Your Questions, Answered: SRO at Red Jacket
Informal (and very untimely) minutes from the August 10th SRO Public Hearing
In a move that should surprise no one following the events that unfolded in Red Jacket on April 1st of this year, the school has decided to engage a full-time School Resource Officer (SRO) for the 2022-2023 school year.
The school held a public hearing back on August 10th to present the terms of its contract with the Ontario County Sheriff’s Department and field questions from community members. The following is a run-down of what was discussed.
Note: All of the answers and most of the questions in the Q&A are direct quotes from the hearing.
SROs at Red Jacket: A Brief History
Red Jacket first hired a SRO for the 2017-2018 school year. This was a part-time SRO. Anyone interested can find some details about billing rate, hours, and final cost to the school in this resolution.
Of course, the majorly-disruptive Covid-19 pandemic was right around the corner. “In 2019, due to the pandemic, schools were forced to close their buildings and, if they could, they were to provide their students with online learning,” began Red Jacket Superintendent Charlene Dehn. “However, the primary concern in our district during this time was the growing mental health needs of our students. Disruptions related to the Covid-19 pandemic, such as online and hybrid instruction, social isolation, and family hardship caused an alarming increase in mental health needs.”
In the 2019-2020 academic year, the SRO program was “paused” due to hybrid learning (for Red Jacket, this meant that only about 50% of students were in school at a time), a reduction in NY State aid, and the loss of SRO funding from BOCES, according to Dehn. The district instead shifted its focus to address the unfolding mental health crisis by hiring additional counseling staff (the resignation of a couple of these counselors is expected to be announced at tomorrow night’s Board of Education meeting, by the way).
During the 2021-2022 school year, when New York State announced that it would resume providing aid to schools, Red Jacket again decided to again seek a part-time SRO for the 2022-2023 year. Talks between the district and the Sheriff’s department began in February of this year. Following the events of April 1st, however, the School Board and administration alike agreed that a full-time officer was now preferable. According to Dehn, the cost of a full-time SRO was carried by the 2022-2023 budget, in which no tax levy increase was proposed and which voters approved by a significant majority: 80-20.
Red Jacket and the Ontario County Sheriff’s Department have brokered and signed a contract for a full-time SRO. The contract, which is typical of all such contracts between Ontario County schools and the Sheriff’s Department, was approved by the Board of Supervisors at their August 4th meeting and by the Board of Education on August 10th.
About the SRO Program
“The SRO is an educator, a counselor, and police officer. First and foremost a police officer. But, again, I want to emphasize working collaboratively with the school community as an instructor and a counselor when appropriate and necessary.” -Ontario County Sheriff Philip Povero
The overarching goal of the SRO program is to support school districts’ missions to help as many students as possible receive their high school diplomas. According to Povero, “The school resource officer program is designed to provide education, law enforcement, and counseling to students. It is clearly an attempt to deter criminal behavior through positive interactions during and after school hours.” He went on to emphasize that the SRO program is a form of community policing, wherein a deputy is assigned to a specific community and devotes his or her time to identifying issues and problems that exist there. “Many times, the issues that we identify in schools […] take us outside of the immediate school setting and into the community. […] And if the issues that are inhibiting a student from obtaining a valuable and viable education exist outside the school walls, our school resource officers will work to support the rectification and solving of those issues as they exist and as they are found.”
The SRO program follows the recommendations put forth by the US Department of Justice and US Department of Education in their Safe School-based Enforcement through Collaboration, Understanding and Respect (SECURe) Local Implementation Rubric. The recommendations (or “Action Steps”) can be seen below.
Full-time SROs are assigned to their schools for 1,733 hours as outlined in their contracts. The standard hourly rate is up to $72.53; the overtime rate is up to $108.80. (The rate the school is billed depends on the individual deputy’s pay rate, which may be lower.) Schools will be billed on an hourly basis for the time that a SRO spends on duty at their school. The estimated maximum cost to the school over the ten-month academic year is $125,700. The BOCES program has agreed to carry $52,000 of this cost, leaving Red Jacket responsible for the remaining $73,700.
