Survey: Waukegan district still wants resource officers

As theWaukegan Community Unit School District 60 Board of Education moves toward a decision on retaining or eliminating a police officer on each of its two high school campuses, board members now have a clearer understanding of what the school communitywants.

The board learned the results of a survey measuring the knowledge and attitudes of students, parents and staff about school resource officers during a virtual meetingTuesday as it considers its next steps.

Learning a majority of students, parents and staff prefer to keep school resources officers on the Brookside and Washington campuses of Waukegan High School, the board will now consider what to do next. No votewas takenTuesday.

Board president Brandon Ewing said board members need to study the survey before doing anything else. They got their first glimpse of the results when Nick Alajakis, the district’s communications director, introduced them at the meeting.

“We now have data,” Ewing said. “We’ll bring this to the board later in the fall when we better understand it and know what we could and should do.” Ewing said at previous meetings with students still learning remotely, there is no interaction between the teens and the officers. He does not anticipate the buildings reopening for face-to-face learning soon.

Overall, 1,300 persons responded to the survey, of whom 721 were parents, 394 students and 237 staff, according to the presentation. Though freshmen and their parents participated the survey, theyhave yet to experience a building with a resource officer because they are learning remotely.

Among students polled, 50.8% want the officers to remain in the buildings, 17.5% want them removed and 31.7% are unsure, according to the results.

Parents and staff took a stronger view of retaining the officers, with 72.5% of the parents and 67.5% of the staff saying keep them. Among parents, 12.5% want removal and 15% are unsure. With staff, 16% prefer ending the program and 16.5% are uncertain.

When asked if the presence of police in the schools made students feel safer, the results were not too different from whether they want them removed, as 48.3% felt they were safer because of the officers, 21.6% said no and 30% were unsure.

Student responses were a little differentwhen they were asked if the presence of a school resource officer makes them feel “uncomfortable, unsafe or fearful,” with 57.4% saying no, 11.8% yes and 30.8% unsure. Parents and staff were not asked that question.

Board member Charlotte Callahan Wozniak asked Alajakis if he could show student numbers by class, because freshen have not experienced a school with a resource officer. Alajakis said he will determine the respondents by year in school, but did not have that information at hand.

Parents and staff views on officers adding to the safety of the buildings were also similar to the survey results on removing them, as more than 70 percent of those groups said safety is enhanced, while a significantly smaller number said no or were unsure. Despite strong lobbying from members of the public suggesting school resource officersberemoved during an Aug. 25 board workshop session on the subject, Ewing said hewas not surprised by the results.

“Given the prevalence of school shootings in our nation, many believe that having police officers on campus act as a deterrent to armed intruders,” he said in a text after the meeting.

Adriana Gonzalez, a 2014Waukegan Township High School graduatewho lives in the city, is an organizer who helped start a petition drive to remove the officers. With more than 530 signatures on the petition, she said the results helped her realize more community education is required.

“Do the students understand what happens when an SRO is called,” Gonzalez said after the meeting in a telephone interview. “The implications are long-term. There are implications if an SRO handles a situation when an administrator could do it.”

A solid majority of students have never had interaction with a resource officer, according to the survey. Of those responding, 60.4% said they had no interaction, more than 35% said it was positive or neutral while 3.3% said itwas negative.

When it comes to students encountering police officers outside of school, the numbers change, but not significantly, with 42.5% saying they had no contact, 27% saying it was neutral, 17.8% positive and 12.7% negative.

Alajakis said the district will use the survey as an educational tool, aswell as an aid in decision-making. He said the participation was larger than many surveys the district takes, and the data is statistically significant.

“These results are not only going to assist us as we make any decisions on the future of SROs, but it’s also helping us determine where we can improve in terms of educating our stakeholders,” Alajakis said in a text after the meeting.