Police in the Kindergarten Wing: How Stakeholders View School Resource Officers in Elementary Schools

• In Event: A Cross-Institutional Examination of Discipline Policy Implementation Processes in K–12 Schools

Abstract

Purpose
Following high-profile school shootings, the push to place police in schools has increased. Elementary schools have been no exception, with increasing rates of police in the earliest grade levels. The most recent federal data suggests that 36% of elementary schools have law enforcement in the school at least part time (Musu-Gillette, 2018). As a result, educators, students, and parents are increasingly at the nexus of a merger of two traditionally separate institutions.

Theoretical Framework
This work extends prior studies that have examined and documented the trend towards a merging of the criminal justice system and schooling environments (Hirschfield, 2008; Kupchik, 2010). In this study, we draw on the theoretical framing of institutional logics - the view that different institutions have their own set of beliefs, rationalizations, and control mechanisms.

Data
We draw on qualitative data (interviews and focus groups) as well as surveys from two southern school districts that recently expanded SROs to all elementary schools. We examine the perceptions of the impact of SROs on a number of outcomes – both those in the education realm and those in the safety/security realm. We examine perceptions of SRO impacts from the perspective of the SROs, principals, teachers, students, and parents. Overall, we draw on interview and focus group data from approximately 50 SROs, 30 school administrators, 50 teachers, and 30 students.

Methodology
We analyzed transcripts of interview and focus groups with key stakeholders using an iterative process that allowed for emergent themes to be identified. All transcripts were double-coded and findings were developed through the use of memos and research team discussion.

Results
Our findings suggest that the majority of stakeholders in these elementary school settings view SROs favorably. That said, we do observe ways in which SROs become embedded in school discipline, possibly shifting its focus to more punitive views, and we document how some stakeholders view the SROs as an unnecessary expenditure that could be better spent on teaching and learning. Finally, there is some evidence that SROs can increase students and perhaps faculty members sense of risk, potentially amplifying fear of threats at school.

Significance
Our work expands the understanding of the impact of SROs on schooling environments in several ways. First, my taking an open-ended, qualitative approach, we allowed for the identification of relevant impacts that might not have been anticipated a priori. Second, we add to a growing body of work that examines SRO impacts in the earliest grade levels, completing the larger body of work that has traditionally focused on SRO impacts in the upper grade levels. As the use of SROs continues to expand nationally, this work has the potential to inform both policy and practice to ensure safe and effective schools.

Authors

• Chris Curran, University of Florida

• Benjamin W. Fisher, Florida State University

• Samantha Viano, George Mason University

• Aaron Kupchik, Dept of Sociology and Criminal Justice

• Brandon Coffey, University of Louisville