Content area
Full text
ABSTRACT
School resource officer (SRO) presence in K-12 public schools is becoming increasingly popular in an effort to help ensure stakeholder safety and protect against unsuspecting acts of school violence. Despite the rise in SRO popularity, over the last 3 decades, research on the perceived impact of SRO presence in schools is mixed and generally relies on student reports. The current study, employing survey methodology, sought to contribute to and update the existing literature on SRO influence on teacher perceptions of safety and security. Nearly 4,000 (N = 3,970) teachers from one Midwestern state completed the survey. Approximately 63% (n = 2,483) of teachers in the study reported SRO presence in their school buildings. Results of the current study suggest that teachers positively associate SRO presence with feelings of safety and security, but they perceive students to be more fearful and less secure in buildings employing SROs. These findings draw attention to the importance of future research on SRO presence in schools in an educational era where budgets are tight and educational stakeholder safety and security is a national priority.
IMPACT STATEMENT
Teachers (N > 3,800) overwhelmingly denounced the idea that schools are dangerous places and the majority reported that they, along with their students, feel safe at school. Teachers positively associated SRO presence with feelings of safety and security, but they perceive students to be more fearful and less secure in buildings employing SROs.
KEYWORDS
school safety, school security, school resource officer, teacher
School safety and security is a national priority. A safe and secure learning environment is a necessary condition and basic prerequisite for students to learn and teachers to teach (Zhang et al., 2016). Schools remain one of the safest places in the United States (Cornell, 2015), but, in recent years, concerns expressed by students, educators, parents, and politicians about school safety and security have intensified nationwide in response to school shootings and media coverage devoted to these tragedies (Kutsyuruba et al., 2015).
Feeling safe is a basic human need (Maslow, 1943) and an internal decision (Twemlow et al., 2002). Concerns about school safety and security have been found to negatively impact students' grades, attendance, engagement, and ability to sustain attention (Biag, 2014; Fan & Williams, 2018; Robers et al., 2015)....