“You may want to look at what the police actually do. They don’t just “patrol the schools” and go home. They actually do go on regular old get the bad guy duty as well.”
Regular police definitely have a variety of duties, but the man in question was a Sheriff’s Deputy assigned full-time to that particular school. It’s not uncommon in Florida, apparently because we have them here too. The official title of that deputy is School Resource Officer, but he’s just like any other Deputy. The one difference is that other Deputies have different duties assigned to them in different areas, but SROs are generally assigned to a single school and spend their entire active day at that same school.
I’ve often questioned whether it makes sense to have a full time SRO in our schools. To me, it seems unnecessary - a fully trained and armed Deputy spending full time in a school that (in most cases) needs Deputy type services once or twice a month? But the one big issue that it makes sense to have a full time SRO Deputy to address is … school shootings. Having a Deputy armed and with body armor onsite and ready to address unfolding violence is the single biggest reason to actually have a full time SRO Deputy. If we don’t expect an SRO Deputy to go in and face an active school shooter situation, then why the heck would we need a full time SRO? Either these SRO Deputies should be fully expected to engage and address ongoing and active violence or we should stop wasting the resources having them at schools.
I’d like to look into it, @yourmomma, so perhaps you can provide me with a cite or two about what school resource officers do in Florida. I figured the school resource officer for an upscale suburban high school would be stationed at the school, not handling drug shootouts in sleazy neighborhoods.
“I’d like to look into it, @yourmomma, so perhaps you can provide me with a cite or two about what school resource officers do in Florida. I figured the school resource officer for an upscale suburban high school would be stationed at the school, not handling drug shootouts in sleazy neighborhoods.”
You’re correct about what SROs do in our part of Florida and from what I have read about Broward as well. An SRO is assigned full time to a school and spends his/her entire day at that school, not on general patrol. There are a few cases where two schools share an SRO, but the SRO is only splitting time between schools, not some school time and some general patrol time.
My son’s high school has an SRO and while I like the guy, I think it’s a huge waste of resources to spend $100k (fully loaded cost including benefits) to have a full time Deputy at the school. It’s a magnet school drawing from a relatively affluent and low crime area, so arrests are extremely rare. The SRO spends his days patrolling the campus and putting on special programs such as drug prevention and safety programs. For the once a year when the school has a situation requiring a Deputy, I have no idea why it wouldn’t be a lot more cost efficient to just call 911, especially given that the school is located literally right next to the main Sheriff’s Depot in the area. Yes, the school and Sheriff’s Depot share a fence they are that close.
The only possible justification that makes sense to me for having a full time SRO on campus is to address unfolding and ongoing violence, such as a school shooter situation. So yes, if my son’s school had a shooting situation, I would expect the SRO to engage and address that situation.
A big portion of the SRO job is to have a presence in the high school and build a rapport with students. Cop = someone you can trust and talk to. Educating, mentoring, building positive relationships. It’s not all about defending the school and enforcing.
I know everyone would like to point a finger at this guy but we need to figure out what the proper procedure is. I know the Sheriff said it was wrong, but what are they actually taught to do? It seems to me that police generally wait for back up. I doubt it is as simple as if you hear shots, you run in firing your weapon.
Police nowadays have an impossible job. Some want them to shot first and ask questions later and others want them to talk it out first.
They are checking into what should be done now and we should hear soon.
According to the two articles linked earlier in the thread, the gold standard of response is not to wait for back up, but to go in as soon as possible to address the situation. Sad lesson learned from Columbine.
Here are the two articles describing the gold standard response:
To Serve and Protect is the motto of just about every police department in the country. There are more Chicago policemen killed off duty then on duty. Then again they are trained that they are never really off duty. The officer stationed at the school was wrong. Other officers from that department are now being investigated since the chief of another police department informed them of what his men observed. He has now opened himself up to lawsuits from the parents.
You can look up various intergovernmental agreements online regard SROs. But do realize, school is in session, what 180 days/year or thereabouts? So these police do other things as well. The one at the HS in the next town does the weekend night shift, breaking up parties and such – don’t ask me how I know.
If Cruz was still shooting at the time, I don’t know how anyone can forgive the deputy not following the protocol for fear of his safety. Trade a kid’s life for his safety? He was in less danger than kids. He had protective gear.
There are two sides to every story and, through his attorney, the disgraced SRO is starting to tell his. I’m tempted to copy/paste parts of the statement, but it really needs to be read in full.
If the details provided by the officer in sherpa’s story as provided by the police officer are accurate, it sounds like he did exactly what he was supposed to. It is unfair for anyone to jump to conclusions, particularly his superior officer, who should let the investigation unfold.
Ok. Say he was armed with a glock. Do we know what kind of protective gear he might have had. Do SROs go to work everyday in SWAT gear? Do we even know for a fact he was wearing a bullet proof vest?
It amazes me that unarmed teachers with no body armor will take steps at risk of their own lives to try to protect students–from VA Tech to Sandy Hook to Parkland–while trained police with body armor and weapons will cower outside and just let kids die. They KNEW people were dying, and they didn’t even try to intervene. They are frauds. Don’t make excuses for them.
They are TRAINED and paid quite well to do this. If they don’t want to do it, they should not take the job. They may feel like big men, prancing around with a gun, but when it came down to it, they were … not.
How vivid the contrast between them and the Chicago officer cited above. How vivid the contrast between them and Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung and therapist Diane Day who, when they heard the shots, instead of cowering in the office and blocking the door, ran out into the hallway to try to intervene. Unarmed, unarmored women and educators, people despised and reviled by every anti-educator demagogue…people usually quick to idolize LEOs and “first responders.”
It makes me sick.
ETA: I failed to mention Liviu Librescu, a 76 yr old Holocaust survivor, who died trying to protect his students at VT. And of course the teachers at Parkland.
Did you read the post above #54 , @Consolation, with the link to Peterson’s lawyers statement and a timeline from their side of the story? Who knows what the truth is right now. I’ll withhold judgment until more facts come out, if they come out. Details are very scarce right now about what happened in those several minutes. Right now I don’t think anyone here has enough info to make an educated judgment either way.
