There is overwhelming evidence that "Student Resource Officers" make schools unsafe for students, especially students of color. The presence of SROs in schools:
-fuels the school to prison pipeline
-disproportionately harms students of color
-leads to higher rates of suspensions, expulsions, and arrests
-often results in physical violence against students by the SRO
-makes students of color feel unsafe at school
-leads to behavior that should be handled by the school's disciplinary system being criminalized (examples of criminalized behaviors include throwing paper airplanes and wearing low-rise pants)
Sources: https://www.npr.org/2018/03/08/591753884/do-police-officers-in-schools-really-make-them-safer; https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2018/02/22/putting-more-cops-in-schools-wont-make-schools-safer-and-it-will-likely-inflict-a-lot-of-harm/
Resist the temptation to chalk this data up to schools being more likely to hire SROs in unsafe areas – much of this research controls for those factors.
When presented with this evidence, Dowling's Principal, Matt Meendering, cited student safety as the reason they will continue to have a police presence at the school. It is understandable that a high school would be concerned about safety with the number of school shootings in the U.S., but the evidence shows that SROs are unable to effectively prevent school shootings or take down school shooters. The armed officer at Stoneman Douglas didn't even discharge his weapon during the mass shooting there in February of 2018 (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/21/us/police-security-florida-shooting.html). It is beyond clear that a police officer, even armed with a gun, is helpless against a semi-automatic rifle.
For these reasons, we, the Dowling Catholic community, consisting of students, parents, teachers, and alumni, demand that Dowling ends its partnership with the West Des Moines police department and removes police presence from the school.
