Connections between the Racial and Ethnic Make Up of the Student Body and School Safety Personnel Use

• In Event: Racial/Ethnic Equity and School Safety

Abstract

Debates about whether schools should employ school resource officers (SROs) or mental health professionals in their efforts to keep schools safe have intensified. However, there are almost no studies that have empirically compared these approaches. Such comparisons are important for improving school safety but also for ensuring student wellbeing. A focus on the experiences of racial and ethnic minority students is especially important given the large literature on how school safety approaches have harmed this group. In this study, we argue that it is important to understand the differences, and similarities, in how SROs and mental health professionals implement their duties, as well as how this implementation of duties varies in schools with a majority minority student population versus a majority White student population. To these ends, we pair school-level data from elementary, middle, and high schools participating in Arizona’s School Safety Program with survey data from SROs and school-based mental health professionals at these schools.

Authors

• Kay S. Varela, Arizona State University

• Andrea N. Montes, Arizona State University

• Sarah Lindstrom Johnson, Arizona State University

• Angelica Lopez, Arizona State University

• Brooke Johnson, Arizona State University

• Alexis Klemm, Arizona State University

• Anthony Peguero, Arizona State University