Are School Police Officers Really a Good Idea?
John Oliver and his team at Last Week Tonight take a deep dive into the concept of school resource officers in this clip from his show that appears on HBO Sunday nights. The reality it seems is not surprising, that putting a police officer with a weapon in a school with children is not a good idea. In some cases police officers scare the students, in others they arrest the students, and in even worse instances they get into physical altercations with the students.
Minorities, poor students, and students with disabilities are often targeted by the school police officers for arrest and usually for the crime of just being a kid. Normal things a teacher would handle when we grew up are now handled by the in-school cop. Just like in the real world the school police officers often target minorities and make their school experaince absolutely miserable. The simple fact is that police do not have the training to be placed in our schools. They honestly don’t even have the proper training to do what they do in the streets half the time. As such putting America’s unstable police force in the schools of our children is nothing short of crazy.
We really have to be careful to not fall into the National Rifle Association’s talking points. They are just trying to avoid gun control laws to protect gun sellers and do not have the best interest of our school-aged children in mind. Their suggestion that school police officers are the answer to school shootings and not gun control is intentionally biased free speech that they know is total nonsense in their hearts. One of the greatest threats facing America today is the lack do decent humans with a backbone and a sense of right and wrong. There are too many rich and powerful people like members and leaders of the NRA that are too willing to turn their backs on integrity in order to stay rich, famous, relevant, and in power.
Something has to change, a country can’t survive when the entire ruling class is all pay for play.
