Backpack-clad elementary students in Oregon may see a new face at drop-off in 2019: a uniformed and armed police officer.
Oregon City Council will vote Monday on whether to bring school resource officers to the city’s three elementary schools. Oregon City Schools would become the first school district in Northwest Ohio to bring a full-time, trained officer to its youngest students.
The elementary schools are Coy, Starr, and Jerusalem.
After the Feb. 14 shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school left 17 dead, the city of Oregon was shaken. This was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Superintendent Hal Gregory said.
The city held a community forum for concerned parents, grandparents, and students. The message was clear: “We need to do everything in the district to protect our kids,” Mr. Gregory said. Soon after, he initiated conversations with the police department to bring three more officers to Oregon City Schools. The school board gave the plan unanimous approval.
“I don’t think I need to say anything more than Sandy Hook,” Board of Education President Carol Molnar said, referring to the 2012 school shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. “No one is against public safety for kids.”
School boards across the country are grappling with how to keep their students secure. Amid a national back-and-forth over whether to arm teachers, SROs have become increasingly common: a 2015-16 report from the National Center for Education Statistics found that 57 percent of schools located in towns had at least one armed officer.
Still, the officer on duty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland remained outside during the February shooting. Research on SROs is inconclusive. After the Sandy Hook shooting, a Congressional research report found that students whose schools have SROs might be more likely to be arrested for low-level crimes. But the report also found that SROs may discourage students from committing assaults at school or bringing weapons and may encourage reporting of crimes.
But Oregon city officials assure that the officers promote a healthy relationship between the police and the community, in addition to keeping students safe.
“[It’s about] assuring parents that we are interested in making sure their students are safe,” Oregon police Chief Michael Navarre said. “Not only are we dealing with a real problem but we’re dealing with a perceived problem.”
For generations who grew up before SROs became commonplace, the officers often carry a stigma. Shane Jimerson, an expert on school violence who teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said adults often perceive SROs as intimidating and disciplinary figures. Typically, officers’ sole purpose is to facilitate student safety and be aware of potential threats on school grounds, he added.
But SROs in elementary schools are “extremely rare,” Mr. Jimerson said.
But during Mr. Navarre’s career at the Toledo Police Department, officer presence in the schools has long been effective for community policing, he said. He added that one SRO was able to identify a suspect in a 7-Eleven murder after a student approached him with information.
For decades, SROs have patrolled Oregon’s junior high and high school, Mr. Gregory said. And the services have been at no cost to the schools. But for the next three officers, the police department and school system will split the cost. If the memorandum of understanding passes, the program, which would require the police department to bring on three new officers, would roll out in January, Mr. Navarre said.
“We recognize that we need to be proactive in all of our schools,” Ms. Molnar said. “Each school [that] is attacked by people with guns, it’s a reminder that we really need to get this done.”
Contact Hailey Fuchs at hfuchs@theblade.com, 419-724-6050, or on Twitter @Hailey_Fuchs.
First Published June 24, 2018, 11:06 p.m.
