Our experiences with School Resource Officers (SROs) have been very beneficial since the beginning of the program back in the early 80’s. Pooch [Officer Wayne Drown] set a standard for all other SROs to model – and to be honest, that’s exactly what we’ve tried to do over the past almost 40 years. Where other schools in the country may use SROs solely for safety and law enforcement purposes, that has NEVER been the case here in Gorham. Here, we focus on relationships first.
Our SROs play important roles as teachers, coaches, counselors, and then (and only then) as police officers. Our SROs build strong relationships with students and their families. Students often will go to SROs to ask legal advice about situations they are involved in or that their family may be dealing with. Our SROs attend field trips, conduct summer team building and leadership activities like hiking and camping, and they facilitate week long camps for our elementary students. They teach in our classrooms, often alongside of our drug and alcohol counselors and other student support services staff.
All Gorham schools are restorative in practice and often include SROs only to help counsel and educate students (not to summons or arrest a student unless it is unavoidable). Oftentimes, patrol officers refer matters related to students to our SROs who can take a more restorative approach in order to AVOID formal involvement in our legal systems. Our school administrative teams only bring in SROs in their formal law enforcement capacities as a last resort.
Whenever a situation does elevate to the level of needing police involvement, our students have built relationships with the SRO and report feeling much more comfortable talking with an SRO than an officer they don’t know. Essentially, our SROs serve as a layer between our students and other law enforcement.
Often problems our students have in the community are dealt with as a “learning opportunity” when the patrol officer hands the situation to our SROs. This saves our families and students thousands of dollars and avoids legal trouble for students. Our SROs join community teams that are formed to support specific, extremely high-risk students. They help facilitate related support or opportunities in the school based on these wrap around meetings.
Our SROs have volunteered in the areas of basketball, Special Olympics, football, track and field, and cross country. Our SROs coach or have coached in the areas of soccer, baseball, and softball. Our SROs have been vital members of fundraising efforts in the area of Gorham Athletics, using their community contacts to help raise funds for things like the football program and the snack shack. Finally, our SROs are an important component to our school’s emergency response plans at any grade level and in any situation.
Gorham has spent a considerable amount of time and effort to ensure our SROs are used primarily as community resources and not as the “heavy hand” of the law. Of course, there are always ways to improve in our practices and in our training, and this is something we are committed to doing. We welcome constructive criticism and will work diligently to continue to strengthen this important program for our schools and all the children/families that we serve in Gorham.