Dive Brief:
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Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey decided Monday against deploying the National Guard to a high school after Brockton Public Schools' board members pleaded in a Feb. 15 letter for the Guard's "expertise in crisis management and community support" until the district was able to put long-term solutions in place.
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In the letter, board members wrote that the protection would be a "vital temporary intervention" in light of "a disturbing increase" in violent, security and substance abuse incidents. They added in their letter that they sought "to prevent a potential tragedy," and that the concerns have led to 35 teachers being absent.
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Healey, however, said sending in the National Guard would be an inappropriate response, and critics of the request said such a move would deter students from attending the school, according to local news reports.
Dive Insight:
The request to send military protection to Brockton High School comes in light of a national increase in reports of school violence and behavioral concerns, worsening of substance abuse for some age groups, and teacher shortages.
At Brockton, this combination of events is not only impacting learning, but also making statewide testing difficult in the school, district leaders wrote in their letter.
The National Association of School Resource Officers said in an email that it has "never before heard of a school board making such a request."
"It's so unusual," said Mo Canady, executive director of NASRO and a retired school resource officer. "The National Guard has a role and they have a job, but trying to police K-12 school environments is not one of their jobs."
Canady said school safety and security is instead a local school district and law enforcement concern.
"And the absolute best way to deal with that is carefully selected and specifically trained school resource officers," said Canady. "Having the appropriate number of officers working on that campus — in collaboration with the school administration — is the most effective way to deal with any type of issues, whether it's issues of violence, armed assailants, or just day to day crime prevention measures."
In 2021, a Brockton High School SRO was put on paid leave while under investigation for kneeling on a student while handcuffing him. The internal investigation eventually found the SRO's actions to be in line with procedures.
Nearly 70% of all public schools reported at least one violent incident in 2021-22, according to nationally representative survey data released last month by the National Center for Education Statistics. Middle and high schools reported at least one type of violent or nonviolent crime at rates higher than the national average.
At the same time, some schools experienced fractured relationships with SROs in the wake of both pandemic school closures and the George Floyd protests in 2020. About three dozen districts severed ties with their local law enforcement in light of those protests, said Canady.
"And so those districts probably have struggled a little more in terms of having to lean more on crisis response," he said.
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