The following is from an assignment in Jeff Moulton’s Sociology of Crime class:

Should Bellows Free Academy (BFA) have both School Safety Workers (SSW’s) and School Resource Officers (SRO’s)? If School resource officers and school safety workers are both at BFA then kids might feel safer because there world be someone to help with behaviors and someone to be a first responder. Currently BFA only has an SSW. In the past we had SRO’s at BFA. 

School Safety Workers are in the halls where there would be less adult supervision. They are there making sure students are being safe and responsible. School Resource Officers are law enforcement officers in schools to help in high stress situations.

In my research, I have learned that there are really only a couple of schools that have SSW’s. That means if we had both SRO’s and SSW’s at BFA we would be the first school to have both. We would have a first responder for emergencies and someone else here for behaviors if someone got out of hand.

In my research I talked to Dennis Ward, who used to be a SRO at South Burlington High School. He said when he was a SRO all he wanted to do was try to make relationships with the kids as another trusting adult and better help the community inside and outside of the school. My research shows it is more effective having both a SRO and a SSW than having just one of them. This would be more effective because in previous times SRO’s have had to take on multiple roles in the schools. However, when there are both SRO’s and SSW’s the work will be distributed evenly. 

School Resource Officers and School Safety Workers should be at BFA. If School Resource Officers and School Safety Workers are both in schools then kids might feel safer because there would be someone to help with behaviors and someone to be a first responder at schools. If my hypothesis is tried, it will show the helpfulness of having both SRO’s and SSW’s in school, because there will be less crime, less skipping class, less bad behavior, and less violence.