As Sheriff’s deputies, SROs are police officers “first and foremost” and may be “temporarily reassigned by the sheriff as needed,” said Povero. For instance, in the event of an emergency or if school is closed due to severe weather, they may be called away as required by the Sheriff’s Department. The district will not be billed for any hours that the SRO is not present at the school. If the school requests the SRO’s services outside of their regular hours (at an extracurricular event, for example), the county will add this time to the school’s bill.
The SRO’s duties include educating students about law and policing, assisting school administration in developing plans to avoid dangerous situations at school, conferencing with students, staff and/or parents for law enforcement and crime prevention purposes, taking law enforcement action if and when required by law, and more.
According to the agreement, the SRO “shall not act as a School disciplinarian […] The SRO is not to be used for regularly assigned lunchroom duties, hall monitoring, bus duties or other monitoring duties,” although the SRO may be called to assist the school to resolve problems that arise. If the principal believes that the law may have been broken, the SRO may be consulted and can take law enforcement action if appropriate.
Also of note: “The SRO shall be prohibited from detaining or questioning students about their immigration status.”
The agreement can be read in its entirety here: https://4.files.edl.io/a183/08/08/22/175758-fbc59223-8e48-4f7d-ad66-03b8b486b2f5.pdf.
The Q&A/Comment Period
Your question: Did the school consider hiring private security as an alternative to an Ontario County police officer?
Dehn: You may wonder if the school considered hiring their own security person rather than restoring the SRO program. The answer is ‘no.’ I do not recommend this for several reasons. Independent security personnel hired by the school would be a school employee, and which the school would carry the risk and liability. The school would need to ensure that individual had proper training and knowledge to carry out the security duties, provide educational program, participate as an integral member of the emergency response committee, and provide ongoing, updated training for school employees. The school values the educational component of the SRO program, which would be very difficult to duplicate. The individual would not be able to address criminal matters. The individual would not be armed.
Your question: What if Covid makes a comeback and schools are forced to close to in-person learning again?
Dehn: The school may also terminate the agreement upon written notice if we receive a governmental order or there is a school determination that access to the school’s facilities must be restricted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Likewise, the County may terminate or suspend the agreement upon written notice of a governmental order prohibiting the SRO from providing services under the agreement as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Your question: Who is going to make sure that the SRO is aware of community organizations and programs to help students and their families?
Povero: The individuals who have applied are full-time police officers for this particular assignment. In general, I can safely say, that, first of all, coming in, are aware of and understand some of the issues and/or the organizations in the Shortsville-Manchester community. As they become more involved in the school daily operations, they will work with administration, faculty, support staff, the students themselves, to identify organizations that can be beneficial to the students and the campus. For example: any officer that’s coming in or considered for assignment is today very cognizant of an organization called “Youth Court".” He or she would be working closely with Youth Court in an effort to, again, identify issues of a particular individual student and then utilize the resources of Youth Court to try and direct that individual into a setting to solve some issues that could be introduced into the criminal justice system, but because they’re handled by Youth Court, would be held in a non-criminal setting with a goal to solve the problems and keep the students out of the criminal justice system. That’s just one of the programs that the SROs will be involved with. As a collective unit, all of the SROs in our county meet on a monthly basis and they share data and information. They have speakers and presenters that, again, routinely advise them of new situations, laws that have changed that impact what they do, organizations that can help them achieve their goal through some sort of social intervention.
Your question: There are a lot of resources already in the community — and I love that we’re doing this — but a lot of our community members are having trouble accessing resources that are already available. What is the plan of attack to get to those families?
Dehn: One of the cases to the SRO is often connecting those families to the community-based resources that they need. Our school counselors do the same thing. I know there’s waitlists for certain services, so that’s a challenge. Sometimes, the SRO, or even the school counselor, is able to help facilitate that process.
