Eric,
I hope I didn't give the wrong impression that I was challenging the research, my feedback is specifically to my experience at Lincoln. My SRO is not in the formal police uniform, he wears a knit shirt that identifies him as the SRO, but he is armed. One point that should be made, when you have an SRO in a school building, he should never be put into a situation where he/she is doing school discipline. That is the school administrator's responsibility and actually creates a liability for both the SRO and the administrator. I'm only speaking for Lincoln. I think I shared that last year's survey showed that our students had an average ACE score of 4.5. I believe the average score this year will be higher. So we know that our students are at critical risk without positive interventions. We also know that the majority of our students have been exposed to domestic violence. However, 90% of our students said that they feel safe at Lincoln, which for an alternative high school is a very high percentage.
I feel that my students and staff feel safer with Matt in the building and I honestly don't think anyone pays any attention to his gun, but they do pay attention to his presence, which I view as being proactive. I wouldn't allow or put my SRO in a position to intimidate or to cause fear. If we have a student that has a warrant, we call the student into the office and ask them if they are aware of it. Then we encourage them to contact their PO and take care of it. We don't arrest students for out of school issues, I don't put Matt in that position. A couple of weeks we called a student in and told her she had a warrant, and she told Matt she would rather have him take her in. An officer can't transport with out handcuffing the person. Matt told her to wait until kids were in class and he walked her to the car before putting her in handcuffs. She thank him for taking her in and she knew that he was going to do everything he could to be discreet.
I almost had a fight during an assembly, we got the two kids out of there so fast, very few knew what was going on. I have one very hardcore gang member who went outside and refused to follow any of my directions. He was calling his gang on his cell phone and was out of control. We had other students who were connected that started coming outside and I could tell I had a potential for a serious confrontation.....Matt was not present that day. His presence alone would have had a strong impact and we wouldn't have been at risk. I had to call patrol to get a police presence on campus to make sure that we were safe from any major conflict. The young man that was refusing anything I asked him, changed his whole attitude around when he saw the officers.
I had an opposing gang after school trying to call out one of our kids from across the street, by the time I could get the police on the scene, the gang saw me on my radio and walked away....these guys were older 22-25. If my student would have crossed the street, the damage would have been done even before the police arrived. Matt was gone that day....they wouldn't have been trying to call my student out with his presence, and Matt would have called for backup....they respond a lot quicker when one of their own makes the call.
Eric, for me the SRO plays a major role and I don't know what I would do without him. Our kids come in and ask to see him.....they seek help on out of school issues. Our parents will come to see Matt, they don't want to talk to a patrol officer. My opinion is that a trauma sensitive school can use their SRO to be seen as a positive advocate and to be proactive.....instead of reactive. I was sharing with a student the other day some strategies for handling her stress....and I told her that I was being challenged as well with my stress. We talked about her strong qualities that I feel are amazing due to the Trauma in her life and what she went through as a young child. Before she left my office she told me Matt really helped her the other day..."Sporleder, have Matt tell you his story, he had to overcome a lot and told me I could do the same".