School Discipline with and without School Resource Officers

• In Event: School Safety and Security: Emerging Patterns in Policy and Practice

Abstract

A study was conducted in Massachusetts high schools to determine the disciplinary impact of School Resource Officers. Twenty-five school administrators and fifteen SROs were the subjects of intensive interviews, which represented fourteen schools with SROs and a control group of eleven schools without, matched for size and socio-economic status. The in-person interviews focused on the disciplinary responses of SROs and administrators to hypothetical behavioral situations involving students. These responses were then coded as either an informal social control reaction or a formal social control response. The goal was to ascertain how decisions were made to arrest, suspend, expel or otherwise involve SROs in enforcing school codes of conduct. The relationship between the SROs and the administration was found to be predicated on the punishment philosophy and perspective of the principal and vice-principal. Those administrators adopting a zero-tolerance approach to discipline were more likely to instruct the SROs to use harsh formal social control measures, regardless of the wishes of the SRO. Schools without SROs used informal social control processes based on interpersonal relationship building between the administration and the students and including parental input and involvement, resulting in fewer school exclusions and more effective behavioral management and control.

Author

• Aviva Rich-Shea, Massasoit Community College