A School Resource Officer Program: A Critical Analysis of Arrests at School

• In Event: Evaluations of Equity and Social Justice–Oriented Programs

Abstract

This study used Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the Critical Race Quantitative Intersectionality (CRQI) framework to examine who was arrested by School Resource Officers (SROs). Participants included middle and high school students enrolled between the 2015-16 and 2019-20 school years. Student characteristic variables included gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. These socially constructed and essentialized variables were merged to create an intersectional variable: gender, race/ethnicity, and SES. Crosstabulations, chi-square tests for independence and binary logistic regression were used to determine the nature and strength of relationships between variables. Analyses using the intersectional variable uncovered statistically significant results not found using the traditional essentialized variables, indicating disproportional use of arrest for female and male students of color and economically disadvantaged students.

Authors

• Rachel Kane-Kirkpatrick, Washington County Public Schools - Maryland

• Tiffany Wright, Millersville University