@NASRO_Info Dr. Mike Robinson: Should P-12 school districts remove armed SRO officers from schools?
Mo Canady : Removing all school resource officers from schools is unwise. Carefully selected, specially trained SROs provide great value to an entire school community, including students, faculty, staff, and parents. Using best practices in school policing, such SROs build positive relationships with all students, mentor them, teach them, and protect them from a variety of threats. Some school systems that have not followed best practices in officer selection and training might have significant race relations issues. Those communities should remove any individual SROs who are ill-suited to school work and replace them with carefully selected, specially trained officers, rather than eliminate the entire SRO program.
Dr. Mike Robinson: If they are removed what does security look like for schools? What role will teachers have as it relates to safety, will they be expected to do more?
Mo Canady: Security in schools without SROs will depend on the decisions of school leaders and would likely vary from place to place. In many cases, however, schools might find themselves calling their local police departments for help. Unlike SROs, any officers who respond will likely be unfamiliar with the school and its students and more likely to inappropriately treat students as they would treat adult crime suspects while on patrol.
Dr. Mike Robinson: To what extent can School Resource Officers add or subtract for a school culture?
Mo Canady: Carefully selected, specially trained SROs have positive effects on school culture. They focus on building positive relationships with all students, mentoring them, and encouraging behaviors that help improve student success and create a culture of caring and safety.
Dr. Mike Robinson: How do you respond to the claims that SROs are more likely to arrest students of color rather than having those students be disciplined by school administrators?
Mo Canady: Studies we’ve seen that reach this conclusion are flawed because they sampled mostly urban school systems that don’t train their SROs to NASRO standards and apparently do not follow school policing best practices. One example of a best practice that is often ignored in such communities is to avoid involving SROs in disciplinary matters that should remain the domain of educators. We have found that in some school systems, students of color are disproportionately disciplined by school administrators, which points to a systemic problem that goes well beyond the presence of SROs. Like SROs, educators must be trained in implicit bias. Schools must also create and enforce policies against summoning SROs inappropriately.
Dr. Mike Robinson: What do you say to schools that utilize SROs in the discipline process?
Mo Canady: Don’t do it! Anecdotally, we’ve heard of educators using SROs as a crutch to help them avoid fulfilling their own behavior management responsibilities. No school system should allow this to happen. No teacher or administrator should ever summon an SRO for any student behavior for which they would not summon outside police. This policy should be a part of written agreements between school systems and police agencies and part of ongoing training for educators.
Dr. Mike Robinson: What are the roles of SROs in schools?
Mo Canady: The goals of well-founded SRO programs include providing safe learning environments in our nation’s schools, providing valuable resources to school staff members, fostering positive relationships with youth, developing strategies to resolve problems affecting youth, and protecting all students so that they can reach their fullest potentials. NASRO considers it a best practice to use a “triad concept” to define the three main roles of school resource officers: educator (i.e. guest lecturer), informal counselor/mentor, and law enforcement officer.
Bio
Mo Canady holds a Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice from Jacksonville State University. He is a former Lieutenant with the City of Hoover Police Department in Hoover, Alabama. The last twelve years of his career were spent as the supervisor of the School Services Division. After a 25 year career, He retired from the Hoover Police Department in 2011. He was appointed as an instructor for the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) in 2001 and a NASRO board member in 2005. He is a past President of the Alabama Association of School Resource Officers. Mo now serves as the Executive Director for NASRO. He recently testified on the matter of SRO National Standards before The Federal Commission on School Safety. He has also testified on the matter of school safety before the United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He is a co-author of the national report; “To Protect and Educate – The School Resource Officer and the Prevention of Violence in Schools”.
Mo Canady : Removing all school resource officers from schools is unwise. Carefully selected, specially trained SROs provide great value to an entire school community, including students, faculty, staff, and parents. Using best practices in school policing, such SROs build positive relationships with all students, mentor them, teach them, and protect them from a variety of threats. Some school systems that have not followed best practices in officer selection and training might have significant race relations issues. Those communities should remove any individual SROs who are ill-suited to school work and replace them with carefully selected, specially trained officers, rather than eliminate the entire SRO program.
Dr. Mike Robinson: If they are removed what does security look like for schools? What role will teachers have as it relates to safety, will they be expected to do more?
Mo Canady: Security in schools without SROs will depend on the decisions of school leaders and would likely vary from place to place. In many cases, however, schools might find themselves calling their local police departments for help. Unlike SROs, any officers who respond will likely be unfamiliar with the school and its students and more likely to inappropriately treat students as they would treat adult crime suspects while on patrol.
Dr. Mike Robinson: To what extent can School Resource Officers add or subtract for a school culture?
Mo Canady: Carefully selected, specially trained SROs have positive effects on school culture. They focus on building positive relationships with all students, mentoring them, and encouraging behaviors that help improve student success and create a culture of caring and safety.
Dr. Mike Robinson: How do you respond to the claims that SROs are more likely to arrest students of color rather than having those students be disciplined by school administrators?
Mo Canady: Studies we’ve seen that reach this conclusion are flawed because they sampled mostly urban school systems that don’t train their SROs to NASRO standards and apparently do not follow school policing best practices. One example of a best practice that is often ignored in such communities is to avoid involving SROs in disciplinary matters that should remain the domain of educators. We have found that in some school systems, students of color are disproportionately disciplined by school administrators, which points to a systemic problem that goes well beyond the presence of SROs. Like SROs, educators must be trained in implicit bias. Schools must also create and enforce policies against summoning SROs inappropriately.
Dr. Mike Robinson: What do you say to schools that utilize SROs in the discipline process?
Mo Canady: Don’t do it! Anecdotally, we’ve heard of educators using SROs as a crutch to help them avoid fulfilling their own behavior management responsibilities. No school system should allow this to happen. No teacher or administrator should ever summon an SRO for any student behavior for which they would not summon outside police. This policy should be a part of written agreements between school systems and police agencies and part of ongoing training for educators.
Dr. Mike Robinson: What are the roles of SROs in schools?
Mo Canady: The goals of well-founded SRO programs include providing safe learning environments in our nation’s schools, providing valuable resources to school staff members, fostering positive relationships with youth, developing strategies to resolve problems affecting youth, and protecting all students so that they can reach their fullest potentials. NASRO considers it a best practice to use a “triad concept” to define the three main roles of school resource officers: educator (i.e. guest lecturer), informal counselor/mentor, and law enforcement officer.
Bio
Mo Canady holds a Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice from Jacksonville State University. He is a former Lieutenant with the City of Hoover Police Department in Hoover, Alabama. The last twelve years of his career were spent as the supervisor of the School Services Division. After a 25 year career, He retired from the Hoover Police Department in 2011. He was appointed as an instructor for the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) in 2001 and a NASRO board member in 2005. He is a past President of the Alabama Association of School Resource Officers. Mo now serves as the Executive Director for NASRO. He recently testified on the matter of SRO National Standards before The Federal Commission on School Safety. He has also testified on the matter of school safety before the United States House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He is a co-author of the national report; “To Protect and Educate – The School Resource Officer and the Prevention of Violence in Schools”.