SRO = SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICER

 When I was a kid we simply called him "sir" and behaved ourselves .... at least the people I hung out with did.
He was a really nice guy .... I didn't even know he was our SRO, or even what and SRO was, until someone stole my bag one day and stole my brand new calculator and my money ... it was found in the 3rd floor boys room (the bag, not the stuff - that was long gone)

The officer was very up front with me ... told me that chances were that I was never going to get any of it back, so he was shocked that even the bag was found ... 

Nowadays - I feel so ancient using that term - kids are likely to see their SROs everyday as they enter the school ... well, mine did in the high school .... my youngest graduated 5-6 years ago and ALL students went in through 1 door ... 
Why that one door?
My daughter explained that it had a metal detector built into the door frame - and since they all had to pass through only one at a time, it was easier to catch those bringing weapons into the school.

Now you have to realize --
I went to school in Minneapolis ... I was used to the occasional fight in the hallway, but most of the illegal stuff I knew of (apparently I was very innocent, according to my brothers), took place OUTSIDE the range of the school.

My kids went to the same high school/school district my husband did.  He says he could believe it ... more on this later.

So, in the "20Teens" the not onky had the officers stationed at the door to catch knives coming into the school -- although I hadn't heard of any incidents on school grounds -- they also took advantage of running through with a K9 unit at least once a month.

Well, last year the MN state legislature passed a new law which strictly limited what/how a SRO could react to how a student acted ... prompted by an officer up north who handcuffed an unruly 8 yr old to get then to calm down.

And schools in Minneapolis are NOT as easy-going as they used to be ... doesn't seem to be a day that goes by where the cops aren't called to a school because of a fight, or a stabbing, or worse - gun fire!

And we aren't simply talking the high schools anymore either!

There have been multiple occasions where in the state of MN an elementary aged child has brought a firearm into the school.

So this law was passed ... the SRO - usually retired or off-duty officers - wanted some clarification ... they felt the law was too vague.
It did not say what "appropriate" force or restraint was ... remember most of these people are/were police officers, so they've been trained to handle certain situations a certain way.

The lawmakers simply said the law said it all.

There was a sudden firing of SRO officers, en masse, because the schools weren't going to take a chance.
There was a suddent up tick in incidents where the schools really wished they had a SRO on hand ...
There was a lack of enthusiasm of former SROs to return to work when asked -- can't really blame them.
There was a continued lack of response to define things in the new law by the legislature.

Yes, there are SOME SROs back to work ... but I'm guessing they are not as diligent as they should/would be for fear of being sured, fired from their main job, or jailed.

Its a tough situation.

But still - the legislature took up looking at the language in the bill this last week ... and have done NOTHING o straighten anything out.
Other than to say, there's a concern that SROs are more likely to "harrass" a minority student than a white student.

Um ... in Minneapolis/St. Paul the MAJORITY of the students are of minoriy groups.
Instead of looking at which kids are causing the issues (any race/color) and looking to see how effective the SROs are at prevening issues ... they simply look at numbers, only numbers, only statistics...

and we know what I always say ...

Statistics can lie!

Hopefully, this will get straightened out before long, before something really bad happenes.

Now back to hubby ... he says that according to state law, all kids under the age of 16 MUST attend school (now they can do homeschooling) ... if a child gets kicked out of all the schools in their school district or it is found by the court that the child cannot avoid whatever issue is causing the problem, those kids are being "shipped" off to other, smaller districts such as the one my kids went to ... in the hopes that they would get away from the problems.

They never counted on these kids acttually bringing the problems with them to the new school district.

sign.

No one thinks far enough ahead.