Superior School District Reviews Policies On School Resource Officers

When the  Superior School board met on January 4 one of the topics up for discussion was to put a policy in place for the School Resource Officers in the District. As of right now Superior High School and Middle School each have one officer and one other officer is responsible for the 5 elementary schools in the district.

Tom Johnson was a Superior Police Officer for 27 years and served as a resource officer in Superior schools . At the present time the school district does not have a policy in place regarding the school resource officers. Starzecki said for this current policy:

Before making any adjustments to any agreement we felt it was important to adopt a board policy that kind of provides guidance for how this should be structured. For the program to be effective, school resource officers should only be used as a last resort and only if law enforcement intervention is warranted. They should not be involved in any disciplinary activities. That should obviously be through school administrators.

Other points of the policy included training for officers working with children with disabilities and de-escalation techniques. along with the dress code for the officers. When dealing with children it is recommended that the officers wear khaki pants and a polo shirt versus a uniform. They will be allowed all their equipment, but having them casually dressed is less intimidating for the kids. The board will revisit the proposed policy  at the next board meeting on January 11.

It is just a reality of the times that schools require an officer but it is nice to see all the different elements being put into place to make sure that the students feel comfortable and for the officers to be trained to help assist the kids in a variety of situations that might occur.