Story and graphic by Kate Carroll
Photos by Kaitlyn Dang
Learn about the life of a school resource officer
On Nov. 16, a woman was shot in a school parking lot during a middle school football game Lumberton, N.C..
That was the last reported shooting on public school property — less than a week before the Thanksgiving break.
The shooting in Lumberton was the 44th school shooting with an injury or death so far in 2022. In total, 129 people have been killed or injured, including the deaths of 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
While debates over how to keep kids safe in school continue, the North Carolina legislature introduced a wave of funding for school safety measures for this school year, primarily through increasing the presence of School Resource Officers (SROs).
The 2022-23 N.C. budget includes an additional $32 million for the School Resource Officer grant program under the N.C. School Safety Grants initiative, bringing the total 2022-23 school safety grant budget to $47 million.
Since the program’s creation in 2017, School Safety Grants have been used to fund the hiring and training of SROs, crisis services for students, school safety training and safety equipment.
Leon Godlock, Rutherford County Schools SRO and ex-officio board member of the North Carolina School Resource Officer Association, said SROs should act as positive mentors to improve students’ relationships with school and policing.
“I’ve said from day one — if we can get officers in every elementary school and middle school, maybe one day we can get to the point that we don’t have to have officers in the high school,” Godlock said.
Concerns with heightened SRO presence
Arguments against the expansion of SRO presence in schools cite a larger need for mental health professionals and resources.
“For every time we spend money on SROs, I want to make sure we’re spending money on helping professionals, that we’re adding social workers and psychologists and counselors and nurses,” said Yavonne Brannon, director of Public Schools First NC. “I think everything that’s going on in our school system is a matter of balance.”
Godlock agreed that there’s need for more mental health professionals and intervention resources, but he said school districts do not have available staff to address the need, which contributes to support from state leaders to increase SRO presence.
“The drawback is when they’re having that mental breakdown, the kids don’t need the intervention of the officer — they need crisis intervention,” he said. “The majority of officers that are going in school or spending any length of time in a school are going through critical incident training, but that is only a tool on his belt.”
Historically, the relationship between SROs and students from marginalized communities has also been fragile.
“We have a lot of family groups and community groups that feel like students of color often do not feel safer in their schools because of the SRO because they feel targeted by SROs,” Brannon said.
Scott Grantham has been a police officer in N.C. for more than 22 years and SRO training instructor for over eight. He said SROs can help “bridge the gap” between marginalized communities and the police.
“One of the primary goals of a SRO is to build positive relationships with students and provide an image of a positive role model,” he said.
But concerns about SRO interactions with marginalized populations are valid.
Disabled students received SRO referrals at a rate more than twice that of their proportion of school enrollment. Referral rates were also disproportionately high in the cases of Pacific Islander and Black students. Meanwhile, white students received referrals at a rate disproportionately lower than their proportion of school enrollment.
Godlock said it’s a common misconception to assume the role of SROs is disciplinary, and other school staff members often reinforce this idea by threatening their own students with SRO action.
“I was at an elementary school the other day and I’m just checking doors to make sure they’re locked, and a little kid was acting up and the teacher said, ‘look at the officer, he’s about to get you,’” Godlock said. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m not. But, could you be good and do what the teacher asked you to do?’ I said, ‘trust me, you’re not in any trouble with me.’”
Training today’s SROs
In 2022, SRO training in North Carolina looks different than ever before, as SROs must be prepared to address active shooter and mental health crisis situations.
“We’re not Texas. We’re not teaching officers to go the other way. We’re not teaching officers to wait,” Godlock said. “We’re going to go in and we’re going to handle that problem. That officer needs to be relaying that, in his actions, his mannerism and his word to his students.”
All N.C. SROs are required to take a 40-hour certification course developed by the NC Justice Academy under the state Department of Justice. The course covers topics including procedural justice, bias, juvenile mental health, the Individuals with Disabilities Act and de-escalation.
“One of the most significant differences between traditional and SRO training is the frequent contact with juveniles,” Grantham said. “The SRO certification course discusses adolescent brain development. We discuss juveniles’ ongoing maturing process and how they differ from adults in how they behave, solve problems, and make decisions.”
Grantham is the program coordinator for an additional SRO Certificate Program administered by the NC Justice Academy. The course requires trainees to complete 400 hours of classes, including 120 hours of required classes and at least 280 hours of elective classes. There are a range of courses on issues such as race relations, mental health first aid and crisis response. All applicants to the program must already be sworn-in law N.C. officers and either currently or formerly assigned to a N.C. public school.
Godlock said training alone doesn’t make an officer a good fit for a school setting.
“One of the first things that we try to ask officers that are considering going into a school is ‘do you like kids?’” Godlock said.
SROs have jurisdiction over the school property as a patrol zone, but authority to execute disciplinary action in schools lies in the hands of administrators. Godlock said SROs should act as a resource to the school first and help prevent the need to take action as an officer.
“Basically, what we can do is make suggestions and recommendations on safety,” he said. “Because an SRO is an invited guest on school grounds.”
