Security shortages: Private firm pulls out of South Bend schools partnership
The document also outlines desired training for how best to interact with students with disabilities, how to recognize one’s own biases and how to navigate the affects of trauma on childhood development.
The school district may also, at its own expense, provide additional training on implicit bias, restorative justice and the corporation’s recently reworked code of conduct, called Shared Rights and Responsibilities.
Though SROs are not responsible for enforcing school policy and disciplining students — that’s a job overseen by school administrators — they can remind students of rules in their buildings.
Officers should be selected using a joint committee with representatives from both the police department and school district, according to the new draft. A designee at the police department will make a selection based on the committee’s recommendations. A superintendent or other school official can ask for an officer’s removal given a written justification for the request.
Responsibilities similar in new contract
The new document outlines similar administrative aspects of SRO responsibilities — including the uniforms they wear, the department-issued equipment they carry, and the hours of work they conduct.
The SROs are sworn law enforcement officers and as such have a duty to investigate crime and make arrests. Resource officers should inform a principal or other administrator as soon as possible if police action is taken on school property.
The draft agreement contains significant overlap with current policies describing officers’ functions within schools. The proposed contract states officers should take a proactive approach to policing that could include gathering “intelligence on gang activity, burglaries, juvenile crime, etc.” on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood.
Students charged: Parent says Clay High School fight started with a slur
The officers have authority under the proposed contract to conduct investigations involving students which may lead the officer “to leave school campus.”
The proposed agreement also encourages officers to adopt a mentor mentality and educational opportunities for teachers, students and parents to learn about crime prevention, drug abuse or violence, using approved materials upon a faculty member’s request.
The draft also, for the first time in writing, contains a provision on data sharing, saying the district should make available to the police department aggregated reports on disciplinary action, like school-based arrests, citations and court referrals for students.
This information, also shared with the Department of Education, should not contain any information that makes a student identifiable.
Give your feedback
The city convened a public meeting in June as it first embarked on drafting a new agreement with the school district. In that meeting, city and South Bend police officials led a series of roundtable discussions asking the community what they would like to see in the next contract.
The South Bend school corporation also conducted a survey on the topic, though some community activists expressed early doubt in its results, saying the survey failed to take into the account the opinion of those who would prefer to see officers removed from schools completely.
Community weighs in: City, police have forum to discuss SROs in South Bend
The city and school district are now convening a second public meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Riley High School to consider feedback on the proposed contract.
A South Bend schools spokeswoman said the results of the school resource officer survey would be shared publicly in a Dec. 6 school board meeting, where trustees are expected to vote on a proposed SRO agreement.
Share your views
Public meeting to consider feedback on proposed agreement to keep police officers in South Bend Community School Corp. buildings.
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Riley High School, 1902 Fellows St., South Bend
Email South Bend Tribune education reporter Carley Lanich at clanich@gannett.com . Follow her on Twitter: @carleylanich .
