KISD Wants Everything Plus the Kitchen Sink Part 1

SRO and School Police Department Blog by Liz Ramos: Part I

Please feel free to chime in your own opinions or experiences, even if you disagree with me. Everyone should be conversing in on the issue of KISD forming a police dept.

Oh boy, this one will be a lengthy read. I write this mainly because I have an emotional attachment to this topic and because I want KISD to succeed. Don’t get me wrong, I do write pessimistically, but I have very good intentions and thoughts. Language warning! A lot of this writing is a back story about myself and my personal experiences (which are many but this is just two).

I was a quiet student who excelled in English, History and Sciences and sucked at Math; still do. I was a daughter of a single mother, I had a very small circle of friends that experimented lightly, didn’t get into trouble much (or just wasn’t stupid enough to get caught), loved athletics and participated in extra-curricular activities. Normal kid right? Then shit happened. Stuff that occurred that I had zero control over. I started questioning people and their actions and started to not give a fuck what people thought of me (still do) and started questioning the hypocrisy that I experienced or witnessed. When I saw people get bulled at school I stood up to the bullies. Back then you would go off school grounds (Catch me outside, how bout dat?!) and teenagers handled it between themselves. Nothing serious, no weapons, nothing crazy, just a good ol’ fashion ass whoppin’, then bragging rights. I didn’t get into many, most never followed through on their threats. I just couldn’t sit idly by and allow someone to be abused like that (many times I would verbally tell a teacher or coach and every time it was blown off as not serious). Then came the day that one of my good friends turned their back on me and started spreading rumors and telling people she was going to kick my ass.

So, now that it was myself being threatened, I didn’t have anyone to run to and protect me. I didn’t want to bother my very busy and stressed-out mother. I did things the right way. I marched myself up to the front office, filled out a complaint form for the Dean and left to class. (I straight up wrote in my statement, in so many words, “Correct this bitch or I will correct her for you.”) 24 hours went by, the school did absolutely nothing, and she met me outside of my math class. She threw a punch that struck me and I beat her ass.

This could have been prevented if my school still had its School Resource Officer that it fired 2 weeks prior to this incident. He worked there for a year and a half. I would have felt confident to go speak with him privately and ask him to get her to sit down and have a kumbaya meeting and hash it out behind closed doors. The SRO was let go because he gave a ride home to a female student because no one would pick her up from school and take her home after her sporting activity. Everyone in high school knew this police officer. He had some sort of bond with everyone at school and if not, everyone knew he had an open door to anyone who needed him. I still feel bad for that guy, even today.

Side note: This officer was the only SRO for over 2,500 kids on one high school campus. This campus had known gang members attend.

Now to make my long story end, after that incident that I reported and tried to prevent, I got suspended from all county schools for an entire year. It was actually a freakin’ blessing because I moved at 15 (had to find a new school that would take a violent offender, I said goodbye to any chances I had at going to Duke), started living on my own at 16, matured beyond my years as far as knowing how the real world works, graduated with a diploma, and even continued my education with 5 more years of college and continuing ed. The girl I beat up got a GED, pregnant at 17 and I haven’t heard about her since. She got 5 days OSS even though she initiated the fight. The report to the Dean went “missing.” (Now I ask for copies of everything!! YOU SHOULD TOO. WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN!) We both fell victim to a system that failed us. If that SRO was in his office that day I came to report bullying and abuse, my life would be very different today. My mother would also have many less grey hairs.

The point I am trying to make here is we need officers at school. We need resource officers that focus on relationship building, education, and a safe space to confide in. Drugs will be sold and used off school grounds (my friends would hide pot in palm trees away from the school and pick it up when the last bell rang), more fights will be taken off campus (less for teachers to deal with), less fourth amendment violations (that was a huge issue at another school I went to-probable cause), extra resource for counselors to utilize, liaison between student, teacher, parent, and a safe space to go for bullying which seems to be an issue at KISD from parents on social media. So on and so on and so on.

Using different officers all the time does not accomplish anything other than being present. It doesn’t form bonds. Smart kids see that as a scare tactic. Now for the wee ones that is a different story. I’m sure the little ones benefit by seeing police and forming a quick reaction to them in hopes they will understand that police are there to help protect and serve. Hopefully they will tell the wee ones the basic education of policing. Who to call, what they do, what they should do if they need them, etc.

