Abstract
Public school systems in America have come under scrutiny due to the harsh treatment of students by School Resource Officers (SROs). Incidents of armed, uniformed police in schools affecting physical arrests in American classrooms seem to be ever more frequent in news cycles, likely due to the ease of capturing these events on video via cell phones of bystanders. Of particular note, visceral reports of “heavy-handed” SROs reinforce a consistent narrative from some media outlets suggesting that the simple presence of these officers inside schools leads to student arrests for behaviors that can arguably be dealt with by the school administration in a reintegrative manner. The apparent lack of school discretion and the presence of strict zero tolerance policies are at the root of an issue that has been termed the “School to Prison Pipeline” by mass media. SROs are often the exclusive focus of this issue, typically as a symbol of a school’s dedication to strict enforcement of rigid rules.
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Notes
Sample size has been rounded to the nearest 10 in accordance to the security guidelines of the SSOCS restricted dataset.
Note - each of these characteristics were reported by the principal of each school. For example, percentage of students with limited English proficiency asked principals, “What percentage of your current students fit the following criteria? Limited English Proficient (LEP).” It is presumed that each principal is reporting these values in a manner that is nationally recognized. See the methodology section of the School Survey on Crime and Safety for more information.
In other words, average percent of students present on a daily basis.
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Pigott, C., Stearns, A.E. & Khey, D.N. School Resource Officers and the School to Prison Pipeline: Discovering Trends of Expulsions in Public Schools. Am J Crim Just 43, 120–138 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-017-9412-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-017-9412-8