The pros and cons of school resource officers

This Is Nashville · Aug 8, 2023 · 50m

One safety measure used by Metro Nashville Public Schools is school resource officers — SROs — which are staffed by the city’s police department.

But having police officers in schools isn’t a panacea. It’s unclear if having SROs can prevent major tragedies like school shootings. And critics say that having officers in schools exacerbates the school-to-prison pipeline by criminalizing behavior that could be resolved in other ways, like counseling, conflict resolution or other restorative practices.

But if not SROs, how else can we protect our schools from threats? What can school staffers tell…