"I See Something Different": A Critical Analysis of Policy Arguments About School Resource Officers

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eighteen
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Racial Disparities in Exclusionary School Discipline Policy (Table 9)

Abstract

This paper examines sociological theories about inequality and social justice that emerged in the debate about school resource officers (SROs) in a large urban school district. A critical analysis of multiple data sources revealed that community members who opposed and favored SROs had similar motivations related to racial and social justice, but they had different theoretical understandings of the role that schools play in societal inequality. Those in favor of SROs were likely to draw on refractory theories, which contend that schools have the potential to exacerbate, be neutral in, or alleviate societal inequality, whereas those opposed to SROs were likely to draw on conflict theory, which contend that schools exist to reproduce and reinforce societal inequality. 

Author

• Kate Somerville, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author