Palmer and Parents Urge Need for School Resource Officers

By James Lomuscio

While having a school resource officer (SRO) has been Westport Schools Superintendent Colleen Palmer’s high priority for months, it took on new urgency at tonight’s Board of Education due to the Florida school shootings.

Police Chief Foti Koskinas and other first responders meet tonight with Board of Education members. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

And as Palmer joined by Police Chief Foti Koskinas touted the need for a highly trained and armed SRO at Staples High School, members of the public urged the school board to act quickly to put SROs in all of the town’s eight schools.

“We have a superintendent who is proactive,” said Jeannie Smith, board vice chairwoman who ran the meeting in the absence of Michael Gordon, chairman.

Smith and Palmer began the meeting extending their thoughts and prayers to the children and families of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a gunman Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15 killing 17 students and injuring others on Feb. 14.

“Their loss is our loss, and even though they are far from us, it’s up close and personal,” Palmer said, “…when children are killed.”

According to Smith, Palmer brought the need for an SRO before the board in the fall.

Parents confer before the start of tonight’s Board of Education meeting. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

Since then town educators, Koskinas and other attended an SRO information session at the Ridgefield Public Schools where an SRO system started in 2001 and stopped due for financial reasons from 2008-09 and was since reinstated.

“They would have cut anything else to bring them back,” said Koskinas.

Westport remains the only school district in its District Reference Group (DIRG) not to have an SRO, Palmer said.

According to Palmer, who had worked with SROs in other districts, most recently Weston where she had served as superintendent, a good SRO serves three roles: preventative, proactive and protective.

She said they are preventative because the forge relationships with students that “help prevent bad things from happening.”

“They are proactive in that they are extremely aware of the climate in the school, “having their ear to the ground,” she said.

They are protective, Palmer said, because an SRO is a “fully-armed police officer on duty.”

She said that while some parents might be uncomfortable with having an armed officer on campus throughout the day, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officers who speak to children in elementary grades are armed.

Board member Mark Mathias said that having an SRO present, making the officer accessible to students to talk to on a daily basis, offers security without making the school feel like an armed fortress.

Palmer said SROs help to build trust with students, and that students can open up to them before their teachers.

Perhaps they will let an SRO know of a friend who is depressed, in trouble or using drugs.

Koskinas stressed the goal of an SRO, who forges bonds attending school games and events, is not to make arrests but to resolve situations and make the proper referrals before an arrest is necessary. An arrest is rare, he said, one in 70 times.

Candace Banks, co-president of the PTA, threw her support behind the plan, adding that she favored an entire system of SROs, not just one.

“I think we need to move on this,” she said.

One parent said that already 256 parents have signed an online petition in support of SROs.

He also encouraged the board to explore having SROs in all schools, so they do not become soft targets.

Michael Hibbert, a retired teacher who had worked in a several districts, including Ridgefield when SROs were introduced, praised the concept.

He added that he opposed President Donald Trump’s proposal to have a percentage of trained teachers armed in the event of an attack.

“I’m absolutely opposed to arming teachers,” he said. “That’s non-negotiable for me.”

Palmer said the money for a Staples SRO at Staples would come by phasing out the DARE officer, “a revenue neutral” for the school system.

She also said having SROs in all schools, would require a wider community conversation, engaging appropriate town bodies, including the Board of Finance and the Representative Town Meeting.

Meanwhile, Palmer said she would ask the school board to vote soon on having an SRO at Staples because, “If we would like to have someone ready in the fall, that person would have to be trained.”

Only passing reference was made to improved security measures made at Westport schools following the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown on Dec. 14, 2012.

While they were not detailed for security reasons, they included installation of bulletproof glass in certain areas as well as other protective improvements.