LookAtMeImAnSRO

I find it very troubling that there may be many SROs that want to be better utilized as an asset for at-risk children but are hindered by the behavior or assumptions of the school/district they are assigned to.

I wanted to address this specifically because it brings up one of my largest complaints, and a constant uphill battle I fight. In a microcosm, here is the disconnect between schools and SRO's:

Situation: A kid does something goofy in class, maybe he talks out of turn, throws something at another kid, mouths off to the teacher, and gets sent to the principals office. Nothing criminal has occurred. Kid refuses to go, won't leave class, so teacher calls principal, principals sends me to pull the kid out.

This is a gigantic fucking problem. The situation can only play out a handful of ways. If the kid comes willingly, crisis averted. But what if he doesn't?

Now you have two options. You could try to talk him out, but if that fails, then what? If you don't succeed, that whole class is watching you. As a cop, you'll neuter yourself. That kid must come out of that class or you will lose a massive amount of authority in the eyes of the kids.

So you have one more option. Force him out. Do it gently, sure, but if he struggles or fights back, then what? Now you're fighting a kid.

But here's the motherfucker: You're fighting a kid for a non-criminal school infraction. You, a 200 lbs certified police officer, are fighting a fucking kid for a goddamn school infraction. If I sound mad, it's because I am.

I have gone to bat so many times to the principals and told them, stop calling me for that. If you don't want a kid arrested, if he didn't do something criminal, call the disciplinarian and leave me out of it. But they won't, and they haven't, and one day it's going to be a problem and I'll end up the guy from the fucking news.

Ninja next day edit: First, thank you for the gold. Second, there's a couple things people keep bringing up that I wanted to address. Namely, some responders seem to think that by this post I'm suggesting going zero to 100 and that I'm fighting every kid who refuses to leave a class. This is not accurate. In my other responses you'll see a lot of the non-violent methodology I use to get kids to leave class. Other people here have offered more great suggestions and strategies, which is awesome.

Another topic that keeps coming up is that not leaving is technically breaking the law. I talked about that too in some other responses. This is accurate. Not leaving can be construed as breaking the law. But do we really want an incident which, before SRO's, would be handled at the school level being turned into a criminal offense? Isn't the idea behind SRO's to reduce the school to prison pipeline? Poor SRO programs are the ones that increase arrest rates, good ones are the ones that don't.

Another topic is, why not just refuse to do it? Again, this is discussed in other comments, but understand this: If I refuse the principal, I will more than likely be removed from the school. I did refuse once, and I was very nearly kicked out and my relationship with admin has and will not ever be the same. And I don't want to be removed from the school... at least not yet. One day soon I imagine, but not now.

Lastly, many people keep bringing up "losing face" in front of the kids. It has been said that I am more concerned about my authority than I am about the kids. Not true. Every encounter a police officer has, not just SRO's but every officer, will send a lasting message to the kid and everyone else who watches that encounter. If I go in, try to talk the kid out, fail, and shrug my shoulders and say, "Oh well, sorry, couldn't do it," what happens then?

The kids already call the school's bluff. They know that the school can't really do anything, in fact, there's a maximum amount of suspension days kids are allowed to get in a year. Hit your cap, and the school can't do jack shit other than call your parents and complain. And if the parents don't care, or feel like the school/cop is the bad guy, then what's left?

Now, the kid wants to call the police out the same way they called the school's bluff. If you allow it, the result will be that it keeps happening, and eventually those kids will carry that attitude out on the street and patrol won't treat them with kid gloves and care, they'll lock them up for any offense they can find and now that kid has a record. Kids need to understand that when the police show up, you must follow directions. Law and order function on that premise. If the directions are unlawful, then follow up later through the proper channels to get justice. The concept of telling the police to fuck off is how you end up with more Mike Browns.

You may not like that, but it's reality, dude.

That's how you end up with the catch-22 described in this post. The police shouldn't be there to enforce school discipline, because it turns it into a crime. But when the police are there, it's now a crime, and you can't just let it slide because there are far reaching and longer term consequences than possibly having to manhandle a teenager. But then once that's over, and the school doesn't want to press charges, you're back to being a school disciplinarian and bouncer, which is not the job of an SRO, and legal police authority shouldn't be wielded in that manner unless an arrest is imminent.

It's circular. Don't call the cops if you don't want someone arrested, and if you want someone arrested and they resist, expect reasonable and appropriate force to be used to effect that arrest. But have we come so far as a society to think that we need to call the cops for nothing but defiance?

Good question, and another frustrating issue. Technically, under our agreement with the district, I am described as a liason from the PD who works out of the school, in partnership with the administrative team. I can, under our contract, tell the principal to pound sand (which I did once, keep reading).

In practive, the principal tells you to do things, and you either do them and keep the principal happy, or tell them no, and you'll soon find yourself booted out of the school (regardless of whether or not you were right) and back in patrol.

I told me principal no once. She wanted a kid arrested, I shit you not, because she wouldn't take off her hat. I said no. The principal lost her shit, started screaming at me to get the kid out of the building, so I walked the student out and took her home.

The kid was fucked up. Unwanted by her mother, dropped into the grandmother's lap, grandma didn't want her, and the principal had a grudge against her because she was mouthy and a troublemaker, but never anything serious. If you stopped to talk to her, you'd find out she was a nice girl (dumb as a box of rocks, but nice).

Principal called a meeting and threatened to fire me for it. I told her I'm the police, and I decide who gets arrested and who doesn't. She hit me with, "I don't think you respect me," "I don't think you believe I know what I'm doing," "I don't trust you," "You're defiant," etc and I've been on thin ice ever since.

One day I'm going to be kicked out of here, it's just a matter of time.

Complain. Get involved. PTA or PFC or whatever your school has. Schools bend to the wills of parents, but so many parents are checked out or disinterested. As a parent, you have so much power that you don't realize you have.

Good question, I imagine it'd be a fucking shitstorm

I wish! I dream of the day... haha!