There is a Better Way: An Urban District’s Approach to School Safety

• In Event: School Safety and Discipline

Abstract

Few moments initiated a priority to rethink police presence in schools, like the events at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina, where School Resource Officer (SRO) Ben Fields slammed a fifteen-year-old Black female student on the floor and handcuffed her for refusing to turn over her cell phone to her classroom teacher. The entire event was caught on camera. Since that horrific occurrence in 2015, a spate of similar instances of police officers stationed within schools, commonly referred to as school resource officers (SROs), abusing students have surfaced. Using standpoint theory to frame this case study, we see how one urban district, through their employment of district-employed School Security Officers (SSO), offers an alternative approach to addressing school safety and, simultaneously, student wellbeing.

Author

• Keith E. Benson, Rutgers University - Camden