Povero: That’s going to be an obligation of the SRO — to understand what, again, is out there that he or she can help direct a student or his or her family to, again, in an effort to solve issues, resolve problems, and focus on the goal of providing a good education so that each and every student can graduate. We’re looking at ways to enhance our services currently through Ontario County Mental Health, Information Services and some programs I’m not really at liberty to talk about now, but as the superintendent pointed out, we all recognize that we have issues to deal with with emotional health for some students and looking at ways to provide an opportunity to direct those people in a proper channel. We have a pretty good idea who the resources are. Our police officers, on a daily basis, are talking to the public having problems and looking for this type of help, so they’re going to go in with a lot of knowledge. And as they work closely with the schools, that will only enhance and increase their ability to direct people into an arena that could help.
Your comment: I’ve been working with SROs for 18 years now and the SROs already do a lot in our community that you might not be aware of. There’s the Do the Right Thing Program, Shop with a Cop… Red Jacket students benefit the most from these programs because I know the school the most. The SROs are already here. They’re already doing stuff here, you’re just not realizing it. The county sheriffs have been a big part of my time here when I worked here and volunteering here. We did the Service Bowl, so there’s a lot of things that we’ve done in the community. Thank you for seeing the benefit of this program. […] I would encourage everyone to talk to the SRO and get to know them.
Your question: Is the school aware of the cost to other school districts in the county? Canandaigua City School District is being charged $65,000 for a full-time SRO.
Helpful audience member: That’s the city, not the county.
Dehn: Yeah, that’s the city. [Note: The contract is between Canandaigua City School and the city police, not the county. The City of Canandaigua splits the cost with the Canandaigua City school.] And BOCES is sharing the cost of the SRO with us because they benefit from this program. So they are paying $52,000 out of the budget.
Povero: If I could just add that the Schedule A that you saw for a full-time SRO is consistent with any other school district in Ontario County that the Sheriff’s office provides SROs to. All the same numbers.
Your question: Did the school consider hiring two part-time SROs instead of a single full-time officer? Two part-time officers would cost the district only about $91,000 and buy the district more man-hours (2,080 vs 1,733).
Dehn: I have not considered that. I really am concerned about a part-time SRO. We had a part-time SRO previously and it’s really difficult to get part-time SROs, unless they’re retired and they’re older, then maybe you can get them to come back and participate in the SRO program, but it’s very difficult to get SROs when it’s a part-time position. The other piece to that is that I think that we need to establish a solid relationship with one person and have consistency with that person, because they’re going to develop relationships with our staff and our students and that’s our go-to person, rather than having to work out different schedules and piecemeal a couple part-time folks.
Povero: At this point, this position has been developed as a full-time position and all the applicants that have expressed interest in this program are full-time county police officers.
Your question: Can you discuss how the SRO is not a disciplinarian for student issues? Where is the line where an issue would need to be addressed by the SRO? I’m concerned about students getting criminal records as a result of the SRO’s presence. How can we be sure that will not send students down a criminal path?
Dehn: We’ve had an SRO previously, and so we don’t use them as regular disciplinarians, but they work very closely with our staff and our teachers and our principals. So they do provide counsel to all of our staff that they work with. So, they provide advice and they will be involved. If it’s a regular disciplinary matter that the teacher might handle in the classroom or might rise to the level of the principal, they [teachers/principals] will handle that. But staff will go to the SRO and the SRO will be a good resource for the staff. But they don’t – they never have managed regular disciplinary behaviors of students.
You: My main concern is that when we did have a resource officer before, it was a very different time. People dealt with things a lot differently than we do now. Most people are very “Okay. Not a problem,” at this point, and I am concerned that maybe students will be pushed down a criminal path for something that is normal child or learning behavior.
Karen Hall (middle school principal): When I worked with SROs in the past as a middle school principal, I didn’t call an SRO for support unless it was something I would call 911 for – if it was a behavior issue. If it was something I would have called 911 for anyways, where I’d expect a cop to show up, a cop’s going to show up. I use them a lot for education, though, as resources, but in terms of them intervening, it would only be if I would call 911 anyway.
That’s the tipping point [if it’s a dangerous situation]. If I would pick up the phone and call 911 if they [the SRO] weren’t in the building, that’s when I would call the SRO.
