A Critical Discourse Analysis of Public Comments on the Removal of School Resource Officers

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Social Interventions to Improve School Discipline and Student Behavior

Abstract

While school police have had a longstanding presence in public schools, recent policy decisions have called for the termination of their contracts, along with the removal of school resource officers (SROs). Such calls present an urgent research opportunity to investigate how education stakeholders frame their support and opposition to district police changes. The purpose of this study is to examine stakeholders’ discourses about the removal of school police via public comments offered at school board meetings. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, we show that stakeholders discourses regarding school police are shaped by their social location, ideologies, and professional affiliations. Findings reveal fear, justice, and racism inform police-free schools debates.

Authors

• DeMarcus A Jenkins, The Pennsylvania State University

• Kena G. Gomalo, The Pennsylvania State University