School Resource Officers in Middle Grades School Communities

Schools across the United States have responded to increased school violence with interventions ranging from deliberate efforts to remove graffiti and clean a school's physical grounds to the use of metal detectors, surveillance cameras, and random locker searches. Other common interventions have included the assignment of school resource officers (SROs) to patrol schools and the enforcement of zero-tolerance policies that mandate punishments for specific serious infractions. While much public attention has focused on violence prevention in high schools, these programs may be even more important in the middle grades. Several middle grades schools have experienced incidents of lethal violence during the past 20 years, and researchers have found that students and teachers in middle grades schools may be at a higher risk for experiencing nonlethal forms of violence (i.e., violent crime or assaults against teachers) than their counterparts in high schools (Borgmeier, 2007; Juvonen, Kaganoff, Augustine, & Constant, 2004). Furthermore, peer-directed aggression such as fighting and weapon carrying rises and peaks during the middle grades before declining in the high school years (O'Donnell et al., 2006). The addition of SROs to any school community presents particular challenges, but the need for thoughtful planning is especially important in middle grades schools. The increased risk for violent behaviors in the middle grades supports the need for effective violence prevention programs at this level, yet the middle grades years are a time of tremendous physical, cognitive, and social development for students, and the possible disruptions SROs may cause can be magnified as a result. This article reviews research and examines the challenges and opportunities associated with SROs in the middle grades and offers concrete recommendations for their use. Defining school resource officers School resource officers are sworn law enforcement officers assigned to patrol schools full-time. The number of SROs has swelled in the last 15 years, making schoolbased policing one of the fastest growing areas of law enforcement (Theriot, 2009). While it is difficult to know the exact number of school resource officers, the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO), the largest school-based police organization in the United States, has approximately 6,000 members. Overall, it is estimated that there may be more than 20,000 law enforcement officers patrolling schools in the United States (Brown, 2006). School resource officers in the United States, also known as school police officers or school liaison officers, typically are employed by a local law enforcement agency and assigned to work in a school or a cluster of schools. They perform traditional law enforcement functions like patrolling school buildings and grounds, investigating criminal complaints, handling students who violate school rules or public laws, and trying to minimize disruptions during the school day and at after-school activities (Lawrence, 2007). SROs also are charged with educating students and school staff about crime and violence prevention, acting as mentors to students, and helping to improve the school environment (Rich & Finn, 2001). Officers usually are armed and often are in uniform. While some schools use area law enforcement officers on a part-time or irregular basis, true SROs typically have received extensive training in topics like working with juveniles and being a positive role model, adolescent development, investigating child abuse, public speaking, instructional techniques and classroom management, counseling, and emergency management (NASRO, n.d.). In contrast to other law enforcement officers assigned to schools, professional SROs are expected to be a consistent presence at their schools. For these reasons, Rich and Finn (2001)urge clear differentiation between official SROs and other "sworn officers who focus exclusively on law enforcement activities in schools" (p. …