Middletown panel recommends keeping police in schools
MIDDLETOWN CT June 28 2021 — Amid calls to remove police officers from the city’s schools, an education board committee has voted to mostly keep them, while adjusting the program.
The student resource officer exploratory committee was asked to vote on 11 points on whether to eliminate police in the schools or make changes to the program.
The majority of the group voted Wednesday against fully maintaining the program.
They voted to remove SROs from the primary schools and phasing out SROs and replacing them with mental health workers. Nearly all members voted to support an updated agreement between the education board and police department.
The full Board of Education will consider the panel’s recommendations and vote on a final decision.
Earlier this month, more than a dozen people offered insights and first-hand perspectives to the panel on whether SROs are needed in district schools. The debate has been playing out across the nation in response to calls last year to defund the police.
Middletown Police Chief Michael Timbro, who said he’s been contacted by many parents about the program, said SROs are “invaluable” to building relationships with youth, especially in the elementary schools.
SROs do that “before, unfortunately, maybe the first time they met an officer was in a crisis” or domestic violence. “They’re scared and already shaken,” said Timbro, who has mentored a primary school student.
When he went in to the classroom the first few times, children looked at him in surprise, he said.
“Some of them were already scared,” he said.
Eventually, the chief built a relationship with his mentee and other students, which he found “phenomenal.”
At the “three- or four-month mark, the kids were wondering where was Officer Timbro? Why isn’t he here today? They were looking forward to it,” he said.
Over the past few years, Timbro said, the force would not have known about violent incidents in town if students weren’t comfortable alerting the SROs.
He also sees the other side of the issue — that students may be uncomfortable with police in the schools. Timbro suggested the SROs could meet with students and their parents, teachers, counselors or others to talk about concerns.
Sgt. Bill Porter told panel members police have a “great” relationship with school administrators.
“We’re all just a phone call away,” he said.
However, Board of Education Chairwoman Lisa Loomis referenced a national study conducted earlier this year that examined 133 incidents that occurred between 1980 and 2019 “in which at least one person was intentionally shot in a school or a person arrived at a school heavily armed.” Among those, 85 percent were current or former students under 21, she said.
“An armed guard was on the scene in almost a quarter of the cases,” she said.
The death rate was nearly three times higher when armed guards were present, which, the study said, may be because shooters anticipate security personnel and come more heavily armed, Loomis said.
Many parents and students have said there is a need for mental health support, especially in the wake of the pandemic. Social workers and psychologists are more equipped to deal with those situations, Loomis said.
One student told Loomis he had to wait three months to talk to someone at the local health center, she said.
After reviewing the evidence, Loomis said, she’s determined SROs “create an illusion of school safety while contributing to a fear for students.”
The city has never defined the program, she said.
“About 10 years ago, we were among the top high schools in the state for arrests, and that rate has gone down,” said Loomis, who questioned whether that has declined because of SROs or an increase in restorative justice practices.
Most school districts in Connecticut do not have SROs, Loomis said.
“We need to be more intentional and imaginative in the work we’re doing,” said Youth Services Coordinator Justin Carbonella, who recommended officials “flip that script” of police-centered solutions instead of engaging youth in the process.
“There’s a broader world view we need to bring in,” Carbonella said
Parent Diana Martinez said she doesn’t know what her children’s rights are when they are in school without the presence of their parents if they are arrested or questioned by police.
“We have a responsibility as a district to say ‘we’re going to have officers in this school, here’s how they’ve been trained, their scope of practice, and what rights parents and children have,’” Martinez said.
Middletown Press
