — a peer jury review system that’s rising in popularity — as well as the underlying causes of unruly behavior, such as a lack of proper nutrition and other home problems.

“It takes a carefully selected, properly trained person to do this job. But once you have that person there, it is invaluable,” he said.