The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

Funding for School Resource Officers May be Lost Due to Budget Cuts

A recent proposal to cut the School Resources Officer (SRO) program, prompted by budget deficits, caused the Montgomery County Council to consider the necessity of having Montgomery County police officers working at middle and high schools.

The County Council voted on Dec. 14 to continue funding the SROs until the end of the school year. Currently nine police officers are distributed among the county’s 25 high schools, 19 officers fewer than last year.

The elimination of the SRO program would save the county government $518,650, according to The Gazette. For the next fiscal year, County Executive Isiah Leggett has suggested that MCPS start paying some of the costs of the SROs. Presently, all the costs of the program are paid for by the county government.

This year, Officer Arnold Aubrey, WJ’s assigned police officer, splits his time among WJ, Walt Whitman and Bethesda-Chevy Chas High Schools. In previous years, WJ had its own dedicated police officer.

Story continues below advertisement

According to Robert Hellmuth, the director of the Department of School Safety and Security for MCPS, one main purpose of the SRO program is to give police officers the opportunity to “build relationships with students.”

WJ’s security team leader Howard Beaubien echoed that idea.

“If police officers are assigned to schools and become a part of the community, and they’re not just here to arrest people, then on some level their presence is a helpful deterrent [to crime],” he said.

However, Hellmuth questioned the effectiveness of the SRO program.

“Many kids didn’t even know there was a police officer assigned to their school,” he said.

Because of the reduction in SROs across the county, the school’ security guards will now have to wait for a police officer to show up in the event of an emergency.

“It’s frustrating,” said Beaubien. “[WJ’s a safe school, but] not every school is as lucky as WJ is.”

Some question the overall effectiveness of the SRO program and wonder about the impacts of having fewer SROs assigned to schools.

Aubrey said that it does not make his job harder to be assigned to more than one high school; if he is busy at one school when an incident occurs at another school he is assigned to, another police officer will be called in to deal with the problem.

Additionally, Beaubien said that his job’s duties “haven’t changed at all” since WJ’s SRO is now assigned to more than one high school.

If a security problem occurs at WJ, MCPS security guards will first call the police’s non emergency number. The police dispatcher who receives the call decides whether to dispatch the call to Aubrey or another police officer stationed near WJ.

During the 2009-2010 school year, police were called to WJ 10 times, including three times for drug possession and twice each for theft and weapons possession. This year, three WJ students have been arrested for drug possession and one has been arrested for having a weapon.

Not everyone is convinced that the amount of police officers assigned to a school affects the number of crimes among students at the school.

“In 90 percent of school shootings there was an SRO assigned to or at the school and it didn’t prevent the crime from happening,” said Hellmuth. “According to year-to-date comparison of serious incidents in all secondary schools in the country, there is no statistical difference [in crime numbers] from the years that an officer was assigned to a specific school and this year.”

0
0
Leave a Comment
Donate to The Pitch
$775
$1000
Contributed
Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of Walter Johnson High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment and cover our annual website hosting costs.

More to Discover
Donate to The Pitch
$775
$1000
Contributed
Our Goal

Comments (0)

All The Pitch Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *