Hays County is planning to add at least six school resource officers to patrol three of the area’s school districts this year, but many security experts say school safety should be deeper and that adding more police is not the answer.
The vote to hire the officers will have to be approved by the Hays County Commissioners Court, as well as the respective school districts, as part of the new budget cycle.
In the two months since a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a Texas House committee report on the May 24 shooting detailed “systemic and egregious failures” in security.
“After what happened in Uvalde, I think we are all looking hard at what we feel the additional needs are to keep our schools safe,” Hays County Commissioner Walt Smith told the American-Statesman.
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The school resource officer program is run through the Hays County sheriff’s office, and serves the Hays, Wimberley and Dripping Springs school districts. If approved, the Hays district would receive three officers, two would patrol in Wimberley and one would be added in Dripping Springs, according to county officials.
Smith said at least four of those six officers would start once county and school district officials identify what money will be used to pay for them. The training takes at least six months to complete.
The San Marcos school district contracts school resource officers through the San Marcos police. Five school resource officers patrol the district’s 12 campuses, and a sixth could join in the 2023-24 school year, said Doug Wozniak, director of safety for the San Marcos school district.
“We have to make sure standard safety procedures are followed because (school resource officers are) the biggest deterrent there is,” Smith said. “But having the availability of more school resource officers to campus — that brings the human being element to this. ... (It) not only protects students and citizens, but brings in members of their community who can build those relationships with those campuses.”
More resources, not officers
In the weeks after the Robb Elementary shooting, thenational conversation on school safety has led to more security measures at school campuses across the state, including more school resource officers, cameras and improved perimeter fencing.
But many researchers and experts say that,because school shootings are typically committed by students or former students,having more school resource officers on campus is not the answer. Instead, the focus should be on improving access to such basic human needs as safe and affordable housing and foodfor students,as well as creating healthy school climates with more mental and behavioral health support and prevention and intervention services.
Advocates with Austin-based nonprofit Texas Appleseed, a public interest justicecenter, also said that creating appropriately secured physical spaces is just a small part of what must be done to achieve school safety.
Andrew Hairston, director of the education justice project at Texas Appleseed, said that the systemic racism in the origins of city policing still existsis 2022, and that even trickles down to school resource officers. School policing, he said, is ultimately used to enforce inequality and bear down on children of color and children with disabilities and often does more harm than good.
According to the San-Antonio basedIntercultural Development Research Association, Black students, other students of color, LGBTQ+ youth and students with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the presence of school police.
National data show that Black students are more likely than their peers to be arrested and referred to law enforcement in their schools, despite not being more likely to break school rules. In the 2017-18 school year, Black students accounted for 32% of reported arrests in U.S. schools, though they only made up 15% of the total student population, the report states.
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“Policing is constantly looked at as an answer to deep social issues in America,” Hairston said. “We are really pushing our state leaders and local governments to reinvent public safety offered to the American populace. We are pushing to make sure that the material needs of human beings are met and pushing them to takeaway ineffective multimillion-dollar investments into school police departments.”
He said human beings will endure violence and cause violence but research shows that it can be significantly reduced, by providing families with housing and food, giving them access to good education, art and culture, and health care.
Investments into mental health are also necessary, Hairston said, adding that building authentic relationships and connections gives students a space and network to rely on and turn to when they face challenges.
“You can’t quantify what comes of investments in these material needs,” Hairston said. “You just have to trust in the process and trust the psychological shift. ... It's going to be a difficult road, but the investment will pay off in a healthier society."
Local school policing
In 2018, just months after the shooting at Santa Fe High School near Houston, the Hays school district created a Safety andSecurity Departmentthat established a district emergency response plan andhired school resource officers.
The district, which serves more than 20,000 students across 26 campuses, currently employs 12 school resource officers, with two officers stationed at each high school and an officer at each middle school campus. Jeri Skrocki, chief safety and security officer, said no officers are dedicated to the district’s elementary schools. But with the three new officers, each of them would cover patrols among the 15 campuses.
“This will mean providing an increased presence and increased response time for our schools,” Skrocki said. “We also havegreat relationships with our local police departments like Kyle, Buda and San Marcos to help in the response, but this would give us an extra presence.”
School resources officers, she said, as well as local law enforcement agencies, are well-trained in emergency response protocol. She said that includes reunification training, which helps reunite families in the event of a mass emergency, and active shooter response training, a program administered through San Marcos-based Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training center at Texas State University.
But, Skrocki said, safety and security aren't just about the role officers playon school campuses or school officials making safety changes on campus, “it starts with all of us.”
“With visitors, parents and employees all realizing safety is on all of us,” Skrocki said. “When safety measures adversely affect people or become inconvenient, people tend to push back. Schools are safe havens, and we want them to be secure so kids can learn. ... We just ask that our parents and community partners coming to campus remember to be patient while we get you through security.”
The addition of two school resources officers in Wimberley would mean having officers at the district’s junior high, high school and elementary school campuses.
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After reviewing the district’s safety protocols with school officials and local law enforcement, the school board in June requested two additional officers to increase the safety in the area, Wimberley school district spokesperson Allen Bruggman said.
The Wimberley school district has four campuses across the district with about 2,600 students enrolled. Currently, two school resource officers are employed to cover Danforth Junior High School and Wimberley High School. But the school board wanted to ensure safety at the younger grade levels as well, so the two new officers would be assigned to Blue HolePrimary School and Jacob’s Well Elementary.
“So, each of our campuses will have an assigned and designated school resource officer,” Bruggman said. “Having someone on the campus walking in the parking lot, checking doors and things on a regular basis not only adds that valuable factor on the ground, but can give some peace of mind to parents knowing there is a professional within a few feet of our kiddos."
On Aug. 2, the Hays County Commissioners Court approved $103,985 from the general fund for the two additional officers in Wimberley. The cost, which includes salary and benefits, would be split between the district and the county. The district is expected to approve their portion of money later this month.
Dripping Springs will welcome one new school resource officer this school year, said Sirenna Cumberland, the district's director of safety.
The district currently has three school resource officers, of whom two cover Dripping Springs High School and the third works at Dripping Springs Middle School. Cumberland said the newest officer will cover Sycamore Springs Middle School, adding that both of officers assigned to middle schools also will rotate to cover the district’s five elementary campuses.
School resource officers are responsible not only for safety, security and responding to any threats on campus, but also are expected to develop relationships with students and teachers on campus, which then gives students someone to turn to when they need it, Cumberland said.
“It should reassure our community that we are covering all our campuses, and with an additional officer, we are able to get better coverage to our elementary campuses,” Cumberland said. The school district is in the process of hiring the new officer, who could be available to start in the next several weeks.