Dehn: It’s not necessarily always that way. There’s a lot with social media and threats on social media that we’ll hear about, and they’ll assist with that as well. So, there is a little bit of a gray area, but really it’s, y’know, a dangerous situation. Obviously, we’re going to use an SRO.
Your question: Are staff going to be trained about the appropriate uses of an SRO, or will it be assumed that they should not call an SRO unless a dangerous situation develops?
Dehn: You can fold that into the emergency response training that we provide. We’ve had an SRO in the past, so our staff are pretty, y’know, knowledgeable about that, but I think that’s a really good idea. Thank you.
You: So, that would be implemented before the start of school this year?
Dehn: Yeah, I mean, it probably could…
Hall: …Display their roles and responsibilities and the school’s responsibilities… [People talking over one another made the rest unintelligible.]
Dehn: Yeah, so it would be at the beginning of – it would be in September. At the latest.
You: To be clear, that would be provided to the SRO or to the staff?
Dehn: To the staff.
You: To the staff.
Dehn: Yeah. The SRO will be included, though, in our meetings.
Your question: Will the SRO be used for investigating truancies? Kids that are not in school?
Dehn: We haven’t done that before, but that would be great because we do home visits.
Povero: In the agreement, there is language relative to that, but again, that would be at the behest of the administration, teachers, etc. But school resource officers have been asked to [get] involved in potential truancy issues for a couple of reasons. One could very well be the health and safety of the student. If a student has not been heard or seen from in a couple of days, it could be a public safety concern as well. There could be an issue involving examination or investigation at a home, again to determine the health and welfare of the student. It doesn’t happen often, but it could happen.
Dehn: Yeah, we’ve had a situation like that. I mean, I had to go to a home to check on a student when I was the middle school principal, actually, that hadn’t shown up for school, and it was an abuse situation.
Povero: Generally, they’re not going to act as a truant officer, but if there’s a special circumstance… If the kid isn’t coming to school and parents aren’t in communication, he won’t leave the house, etc. Again, it generally falls on if there’s a question about the health and well-being of the student.
Your question: Over the past couple of years, you’ve seen the horror stories of five year-olds being cuffed by their SROs. Are SROs trained in developmental stages, of social-emotional growth of all the students in the district?
Povero: All school resource officers take a basic training course, if you will, above and beyond their law enforcement training. Which, keep in mind, law enforcement training, school resource officer training, is all developed and approved by New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and Municipal Police Training [unintelligible]. And, clearly, there’s been an added emphasis in recent years on police officers that are coming on the job in service training and school resource officers have as complete an understanding as they can, as laymen, they’re not clinicians, but as laymen to understand the sights and sounds of students that may indicate other additional services beyond the school community are necessary. For example, one of the issues we have a tremendous amount of concern for, and continue to, are recognizing students that come out of an environment that may be impacted by adults that are using drugs, selling drugs, involved in the manufacture of drugs, and trying – again, this is one specific area where, not only do[es] the drug use impact the kids, but the emotional issues being around persons in the home that can impact their school behavior is something that we’d bring to their attention. So there’s a lot of work that goes in.
Your question: In what way will the SRO act as an educator?
Dehn: We’ve had an SRO go into classrooms before, into health class or be invited into any — any of the classrooms to speak as an authority on a topic as a guest speaker. And we’ve used the SRO as a person to provide an assembly for students on various topics. So, we would provide that. We do try to communicate with parents, but we wouldn’t necessarily ask the teacher to communicate with parents if they’re bringing a guest speaker in for one class period. Possibly. It probably depends on the topic. Usually, sensitive topics, we always try to communicate with parents.
You: So, we may be able to access that information if we request it?
Dehn: Yeah.
You: Would that be something that we would have to request?
Dehn: I would request it, yes.
Your question: Do the SROs receive training on working with students that have disabilities?
Dehn: We provide that to our staff through our CSE chair.
Povero: I mean, as an organization, we teach it. All officers are involved in it. Again, it’s basic police training, it’s in-service training, specialized training for the school resource officers, and it’s an evolving area that we try to stay relative with and current with.
