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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-21-20 Public Comment - C. O'Connor - School Resource OfficersFrom:agenda@bozeman.net To:Agenda Subject:Thank you for your public comment. Date:Sunday, June 21, 2020 4:20:52 PM A new entry to a form/survey has been submitted. Form Name:Public Comment Form Date & Time:06/21/2020 4:20 PM Response #:461 Submitter ID:27866 IP address:2600:6c67:5080:4cca:81f9:8c7a:bc89:bd5f Time to complete:6 min. , 45 sec. Survey Details Page 1 Public comment may be submitted via the form below, or by any of the following options. Public comment may also be given at any public meeting. Email: agenda@bozeman.net Mail to: Attn: City Commission PO Box 1230 Bozeman, MT 59771 In-person delivery to: Due to City Hall's closure in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in-person delivery of comments is not available until further notice. First Name Chris Last Name O'Connor Email Address MCOC1203@GMAIL.COM Phone Number 6169285868 Comments It was a disappointment to learn that the Bozeman Schools Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent and, apparently, the Bozeman City Commission, are not even examining whether we should keep the School Resource Officer program. The Superintendent and Deputy’s position seems to be that the SROs are like teachers and counselors; they are good guys whom everyone likes. This does not addresses whether our kids need to have gun-carrying police in our schools. I’d easily agree that the SROs have counselor and teacher-like interactions with the kids, and, further, that they probably are well-liked, pleasant people. But, so what? There is no need to have police filling the roles that much better trained teachers and counselors fill. The basic training offered by the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) is one week. Or you can have advanced training in 3 days. Or, how about NASROs specialty course in “Adolescent Mental Health”? That “course” lasts a day and a half. This simply does not compare to the education of teachers and mental health counselors. For example, to be a school counselor you need a master’s degree that includes SIX HUNDRED HOURS of internship in a school setting! So, the idea that we need the SROs for their counseling/teacher/mentor roles just doesn’t hold up. Others are better prepared for these roles and carry them out without carrying a weapon. What about the argument that the SROs keep the students safer and reduces crime? This is hard to research but overall there is no good evidence that safely is improved or that student crime goes down. You can see from the NASRO report "The SRO & the Prevention of Violence in Schools" that their “evidence” that SROs prevent student crime is mostly based on the fact the juvenile arrests in the USA have decreased over the past few decades just as the use of SROs have increased. But here’s the problem with that argument: all crime, adult as well as juvenile, has decreased; so we can hardly credit SROs for this outcome. Do SROs prevent school shootings? Sadly, no. The chances that an SRO is going to be able to stop a school shooter is minimal because he’d have to just happen to be in the right spot in a huge school building. And, again, there is no good evidence that the presence of an SRO prevents a school shooter. Finally it seems that we, the tax payers, are being sold the idea that this is a good monetary bargain because the school only pays 50% of the cost, while the City picks up the other half. But we, the tax payers, pay 100% no matter how it is sliced up. So, City Commissioners, please do us, Bozeman citizens, at last the courtesy of looking into whether we should keep the SROs. There are plenty of good reasons not to, reasons to send them back to regular police duty, reasons to have teachers and counselors be the ones to do the teaching and counseling. Most of all, there is no good reason to turn our schools into places where armed police have to be present. Please don’t make your decision about this based on statements about them being “great with the kids”, or being “an integral part of our schools”. Look the real issue, look at the research, look at the training levels. Then decide whether armed police in school are necessary. If you would like to submit additional documents (.pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .gif, .jpg, .png, .rtf, .txt) along with your comment, you may alternately address agenda@bozeman.net directly to ensure receipt of all information. Thank you, City Of Bozeman This is an automated message generated by the Vision Content Management System™. Please do not reply directly to this email.