The Kingston City School District is seeking public input about whether it should continue contracting with local police departments to provide uniformed officers serving in school districts, and, if so, how that program should look.
The district held a public forum in the Kingston High School auditorium on Monday, May 24, hearing from people on both sides of the issue.
The district has two Kingston Police officers who serve as school resource officers (SRO) at Kingston High School and one at J. Watson Bailey Middle School; M. Clifford Miller Middle School has an SRO through the Town of Ulster Police Department.
The SRO program has come under scrutiny in the last year along with other aspects of policing. In its report earlier this year, the city’s police reform task force suggested changing the agreement with the police department to protect students from being subject to criminal prosecutions for offenses that represent developmentally appropriate adolescent behavior, along with other limitations. Letitia James, the state attorney general, recommended the district abandon its SRO program entirely. “The presence of SROs often perpetuates the same policing inequities that are reflected outside schools, and does not yield a benefit in increased student safety that justifies their continued presence,” wrote James in a March 18 memo. “Accordingly, jurisdictions across the country have mounted efforts to reduce or eliminate police presence in schools.”
That sentiment was echoed by some of the speakers during last week’s meeting at Kingston High, including Malia Cordel, a parent of two students in the district.
“In all of the comments that I’ve heard in support of SROs, whether from parents, community members, teachers, the mayor, or even the chief of police, all seem to be praising the presence of an adult with the freedom to wander the halls and connect emotionally and virtually with students,” said Cordel. “Yet I have heard no reason why someone fulfilling the role must be an armed police officer. I have seen and heard no evidence that SROs are essential to our schools.”
Cordel suggested the district take a “school climate survey” of students, teachers and staff in partnership with groups like Rise Up Kingston, Citizen Action, and the KCSD Committee on Equity in Education to get their thoughts, with the understanding that there may be alternatives that don’t involve having police officers in schools.
“It’s not all or nothing,” Cordel said. “There are many different options in between.”
Jessica Alonzo, a 2019 graduate of KHS with a brother graduating next month, also spoke out against the program.
“I don’t think the SRO should be in the high school, or any school for that matter,” Alonzo said. “I’ve never heard of a student tell me that an SRO has had a positive experience for them. In fact, I’ve actually seen SROs get involved in situations that I feel ended up being traumatic for the student, or just worsened the situation in general.”
Alonzo said her brother has an individualized educational plan and was handcuffed during a “behavioral episode” and taken to the hospital where he had a negative reaction to medication.
“I think that was handled super badly,” Alonzo said. “I think the SROs contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline.”
Alonzo suggested that the district use the money it spends on the SRO program to hire more guidance counselors, enhance the training of security guards, and enlist the assistance of crisis intervention specialists.
But there were also voices of support for the SRO, including Jean Jacobs, who said she helped develop the program during her time on the district’s Board of Education around two decades ago.
“Without a safe school you do not have a school,” Jacobs said. “In the two decades since Columbine, there have been 240 more school shootings…Let’s reinvent education and make the SROs a part of it and instead of dividing us, bring us together. This is what we’re all about ladies and gentlemen. And I firmly believe our community can do that…Every child needs to go out the door in the morning and go to a safe learning environment.”
Jolie Dunham, another former trustee and a music teacher at Arlington High School in Dutchess County, said the SROs are a comfort to students.
“One of their main purposes…is to form relationships and connections to our students,” Dunham said. “These connections and relationships, and I’ve actually seen them happen, can be a lifesaving event for individual students and the school community as a whole. Some students have confided in SRO about issues at home; SRO has been tipped off to impending violence. The police are not our enemy here. There’s no division…Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Molly Heekin, a second grade teacher at Woodstock Elementary School in the Onteora Central School District and a parent of a son who goes to Bailey Middle School, said she can understand both points of view, but said she favors a school district without police officers in the halls.
“As a biracial young man, my son identifies as black; through his eyes I can see how SROs in schools are not acceptable,” Heekin said. “As a teacher in a district with a beloved SRO who is an integral part of our community I can see how SROs in schools are a wonderful bridge between the police and the community. It is clear that we as a KCSD community need to work towards schools that do not utilize the police department as part of our in-school programming. The white majority in Kingston must have empathy for the experiences of the minority in our community.”
To submit an opinion on the SRO program, visit this link.
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