Student resource officers debate heats up in Montgomery County
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. - The debate continues over student resource officers (SROs) in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).
Tuesday night, a panel discussion featuring local and state education leaders and law enforcement officials was held to discuss school safety and the role SROs play.
Parents, students, and community members had the chance to ask questions and share their concerns about SROs in schools.
Susan Burkinshaw, treasurer of Community Partners for Public Safety, the organization that hosted Tuesday’s forum, tells FOX 5 SROs need to be back in schools.
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"We’ve seen this incredibly horrific violent crime wave go through not just our schools but our communities and to know that SROs are the best practice in public safety and our schools in Maryland. Montgomery County is an island with no SRO’s," Burkinshaw said. "No one else has pulled their SROs out of school. So why should our kids not have the benefit of something that every other kid around the beltway has?"
MCPS parent Dana Noga says one of her children is a student who goes to Magruder High School.
RELATED: Should school resource officers return to curb violence in Montgomery Co. public schools?
She said while she can’t say if having an SRO would’ve changed anything during January’s shooting, she does feel students are not as safe without them.
"The SRO program needs to come back into the schools as it was," Noga said. "Maybe improved. There may be some improvements that can be made, but the current proposal for the CEO doesn’t allow for the officers to engage with the students like the SRO programs."
One group advocating against SROs in Montgomery County Schools is Racial Justice NOW!
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Zakiya Sankara-Jabar, co-founder, and co-director says her son is a 9th grade student in MCPS.
Sankara-Jabar said if officers return, they may consider taking her son out of school.
"He’s very apprehensive about police, and he looks at school as a safe place, but I’m afraid if the police are actually brought into the schools, it will no longer be a safe place from his perspective," Sankara-Jabar said.
"I get moms and dads who see police as making them safer, that’s unfortunately not my experience as a Black mother. I don’t see police as safety for my son."
FOX 5 also spoke to the official responsible for the training of all SROs in the state of Maryland. He said the amount of training for SROs has increased from 40 to 70 hours.