County schools need more counselors, not more cops

As young people who grew up in the Bay Area, we believe that it is important to add our voices to the conversation regarding police officers on school campuses, also known as school resource officers.

We engaged with SROs in our schools, and saw firsthand the negative impact that they have on students of color who were disproportionately targeted and cited.

If we are serious about giving all students an equal chance of success, we must remove these officers and replace them with trained professionals who can provide students with the social and emotional support they need to succeed.

Despite dropping juvenile crime rates, the number of SROs has increased by a third between 1997 and 2007, propelled by fears of school shootings and increasing national crime. SRO enforcement of school “zero tolerance” policies failed to curb gun violence, but it did increase suspensions and expulsion rates of students of color for mistakes that many of you likely did when you were young.

Consider the Tamalpais Unified High School District, where Black students account for only 3% of the student population but 27% of suspensions.

At Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, Black students are more than 10 times more likely to be suspended than White students, according to ProPublica. This disproportionate enforcement of discipline fuels what experts call the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

According to reporting in The New York Times, SROs have a significant impact on students of color and those with disabilities, who are more likely to be harshly punished for minor misbehavior. This has led teachers unions in Los Angeles and Chicago to push the removal of SROs.

This phenomenon is not new. Consider a 2011 report from the

Justice Policy Institute, which states “when schools have law enforcement on-site, students are more likely to be arrested by police instead of discipline being handled by school officials.

This leads to more kids being funneled into the juvenile justice system, which is both expensive and associated with a host of negative impacts on youth.”

In an effort to recast the image of SROs, they have now been tasked with solving public health crises, such as youth drug use. Right now, theMarin County Board of Supervisors is considering a vaping cessation grant that would fund an additional SRO. Why? Follow the money.

The state legislature allocates funds to the Justice Department, which allocates grant money for vaping prevention that only law enforcement departments are eligible to receive. This twists educators’ arms to take the SRO or lose the funding.

Some at the Marin County

Sheriff’s Office claim that SROs operate more like counselors and educators. However, SROs are not trained social workers; they are trained as law enforcement officers.

The National Association of School Resource Officers says that SROs must undergo 40 hours of specialized training. But SRO training is not comparable to the two-year graduate degree and 3,000 hours of postdegree professional experience, including 104 supervised weeks, it takes to obtain a California clinical social workers license.

A licensed social worker will also save taxpayer dollars: Marin’s current SRO salary is $121,000 per year, compared to a San Francisco School District social worker, whose salary is $66,467.

Why do our elected officials fund SROs instead of social workers or counselors who are often better trained and prepared to handle the majority of student campus issues? Our school leaders should follow the example of San Rafael

City Schools Superintendent Jim Hogeboom, who recommended that his district end the contract with the police department that provided a school resource officer.

Now that we are rethinking criminal justice on the national level, let’s not forget our schools. By staffing campuses with SROs, we are reinforcing the idea that students need the threat of punitive outcomes and law enforcement presence in order to be successful.

We are allowing the same racial bias that infects our police systems to affect youth in school. We believe that is wrong.

Wemust not be onlookers, and we must live up to the values that we espouse as a community. Our young people deserve better. Let’s not let them down.