Applied Research on School Resource Officers: Issues Local Politics and Responsiveness

• In Event: The Politics of School Safety Research: Challenges, Solutions, and Strategies

Abstract

Discussants will provide an illustration of experiences with the politics of conducting longitudinal school safety research in an urban school district struggling with equity, sense of belonging, and negative perceptions of school resource officers. From the onset, researchers coped with a change in district leadership (i.e., superintendent). Soon after, the district garnered national media attention after a viral incident involving an SRO-student interaction that led to using a TASER on a 14-year-old student. Since then, the district has been ensnared in a grassroots movement to remove SROs, leading to the research context becoming even more complicated as the district responded to criticisms by proposing a school district police force that would increase police presence in local schools and eliminate the SRO contract. Community uproar and knee-jerk responses led to an element of uncertainty regarding district support for and the utility of the study. Ultimately, the implementation of a racial equity policy and racial equity analysis tool combined with a step back from the creation of a school police force affirmed the timeliness and importance of the study.

Authors

• Cherie Dawson-Edwards, University of Louisville

• Benjamin W. Fisher, University of Louisville