Children across the U.S. have now returned to school. Many of these children are going to schools with sworn police officers patrolling the hallways. These officers, usually called school resource officers, are placed in schools across the country to help
maintain school safety.
According to the most recent data reported by the Department of Education, police or security guards
were present in 76.4 percent of U.S. public high schools in the 2009-2010 school year.
In many of these schools, police officers are being asked to deal with a range of issues that are very different from traditional policing duties, such as being a mental health counselor for a traumatized child. This is an unfair request.
Days after the recent tragedy in Dallas, for example, as he grieved for the five slain officers, Dallas Police Chief David Brown referred to this problem
when he said,
"We're asking cops to do too much in this country... Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it. ... Schools fail, let's give it to the cops. ... "
For the past decade I have been studying how we police schools and punish students. My recent book,
"The Real School Safety Problem," and a
growing body of other studies point to the fact that, indeed, schools ask police to do too much in schools.
Not only is it unfair to the police, it
can be harmful for children.
Comment: Modi has ambitious plans for the densely populated country: Narendra Modi's new world: First 100 days,10 top moves
And is seen to be popular: India under Modi: Pew survey shows national pride has never been this high since 1970