The least expensive item on the Merrimack Valley School District’s warrant was also its most controversial.
Salisbury school board member Seelye Longnecker’s introduction to a warrant article that would add a school resource officer (SRO) to the Merrimack Valley Middle School centered around the idea of safety.
She started by mentioning the Parkland, Fla., and Columbine High School school shootings. She went on to say that having an SRO would provide another adult who is capable of handling student needs in a social and emotional learning environment, as well as provide a positive police figure for students to know.
Ultimately, adding an officer would “serve as a preventative measure against gun violence,” she said.
It’s an argument that has become familiar in the gun violence debate. Calls for more resource officers in the wake of shootings – like Parkland and Newtown, Conn., before that – at both the local and national level have centered on protecting students.
Ultimately, the $75,000 article was adopted in a 116 to 52 vote. But not before some residents questioned if adding a police officer at school was the best move for the district’s students.
There’s no conclusive evidence that SROs keep students safe, according to a report by the Justice Policy Institute. There is proof, however, that additional police in schools leads to harsher responses to minor disciplinary situations that typically would be handled by school administrators, the Congressional Research Service found in 2013.
Many residents from across Merrimack Valley’s community wanted to know if school officials had considered that prior to making their request.
“Could we instead be investing in empathy for our students?” said Nicolette Gala Grano, from Salisbury. “Could we be investing in a psychologist, a social worker … rather than criminalizing student misbehavior which could have profound effects on student safety?”
Emma Galonski, an 11th grader from Penacook, said young students’ brains are still developing and it might be hard for them to feel comfortable around a police officer.
“I think investing in different personnel … would be a better conclusion to this,” she said.
Carisa Corrow, from Penacook, asked if school administrators had considered more restorative justice practices, or considered whether adding an SRO would disproportionately affect marginalized students, including those living in poverty and students of color.
They hadn’t, said Superintendent Mark MacLean. But he did say the district has had seen an increase in incidents where a police officer may have been helpful, and that the high school’s SRO has been called to the middle school more frequently. The high school has had an SRO position since 1997, he said.
The question even divided some of the district’s school teachers.
Becky King, a Penacook resident who teaches at the middle school, said she spent time as a police officer. Two of those years, she was assigned as a school resource officer.
“I built relationships with students that lasted for 10 years,” she said. “I wasn’t just a person on the street with a badge, I was someone they could relate to.”
King said that having an officer in the middle school would give the school an opportunity to stop a threat before it happens.
“Can you stop a threat in five minutes?” she said, which generated scattered applause from the audience.
Sarah Chalsma, from Webster, brought up the school shooting at Concord High School in 1985, one of the earliest school shootings to garner attention.
“Many of us don’t remember that,” she said. “But I was there. I’ll vote yes for any protection for our children.”
Heidi Ohlson, a teacher at Boscawen Elementary School, pushed back, saying her own experience with Merrimack Valley’s high school resource officer hadn’t been so great.
“He told me I would end up in jail,” she said.
“How long before we have an SRO helping out at the elementary schools?” she continued. “…Is there not another way to deal with our students social, emotional needs?”
Residents approved a $41.2 million school district operating budget, a roughly 1 percent increase over last year’s budget.
They also approved a three-year contract for the district’s support staff.
A petition warrant article to switch the town’s voting method from annual meetings to SB2 – a deliberative session followed by ballot voting was soundly defeated, with more than three-fourths of the 462 ballots cast voting against the measure.