Your question: Are the SROs bound by students’ IEPs (Individualized Education Programs)? So, if a student has an IEP that says x, y or z can’t be restricted, are the SROs bound to follow the IEPs?
Dehn: The SRO would only have information if needed about a student. We don’t provide IEP information to all of our staff – only staff that are involved with that particular student. So, if the SRO was going into a classroom to work with – to instruct, or something along those lines – and they needed that information, they would be provided with that information.
Your question: The referral process for the SRO… If a teacher wants to make a referral for an SRO talk to a kid, what’s the process for that? Would the teacher find the SRO in the hallway and informally request the SRO speak with the student? Do the parents have access to the SRO via email? Would parents be able to let the SRO know that their child would like to speak with them?
Dehn: Yes. All of the above. We’re so small, a teacher or principal can reach directly out to the SRO. The SRO will be highly visible, so they will be available. So, you could say, ‘Hey, can you come into my classroom? Can we talk about this topic?’ So, there’s not a specific paper referral process, and it’s not complicated. It’s simply communicating face-to-face or via phone or through email. Parents have access, too.
Povero: Again, that’s an important component of the SRO: communicating not only within the school building, the school itself, but reaching out to the parents in an effort to, again, help the school achieve its goal of providing a good education and working with the families and try to work with them to look at whatever issues may exist that may impede the child from getting a good education.
Your question: Does the SRO carry [a firearm] at all times?
Povero: Yes.
Your question: What kind of attire will they wear? Their police uniforms, or regular attire?
Povero: Per our collective bargaining agreement, we provide a uniform and we provide other soft-type uniforms for the SRO, perhaps a polo shirt or a golf shirt, which clearly identifies them as a police officer, is more applicable to the assignment. But we have more than one uniform available to the SRO.
Your question: Does the SRO carry any other weapons?
Povero: Remember that the SRO is always first and foremost a police officer. So, any equipment that is issued to a police officer is issued to the school resource officer. And, again, I don’t wanna prolong it [the Q&A] any more, either, but always keep in mind that besides this environment, there could be an alarm for a robbery across the street at the gas station. And if there is, that school resource officer is probably going to be the first police officer to respond and arrive. The school resource officer will be driving into this school district every day from his or her home. He or she may encounter a bad motor vehicle crash, a family assault, something where they need to respond as a police officer because that’s first and foremost their job. So they are trained as police officers, they are police officers, and they are equipped as any other police officer.
You: So they would have license to use any of these things [weapons] in the school if they felt they needed to?
Povero: Each weapon we’ve talked about, there’s a force continuum that dictates the level of force that is used regarding the tools, if you will, that are on their belt. And they are all trained in how that [unintelligible]. (See the Sheriff Department’s Use of Force Policy for more information.)
Your question: Any student investigation, especially age-related… Do you investigate anything within the school relating to a student without their parents’ involvement or without a parent knowing, age-based?
Povero: No, if it’s going to be in the school, and with recent legislation, we’re going to involve parents in investigations.
You: Okay. So, it’s going to be a call, like ‘Hey, the SRO needs to speak with your child regarding some type of investigation’? It won’t happen without the parents’—
Dehn: It might be the principal working with the SRO, but the principal would make that phone call, yeah. That’s what we do now if a police officer needs to speak to a younger student, we always call the parent and ask the parent to join us.
You: And what is the age for that?
Dehn: Sixteen.
Hall: I’m going to give one example when that isn’t the case, and it’s when a student reports abuse that their parents are involved in. And that has been – we have investigated those […] without parents knowing in the moment. [The SRO, school counselor and social services would all be involved in a case like this.]
Sheriff Povero offered to answer any additional questions anyone has – just call the Ontario County Sheriff’s Office: “If any persons have any questions that they would still like to address, please feel free to contact my office. I’d be happy to talk to you. Or, if I can’t find an answer, I’ll find somebody that will. Thank you.” The Sheriff’s Office phone number is 585-394-4560; Sheriff Povero’s email is philip.povero@ontariocountyny.gov.