Posted on 03/17/2008 4:29:35 PM PDT by Coleus
The number of cops in North Jersey schools is rising as parents demand that officials do everything possible to keep their children safe. Police were once considered a luxury in schools or even a distraction, but now school patrols are being beefed up even as municipalities cut other services. Municipal officials point to the same events to explain the shift: the Columbine massacre, 9/11, Virginia Tech. The trauma and intense media focus that followed each tragedy have overridden questions about the impact of having armed officers patrolling the hallways.
"In the beginning, it was this concern that this was going to shift the school environment from an educational purpose to a prison-like environment," said Detective Timothy Gerity, a Saddle Brook officer. "Now we're beyond that." The Passaic Police Department this year expanded its eight-officer program to an entire school resource unit with 15 officers, two sergeants and a lieutenant. Little Ferry, Paramus and Fair Lawn have new programs. Fort Lee has increased its school unit from one officer to nine since its federal grant money ran out, according to Gerity and Patrick Kissane, a Fort Lee officer and president of the New Jersey Association of School Resource Officers.
The Passaic County sheriff denied West Milford's request for support for its struggling department in August, saying too many municipalities wanted the program and it could not justify helping only one. Oakland and Mahwah recently transferred their school resource officers to street assignments to make up for patrol shortages. "The police department was down an officer and we could really use the [school resource] officer back on duty as a patrolman," Mahwah Mayor Richard Martel said. "So [the program] disappeared." In Fair Lawn, as in many other towns, borough council and school board members resisted the idea for years, convinced until recently that the public would not support a program, officials said.
"When you bring up putting a police officer in the high school, people are afraid the perception is that the high school is loaded with drugs," Superintendent Bruce Watson said. "That's not the reality." Such responses have been common since the police department in Flint, Mich., first suggested assigning an officer to schools as part of a community policing program in the 1950s, experts say. Although the concept had a brief period of popularity in some states in the 1970s, it soon fell out of favor. Then came the 1999 Columbine massacre. In response, the federal government provided money for more than 6,500 school resource officer positions across the country until 2005, when the last three-year grants were issued.
Sept. 11, 2001, instilled another fear, that schools, especially in regions so close to New York City, could be a target of a terrorist attack. In Fair Lawn, Watson said, the district started installing security cameras, locking unnecessary exits and hiring guards. In the process, he said, parents began to expect the added precautions. By the time Officer Mark Wyka, a 1993 Fair Lawn High School graduate, started patrolling the hallways in his blue uniform at the beginning of the 2007 school year, the community was prepared to accept him. From the start, Wyka opened windows into his personal life — something street cops rarely do. He posted pictures of his wife and his dogs in his office. He let it be known that he was a Mets fan, inviting several friendly ribs from the Yankees supporters in the building.
The idea is that once students see the officer's human side, they are less likely to consider police as adversaries. The officer is also meant to serve as a counselor — if students talk to him, he can steer them clear of potentially dangerous behavior. On a recent day, students exchanged wisecracks with Wyka as he patrolled the school. "I feel safer with him here," sophomore Shawn Ohayon said. "Look at him. He's a well-oiled machine." The humor brought home another of Ohayon's points, one that was echoed by several other students: "Everyone is comfortable around Officer Wyka," he said. National experts say there is almost no research on how effective school resource officers are — arrest rates are useless, they say, because school resource officers' primary duties are to prevent future crimes and secure the school, not investigate and arrest students.
Officers in schools point to their easy relationships with students and faculty as a success. Other advantages are more concrete. Wyka said he's helped shut down the "smoking corner," a grassy patch on a private lawn that students used to litter with butts, angering the homeowner. The administration likes it that he's on hand to take reports if property is stolen from a locker or students get into fights. And in the rare case that an outside security issue threatens the school, Wyka is already there to respond: last fall, Wyka secured the building when he heard radio reports of a car chase coming toward the property. Officers in other districts have helped investigate reports of student sexual assaults, including investigations in Lakeland Regional High School and West Milford High School that led to student arrests in 2004 and 2005. Rare as they are, such events serve an ominous reminder for advocates: schools are subject to the same threats as the rest of the world. That, they say, is reason enough to invest in the extra protection.
What school police officers do:
* Present a positive image of police.
* Steer students clear of illegal or dangerous behavior.
* Act as a liaison between troubled students and outside social service agencies.
* Secure school buildings and keep staff up to date on safety mandates.
* Investigate legal complaints.
* Teach courses on math, substance abuse or driving.
* Present a positive image of police.
* Steer students clear of illegal or dangerous behavior.
* Act as a liaison between troubled students and outside social service agencies.
* Secure school buildings and keep staff up to date on safety mandates.
* Investigate legal complaints.
* Teach courses on math, substance abuse or driving.
And don't forget, blow everyday teenager behavior into felony sexual abuse charges and trying to ruin the lives of boy's over behavior that has gone on for time immemorial. They were originally charged with 5 felony counts of sex abuse, which was later dropped to misdemeanor harassment, before finally being dropped altogether, but not before their parents had to spend $$$$$$$tens of thousands of dollars on attorneys.
Two 13-year-old boys charged with sex harassment will stand trial, a judge ruled Monday.
The boys are accused of swatting the bottoms and poking or grabbing the breasts of classmates at Patton Middle School in McMinnville.
Their defenders have made an issue of the decision to prosecute Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, arguing that the matter didn’t rise to the level of a criminal offense and should have been handled by school officials.
