The Growing Concerns Regarding School Resource Officers

There have been an increasing number of incidents in which school resource officers (SRO) have been used to manage student disciplinary issues with disastrous results. Court cases brought by parents and advocacy groups claim SROs have traumatized and injured students. This article addresses several critical issues concerning SROs being used to manage student misbehavior, lack of training, lack of policies regulating roles and responsibilities, and inadvertently promoting a school-to-prison pipeline. The authors provide recommendations and best practices for future use