Should Fresno Unified have police at middle schools? Their principals know the answer

The thorny issue of having police officers on Fresno Unified School District campuses will be up for a vote Wednesday night at the Board of Trustees meeting.

While the idea of having police working on campuses may seem like a no-brainer given recent school shootings that have occurred across the nation, the concept evokes strong reactions.

Critics of having school police — or student resource officers, as they are known in Fresno Unified — say the cops unfairly target students of color for discipline and arrests.

Such critics, like Sandra Celedon of Fresno Building Healthy Communities, add that the money spent to hire and equip police should instead be put into mental health and counseling services. Students who get in fights or other bad behaviors usually have tough home lives or problems like substance abuse.

This debate played out in Fresno a year ago when the advocacy organization Fresno Barrios Unidos urged the board to invest $3.2 million from the contracts into social-emotional services, student resources such as laptops, and after-school programs.

But the school board voted 6-0 to keep armed officers on high school campuses. Now the debate shifts to the middle schools.

Principals share views

To better prepare the board for its vote, district administrators conducted an online survey of middle school principals. All 17 of them responded, and the bottom-line request was to bring back student resource officers.

The district added campus safety assistants to middle schools this year, and while those staff have been useful in making relationships with students and helping out with campus supervision, the principals said trained officers are best suited to gauge how serious a threat might be, as well as deal with unruly people.

For example, 14 principals said fights have been a major challenge this year. The same number said they needed officers for risk assessments and “5150s” — the code for a person in a mental health crisis.

Twelve principals said officers were needed to deal with “civility challenges with parents/visitors.” As an example, a third-grade teacher at Pyle Elementary was taking attendance at the start of a school day last month when a parent barged in and threatened to physically hurt the instructor. A teacher in a nearby classroom heard the commotion and called police; officers escorted the unruly parent out.

While this took place at an elementary school, similar scenes play out across the district all the time, including at middle schools. It is no secret that some parents’ behavior this past year has been shameful.

New data, uniforms

One key recommendation when the board voted on the police contract last year was to gather better data on interactions between officers and students. This spring the district launched a data reporting project at the high schools. Of 724 entries as of June 10, 89% of them represent positive interactions between students and officers; 7% showed safety concerns, and 4% were discipline events involving criminal violations.

In a report to the board, FUSD administrators do not detail the races or ethnicity of students who interacted with police. But current and new student resource officers were to get restorative practice training this week, and in August will attend 32 hours of cultural proficiency training.

Another response to community concerns deals with the uniform worn by the officers. To soften their image on campus, the officers will wear blue polo shirts with an embroidered logo and khaki pants, starting this summer. The officers will retain their dark-blue duty uniform at public events like football games, dances and school board meetings.

Positive interactions

Students and parents alike in Fresno have told the district in past surveys that having an armed officer on a campus creates a sense of security. Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama says that is the fastest way to respond to a threat. Still, there is no guarantee of 100% school safety, as shooting incidents have shown.

The more realistic benefit from having officers on campus are the positive interactions they can have with students.

The Bee Editorial Board recommends approval of the $1 million contract with the expectation that Balderrama will wisely choose the personnel he assigns to schools. Having better data that shows race-ethnicity details of student interactions would also be helpful.