By Stephen Owsinski 3
Growing up, I remember radio stations repeatedly playing Alice Cooper bellowing the lyrics “School’s out for summer…” inviting youngsters to revel in fun under the sun, no homework necessary. America’s school resource officers (SROs) have it differently…as training is always essential in law enforcement staying abreast of new techniques and trends, resulting in top-notch campus cops.
Lately, I’ve been seeing posts from police departments and sheriff’s offices announcing newly assigned SROs whose training started already, despite the students enjoying summertime fun as much as possible before returning to campus to hear the first bell clang.
As Lee County, Florida, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said, “As actual school settings are ideal for training purposes, School Resource Officers take full advantage of all vacant-school opportunities.”
(Photo courtesy of the Palm Beach Schools Police Department.)
The last day of school before the off-season starts typically has police administrators temporarily reassigning SROs to other units deemed needing reinforcements.
While schools are shuttered for a few months, many SROs join Patrol Division ranks —the “backbone” of policing— responding to calls, conducting traffic stops, and doing anything and everything that cops customarily do.
The Naperville Police Department posted about this aspect on June 6, 2024, saying, “Have you ever wondered what our eight School Resource Officers do over the summer while school’s not in session? They are assigned to our bustling downtown!
“Downtown Naperville is recognized regionally as a destination for shopping, dining, and enjoyment, drawing visitors in droves! Our School Resource Officers supplement our Patrol Division with additional foot, bicycle, and vehicle patrols of the downtown. This provides an additional police presence and enhances everyone’s safety while there are more visitors during the warm weather months.”
(Photo courtesy of the Naperville Police Department.)
Indeed, this is the norm with law enforcement organizations, recognizing seasonal changes and reshuffling staffing to satisfy logistical necessities.
My department mostly re-assigned SROs to the Patrol Division as a “buffer car,” meaning he/she would respond not as a primary officer responsible for a certain zone of the city but to supplement the squad. One reason for this was due to foreseeable court time, whereby cops are potentially (eventually) subpoenaed to testify in criminal or traffic violation cases, thus requiring them to leave school campuses.
Given the propensity for armed, crazed individuals seeking infamy/notoriety by raining bullets on any school campus, our SROs were granted leeway by agency policy.
Police executives circumvented reasons for any SRO to depart campus.
Similar protocol applies when an SRO makes an arrest on campus: A Patrol officer would be summoned to transport the arrestee along with the Criminal Report Affidavit (CRA) completed by the SRO. That became an exception to the rule, requiring the SRO to petition the court to testify via teleconference methods, underscoring the primary function of always being present on school grounds.
The state attorney’s office (SAO) typically indulged, given the circumstances and imperative role of SROs. Albeit rarely, when the SAO required in-person testimony at the courthouse, a Patrol officer would stand in in the interim.
Bottom line: Never did we allow any school campus in our jurisdiction to be vulnerable and without law enforcement presence, including fully marked cruisers serving as billboards to warn would-be attackers against targeting a population of unsuspecting youngsters.
There are law enforcement agencies, such as the Palm Beach Schools Police Department, that exclusively provide public safety at county educational campuses, making each agency member an SRO.
The same rituals apply: when school is out for the off-season, PBSPD officers train incessantly, on- and off-campus.
(Photo courtesy of the Palm Beach Schools Police Department.)
Mid-Summer Blues Brush-Up
Mid-summer marks the period when SROs return to school grounds and train, train, train with agency specialists and tacticians, often recruiting volunteers to serve as students injured by bad actors, enduring drills entailing evacuations, first aid, emergency medical transports, and all things chaos brought to some semblance by police, fire, and EMS professionals.
Known as the parent organization of SROs, the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) holds pre-semester conferences. A recent one was attended by SROs from the Prescott, Arizona, police department.
“Our Prescott Police Department School Resource Officers (SROs) are dedicated to ensuring the safety and well-being of our students and staff. This week, our SROs are attending the National Association of School Resource Officers Conference, where they are honing their skills and learning the latest in school safety practices.
(Photo courtesy of the Prescott Police Department.)
“Their continued education and training are crucial for staying current with best practices, enhancing safety, managing crises, learning updated preventive measures, and staying informed about school violence and drug issues to be able to combat these issues head-on with the youth of our community.”
More Students Means More Schools and SROs
With the population boon down here in the Sunshine State, Florida’s law enforcement agencies are expanding the ranks of school resource officers due to the construction of new schools to accommodate the children of families recently relocated from liberal enclaves ruined by poor politics and idiotic ideologies.
(Photo courtesy of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.)
Via the SROs I know here in Florida, the “undisciplined” kids and their “attitudes” indicative of liberal-based indoctrination come to rude awakenings in a much more conservative state whose governor has zero patience for the coddling game and the ludicrous ideology of police-less schools.
Remember the dubious era when some anti-police school districts did their darndest to oust all cops from every school in their jurisdiction? In February of this year, “The Chicago Board of Education voted […] to end its contract with Chicago police and remove uniformed officers from the city’s schools,” according to a Fox News article.
What a stain! Especially depriving students of deserved safety and security…not to mention the beloved camaraderie forged between kids and cops.
Thankfully, wiser heads prevail…
“We are super lucky in our district to have a community where our law enforcement and our school district work so closely together to be proactive in preparing for an event that hopefully will never occur, but we want to be prepared just in case something ever were to happen in our schools,” said Jessamine County (KY) Schools Superintendent Sara Crum, referring to active-shooter training involving local cops.
“We have been very fortunate and blessed to have such a good partnership with the Jessamine County school system. Everything from having a school resource officer program and allowing our officers to be part of that school community to allow us to conduct training in and around their buildings just to provide a greater measure of safety for our students,” said School Resource Officer Sam Wade.
A Baker County, Florida, sheriff’s office member who is assigned as a school resource deputy (SRD) in his jurisdiction said the following:
“Many times I’m asked, ‘What do y’all [School Resource Deputies] do during the summer?”
His answer: “This is without a doubt the most important, a week-long training with the Florida Association of School Resource Officers.
“This training is filled with guest speakers who have the utmost knowledge of school safety. These speakers provide insight on the very best up-to-date tactics and policing in regard to keeping the students and staff of Florida schools safe and secure.
“Parents and guardians, rest assured knowing your SRDs are not stagnant. They are working and training to better themselves every chance they get to provide the safe learning environment the Students and Staff of Baker County deserve!”
As I compose these words, the Florida Association of School Resource Officers (FASRO) is hosting the training referred to above, spanning July 15-19, 2024, with hundreds of Florida’s school resource officers whose trained ears and eyes will return to campus with a new year of service and protection for thousands of students.
Incidentally, other states have their version of the National Association of School Resource Officers model, offering plenty of training throughout the year.
The beat goes on before, during, and after the bell rings.
As the Los Angeles School Police Department motto goes: “Serving the Future…Today!”
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