Good Defense

Skilled Security Officers Are Essential to Safeguarding Schools

By Dave Arnold

Meeting people is the best reason for attending Education Support Professional (ESP) conferences. The recent ESP conference in San Diego offered as much learning potential from fellow attendees as from workshop instructors.

As I returned home from the 2005 conference earlier this month, I was reminded of a young man I met at a previous ESP conference. He reminded me of Rosie Greer. As some of you may recall, Greer was an All Pro defensive lineman who played for the Los Angeles Rams in the 1960s and 70s.

He and the three other defensive lineman were known as the Fearsome Foursome. Greer was tall, strong and sported a goatee. Though menacing on the football field, he possessed the demeanor of an art teacher.

Muscle Diplomacy

After his football days, Greer used his talents and good looks to star in movies and television commercials. I assumed that the stranger at the conference was a student who may have been on a football or wrestling team. After we met, I learned that he was a police officer working for the Meza Arizona School District. He was my introduction to school security.

Prior to meeting him, I hadn’t thought about schools needing security officers. Being from a small school district in Southern Illinois, this was a new concept to me. Fortunately, the young man seemed to posses the right combination of cerebral and physical skills needed for security work.

With his confident and courteous manner, he seemed as versatile as Greer. I thought Meza was lucky to have him on their team.

Price of Security

Today, security personnel are common place at schools. It’s comforting to know that they are trained, dedicated and diverse. According to the NEA ESP Data Book (2002-2003):

• Of approximately 2,907,700 NEA ESP, 40,427 are classified as “security”
• Slightly less than one-third of those are female
• No certain age group was dominant, but only 3,287 are over age 65
• White males out number others by at least 4 to 1
• White female members slightly out number black female officers
• Nearly one-half of the members have a total household income over $55,000
• Average earnings of those working full-time in security is $32,894
• More than half of security personnel attended college
• The majority are married and consider themselves head of the house

While these figures provide some background information, they don’t address job duties. As I spoke with the officer from Arizona, he explained his duties in one statement. “Anything an officer on the street does I do, and more.”

More? He said that he not only issues tickets to speeders on school grounds, patrols the hallways, and conducts drug searches, but also organizes educational programs and talks to students about law enforcement.

Yes, that is more. A lot more. While an ESP like this is invaluable to the operation of a school, funders don’t always see it that way.

A Desperate Plea

In some cases grants that pay for these officers are drying up. Mike Oyler, Effingham High School principal, told the Effingham County board that he needed financial help to maintain school security.

“We can’t deal with (security) problems as effectively as school resource officers. It’s money well spent,” Oyler said. “Violence, drugs, and dysfunctional families are a day-to-day truth that interrupts the learning process in education today."

School administrators, teachers, and support staff "all have stories that would make one shake his or her head in dismay," he continued. "Years ago, running in the hallways and skipping school were problems educators had to deal with, but today, problems are drugs, sexual abuse, and physical abuse.”

Despite pleas from an army of administrators and educators, the resource officer program was voted down.

I can’t help but think that if the board members had known the Meza security officer, the outcome might have been different. Nobody would cut Rosie Greer.

(Dave Arnold, a member of the Illinois Education Association, is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois.)

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NEA or its affiliates.