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Saturday, October 31, 2015

Md. police officer shares take on how cops in schools should work

WASHINGTON — The video is clear; the actions are rapid. A school resource officer strides toward a student, issues a command, and in seconds, he’s grabbing her desk, flipping it over, then dragging the student toward the front of the room.

The video went viral and reactions were powerful. There was an outcry from those who felt the officer was completely out of line, and there were those who said the student failed to obey a police order.

Don Bridges, a Baltimore County police officer and First VP for the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), has a different take on the footage from the South Carolina schoolroom.

Bridges, who serves as an SRO in Baltimore County’s Franklin High School, says when school districts agree to have police work inside schools, a memorandum of understanding should be drawn up: “It clearly defines what the roles of the SROs are,” Bridges says.

He says that when schools stray from those roles, that’s when trouble begins.

Bridges says it’s hard to know precisely what went wrong in the case in South Carolina, but Bridges says NASRO makes one thing clear: “The SROs have absolutely nothing at all to do with discipline within a school.”

Student conduct and discipline, Bridges says, should be left to teachers and administrators.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I say take ALL cops outta schools period. Let the liberal idiots who teach and run the school handle all the retards who don't understand how humans act. This is their show let them fix it.

Anonymous said...

He didn't drag her to the front of the room. The THREW her across the room. HUGE difference and way out of line. Kid was a thug, no doubt but his actions were excessive.