Onto my second portion of Part I

The last school I dealt with was my daughter’s high school in another city. The school is great, to an extent. The education my daughter is getting is wonderful but many things happen in this school behind closed doors. Many, many, many more than what I witnessed. It has been going on for decades. My daughter would come home upset over something that happened at school because of the way a teacher was, well, doing what that person should not have been doing. She had done an excellent job at keeping her own records and evidence, something I taught her in middle school when she was bullied. This person was no ordinary teacher. This was the type of teacher that was not easy to replace and someone many in the community looked up to. Whether that person knew they were doing something wrong is still beyond me, but that person’s predecessors knew it was wrong.

Here is the thing. This person was in violation of the law. (Well beyond filing a grievance at the school board.) In order to file a report, dun! dun! DUN!, you had to file it with the school police department. The same people who work for the benefit of the school. Now why would they want that? I was intimidated into not filing the report (half-ass threatened, “I better pony up a lawyer” I personally think they thought I was some “poor, dumbass parent.” Little did they know!) Two weeks later I went to get a copy of the report and guess what? It wasn’t in the system! Of course not! Now why would it?! They tried their best to sweep it under the rug. 99% of the report was blacked out and redacted. I asked my daughter whether she wanted to sue the school and her response was, “I rather that money go to my college.” It is a shame she had to pick between that or feeling bad that this stuff may still continue with more and more students. We weren’t going to get attorney compensation on a conviction, especially since it didn’t have much to do with her but the other kids. Parents didn’t want to believe it and they didn’t want to be in the cross fire of a legal battle with the city school system. I don’t blame them. An agreement was settled and that person no longer works there on their own accord. It is truly sad to watch and hear about kids being taken advantage of (mostly the underprivileged community) by the system, once again. If this was filed in the city police department, it would have been public record, redacting only kids information.

Once an independent police department is set up by the independent school system, everything is now in its own jurisdiction. (Correct me if I am wrong but this is the way this school and police dept had things set up.) If teachers have problems, they will now have a harder time voicing their concerns. If a teacher is violating the law, for example molesting young children, abusing special needs, or anything else inappropriate, you will now have to file it with the school police department. Maybe not to that extent of a crime, but getting close enough. Now all transparency is thrown out of the window. You can say good bye to that! You could for sure say it is a conflict of interest!

On another note, a school police department will probably have your child arrested and will now be in the system if something happens that warrants it – or doesn’t, or could have been prevented. Child having a horrible day in school? Too bad, misdemeanor for him/her! I would hate to see students get a criminal record for something that could have been handled by the school. Something that could have been squashed by an SRO. We all know there is a Zero Tolerance Policy. DUH! I’m sorry, but most adolescences are fighting with their own growing brains, hormones, money problems, family issues, deaths, first break-ups, experimentation, and over all, not adult enough to understand the true meaning of ZTP and what that entails and the true consequences of. There was no ZTP when I was in school, I still got the boot. I wasn’t thinking of the repercussions of expulsion from all county schools. I figured I may get 5 days OSS and be on my way. I got my adrenaline handled at the age of 20. I still have a hard time handling that when it comes to my kids. Mama bear comes out, and I am supposed to be an adult! Parents fight at school sporting events and we expect teenagers to be angles? No!

No! We should all be helping these kids. Every one of them! To the one that has the most violent outbursts to the quietest ones that contemplate suicide. We need to help the bullied and the bully. Should’a, Could’a, Won’t, Can’t, must not be in our vocabulary for these kids. We will, we can, we’re going to make sure that students at schools feel safe, teachers feel they have support, parents feel that there is more than just him/her/them to talk to in this world. Shouldn’t it be the place kids spend the second most time at in their daily lives? School campus? A church if they go? A dedicated SRO or two may be the bridge to some of these gaps. Not a cure all, but a stepping stone to get to where everyone needs to be. Sure, SRO’s can be costly, they get paid more than teachers sometimes. I believe, please correct me if I am wrong, parents and teachers wouldn’t mind the extra expenditure if that means a safer school. A school police department? Pooooolllease! They should make an independent correctional facility for KISD while they are at it. We don’t need hot headed officers that could care less about our kid’s future, cops who frequently arrest, who don’t do much prevention and support, who stand around and monitor only to come when called upon. What good will that do for our community as a whole? <~~That was rhetorical, but if anyone wants to answer that, please do. My daughter still doesn’t know the name of at least one of the police officers of her school police department at her current school. That is sad.

Part II coming soon…