The Gwinnett County school board recently approved a new policy to give its police the authority to use force when necessary to keep campuses safe and students from misbehaving.
The policy says force can be used by school resource officers as a last resort “to maintain order and discipline” and “to protect others or themselves from bodily harm," but it did not come with guidelines on how it should be applied.
Gwinnett Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks was asked to work with staff to establish procedures governing the use of force. Those guidelines are slated to be up for discussion at next month’s board meeting.
Jorge Gomez, Gwinnett’s executive director for administration and policy, said the measure was crafted partly in response to a federal mandate asking school systems to review policies on restraint.
“Use of force is always a last resort,” Gomez said. “A police officer doesn’t come up to you and pull out his gun first.”
School spokeswoman Sloan Roach said as sworn officers the district's police already had the legal right to use force. The policy supports that authority. “That is something that is available to them, but they are trained in working with students and the community," she said. "What we find is [force] is not necessary in most cases.”
Some parents, however, are concerned the policy passed unanimously without specific guidelines.
Jennifer Falk, co-founder of Gwinnett Parent Coalition to Dismantle the School to Prison Pipeline, said she asked administrators Friday whether a committee that includes community members could work with the system to develop regulations on when police force can be used. Falk said teens who have been "tackled" by school cops have then been charged as a result of the ensuing scuffle as the student reacted.
""I am very concerned that our schools are not using enough intermediate intervention prior to SRO interaction," Falk said, referring to school resource officers. "When something as serious as the use of force is sanctioned, parents should understand what the guidelines are."
Gwinnett school police carry guns, but rarely use them, Gomez said. “There is only one incident in the past 20 years that a [school resource officer] pulled out his gun. It was only in the service of a warrant not in a school facility.”
About the Author
The Latest
Featured