Last week, Presiding Judge John Collins dismissed misdemeanor sex abuse charges, which means the two no longer face the prospect of lifetime registration as sex offenders.
Defense lawyers hoped to have all the charges dismissed Monday and said the adverse decision was a blow.
“It’s very frustrating, very intense to me” said Tracie Mashburn, mother of Cory. “It’s not over. It’s not done yet. There’s still a hope and a chance.”
So, it is acceptable in your opinion that boys should grab the breasts and crotches of 13 year old girls?
I took a complaint today that a 13 year old boy was ‘teabagged’ at his school. He was held down by a 17 year old while an 18 year rubbed his genitals in the kids face. This must be a ‘boys will be boys’ thing so you obviously think that I should just close this out and save myself 6 plus hours of investigation interviewing the witnesses and suspects?
I would hope the police would take these events seriously. As a father of a 13 year old girl I would want these complaints investigated completely.
You also fall into the belief that what is printed in the media is all of the information there is. From my experience the media generally prints just enough information to keep people interested, one way or another.
So, it is acceptable in your opinion that boys should grab the breasts and crotches of 13 year old girls?
I took a complaint today that a 13 year old boy was ‘teabagged’ at his school. He was held down by a 17 year old while an 18 year rubbed his genitals in the kids face. This must be a ‘boys will be boys’ thing so you obviously think that I should just close this out and save myself 6 plus hours of investigation interviewing the witnesses and suspects?
I would hope the police would take these events seriously. As a father of a 13 year old girl I would want these complaints investigated completely.
You also fall into the belief that what is printed in the media is all of the information there is. From my experience the media generally prints just enough information to keep people interested, one way or another.
i don’t know what the blank you are talking about?
.
Sounds like a valid concern to me.
Yes, they are beyond the concern; it's happened.
I am willing to bet that the REAL cost to send a kid to a government indoctrination camp is 2X what the state claims it is.
In my state, police protection for the schools is not considered a school expense. Retirement and health benefits for retired teachers is not either. They are simply listed a state and local retired employees. There are many other services used by the government schools that are provided by the county that are provided off-budget.
I wish someone with investigative skills and the power to publicize this travesty would do an investigation.
There have been police officers in our high school since my older now adult children went there. I don’t see that it did too much good. Drug dealing went on as usual. But we did have undercover cops. They would try to get into the drug circles but the teens weren’t very likely to let them in. They didn’t speak the right words etc. Its been sometime since I’ve had to deal with high school thankfully & I don’t plan to again. It did help that the police station was across the street. However teens IMO don’t seem to have any respect for too much of anything anymore. They do what they want & usually the parents flip out & say my child would never....It all starts at home. If you bring your children up with respect & teach them rules IMO you will have better children.
Good grief!
I also note, with humor, that it says that police officers may “teach math classes”. I thought only certified and licensed teachers were smart enough to educate young skulls full of mush? Or is it just belonging to a union that matters?
Probably just a willingness to support the schools is all that’s needed.
Why would someone want to send their kid to somewhere that not only has to have armed police officers to try to protect the kids, but are glad to have them?
Totally beyond me.
The homeschool lifestyle makes you question things more than most people do, I think. I think lots of people just see a uniform and are happy to obey and feel safe. Me - I agree with you.
If it’s got uniformed guards, metal detectors, rigid schedules, and no allowance for autonomy - is it a school? Or a prison?
Worse, is that it conditions children to be comfortable with having government police rule their lives.
How do schools resemble prisons? Hm? ( As Shakespeare would say, “Let me count the ways.”)
1) Uniformed armed prison guards roaming the halls.
2) School buses look like prison work gang buses.
3) “lock-downs”
4) in house and afternoon detentions resemble solitary confinement and loss of prison privileges.
5) Saturday detentions resembles loss of prison privileges and solitary confinement.
6) Metal detectors,
7) Locker and personal searches.
8) Drug testing
9) Government schools look like minimum security prisons.
10) Children like prisoners need hall passes.
11) Children like prisoners are told when they can eat, go to the bathroom, and exercise.
12) Government schools have exercise yards like prisons.
13) Children like prisoners learn to march two by two.
In some ways prisoners have it better than children:
1) The weight lifting equipment of prisoners is likely better.
2) They get their teeth fixed for free.
3) Prisoners are not segregated by age.
4) Prisoners enjoy a more racially, economically, and class diverse society.
5) Prisoners are not subjected to non-stop proselytizing in the government religion of atheistic, morally relativistic, Secular Humanist, Marxism.
11) Children like prisoners are told when and what they can eat, go to the bathroom, and exercise.
Bingo!
School cafeterias resemble prison cafeterias, and that food on the plate better have the government imprimatur!
In some ways children have it worse that prisoners. Children are proselytized by the government about what is “holy” food and what it “unholy” food. Prisoners are just told to shut up and eat it.
If it’s got uniformed guards, metal detectors, rigid schedules, and no allowance for autonomy - is it a school? Or a prison?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What it does is condition children to passively accept and not question government authority and rule.
My son is a senior and attending the local high school, as I have mentioned before.
He tells me that in the cafeteria, the portion sizes are restricted by the state. You only get so much food for the money. Even the lunch ladies think this is ridiculous because it doesn’t take into account when the kids are doing sports and burning LOTS more calories.
So the kids just buy two meals.
BTW, this school has a GOOD smelling cafeteria. They make their own homemade soups. The salads look good and fresh. They have some good cooks (who are also parents of the students) working in that cafeteria.
They do what they can within the framework of the system.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.