A new statewide poll, conducted for the Arizona Department of Education, has found that 78 percent of respondents consider school safety very important and 81 percent support having a law enforcement officer on campus.
The support for School Resource Officers (SRO) and other student safety measures is shared by state lawmakers, school officials, and school board members. In response, the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) has offered school safety grants to fund school resource officers, counselors, or social workers.
Although the deadline for grant applications was April 15, the Department of Education is granting exceptions for late applications through April 22.
In the Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD), parents and school board members are also hoping to use money from an extension of the district’s maintenance and operations override to hire SROs. Currently, the board is considering whether or not to place an extension request on the upcoming November ballot.
The override would raise $21.5 million annually, and school Board member Amy Carney would like to see some of that money spent on increasing SROs. Currently the district only employees eleven SROs on its twenty-nine campuses.
“Children’s safety is our number one priority,” said Jan Dubauskas, a parent of SUSD students. “SUSD should take every opportunity to keep our children safe. It’s extremely disappointing and alarming that SUSD does not do everything they can to prioritize our children’s safety.”
“It is clear that school safety is jeopardized to advance the anti-gun agenda to the detriment of our children,” said education activist and Scottsdale resident Shiry Sapir. “Not only do we need SROs in high schools but also in elementary and middle schools. Many officers say that they can detect gang and drug activity early on and prevent matters from getting worse. Furthermore, in the anti-police environment we are sadly experiencing, it is imperative to promote the cultivation of positive relationships between law enforcement and children, especially in low income and marginalized communities. The notion that a social worker can serve the same function in regards to safety as an SRO is not only naive, but it is flat out dangerous and irresponsible. Every parent should reject school policies that don’t support full protection of their children while they are in the care of the schools. This is not about the Second Amendment. This is about life and death. It is that simple.”
Dubauskas and Sapir are referring to SUSD’s administration which only applied for the Arizona Department of Education grants to fund social workers, which is why Carney is looking to the override money.
“If we plan to ask our taxpayers to fund another override for SUSD, we need to ensure the money is allocated where they want it to go,” said Carney. “School safety is a priority; therefore, we must find a way to get School Resource Officers and Security on all our campuses. We cannot allow any excuses to delay the needed protection of our students and staff.”
One of the excuses used by school administrators who prefer teacher-union aligned social workers over SROs, is a shortage of officers. That might be why Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne sent a letter to mayors statewide, asking them to get behind the ADE’s efforts to support SROs.
In his letter, Horne writes, “School safety is of paramount importance to all of us and my office is eager to work with you to help fund appropriate resources for our schools. My priority is placing more uniformed officers in schools to help ensure a safe learning environment while also developing meaningful relationships with students, parents, and educators alike.”
According to Horne, “there are countless examples of the positive impact School Resource Officers (SROs) have had across our state. The 2020 National Police Foundation’s School Resource Officers Averted School Violence Special Report is full of case studies that “describe planned targeted violence at K – 12 schools that were averted through the actions of the potential attacker’s peers, SROs, school administrators, and other school safety stakeholders.”
It is the success of SROs that makes the position of anti-SRO administrators like SUSD’s Superintendent Scott Menzel so hard to fathom. It is especially hard to understand given the fact that a little less than a year ago, an SRO in one of SUSD’s schools took quick action to protect students.
In an email to SUSD parents, Menzel discussed the dangerous situation and difficulty hiring officers. Contrary to his current position, he stated at the time that he would “continue to work to recruit and retain the best personnel to keep our schools safe.” He wrote:
Recent Arcadia High School Situation – “See Something, Say Something”
Oftentimes, students are the first to become aware of a threat, and that is why we encourage them to take what they see and hear seriously and report any perceived threat or suspicious activity to a school administrator. It is what we call “See Something, Say Something.” An illustration of how that and other security protocols work together includes an incident that took place at Arcadia High School just last week. Two students reported that another student might have brought a gun to school that day. The principal and School Resource Officer located the student and, as a precaution, placed the campus on lockdown. The student was brought to the office and was determined to be in possession of a weapon. The student informed police and administrators that he had the weapon in response to off-campus concerns. There was no direct threat to students or staff at Arcadia. Regardless, additional Phoenix Police officers responded and the student was taken into custody. We are grateful to the students who reported their concern and thankful for the way Arcadia’s staff and security personnel responded to ensure the safety of all on campus.
Our students and staff regularly practice lockdown drills and review security protocols in order to be prepared. Those exercises are not and will not be published widely in order to prevent “bad actors” from attempting to circumvent our school security plans and systems.
We work closely with SPD, including providing opportunities for active shooter training at school locations for law enforcement officials while students are not present. We have security personnel at our campuses, and School Resource Officers are assigned to middle and high schools in each learning community, covering elementary schools, as needed. However, we have struggled in the same way law enforcement has to fill all open security positions. We will continue to work to recruit and retain the best personnel to keep our schools safe.
Also, we will continue to flag areas for improvement and during the course of this summer, will conduct additional reviews with SPD to make sure that when students return to our schools in August that we have done everything we can to ensure that they return to a safe learning environment.
“The safety of Scottsdale Unified students and staff must always be a top priority,” said SUSD school board member Carine Werner. “We must work to find solutions to secure our schools and provide SRO’s on every campus. Scottsdale Unified has a stellar Director of Security who, earlier this month presented his comprehensive plan for bridging the gap until we can have SROs and trained security on all campuses. The time to act is now.”
“Student safety is paramount to quality education. The fact that Scottsdale Unified cannot find a way to use available funds to hire more SROs speaks volumes about the objectives of district administration. It’s highly concerning that the district’s answer is to hire more social workers as opposed to SROs when available data shows that staffing SROs is the answer to saving lives,” said a spokesperson for Scottsdale Unites for Educational Integrity.