Schools

SRO Not Best Use of Resources, Former Student Government President Says

'There is such a long list of items and areas that need budget support and aren't getting it—spending $100,000 on an SRO will only force the board to continue to neglect these items,' Krysta Huber says.

The following letter to the editor was also submitted to members of the Westfield Board of Education: 

My name is Krysta Huber and I'm a 2012 graduate of Westfield High School. I'm reaching out to you all in regard to the proposed SRO at WHS. I feel that this idea is unnecessary and will not be effective. As someone who spent four years as a very involved student in the community, I feel that I am more than qualified to assure you that this method will not make students feel or actually be any safer than they currently are.

First of all, I don't think that one person will be able to protect a school of our size, with nearly 2,000 students. What happens if the officer is occupied at the back of the school with an issue that isn't extremely important, and then there is a potentially dangerous issue at the front entrance - will one person with a gun really be able to make a difference in seconds? And, why is having a gun the right answer? The Columbine school shooting had an armed officer on campus, but that clearly didn't stop anyone from being innocently killed. Quite honestly, I felt extremely safe with having Terry and John patrolling the school campus. They were both extremely conscientious of their work. As a student government officer I had a lot of interaction with them, and I know that they took their jobs very seriously.

It's also my understanding that the officer will be responsible for dealing with other issues aside from the more obvious dangers of an armed individual entering the school premises, such as drug busts. I don't suspect that such a "solution" will discourage or eliminate drug use. I don't think that drugs are so prevalent in the building that it should become such a focus. Students should be coming to school to feel safe, not to feel like someone is trying to get them in trouble. This isn't to say in any way that I don't think there should be consequences for having drugs; there most certainly should be. But it shouldn't be a focus in school - it sends the wrong message to students. We should be thankful that we live in a town and go to a school that is significantly safer than other schools in our county. Why should we make people paranoid? Finally, how can the board willingly allocate such a large amount of money to the SRO when so many cuts have been made to the district budget in the last few years? From cutting teachers to lacking the funds to buy newer supplies and textbooks, the staff, faculty, and students are all feeling the effects. The school community feels these effects on a daily basis. There are other ways to maintain a safe school environment that won't further hamper the ability to learn. And I'd like to emphasize that learning is why we're there in the first place.

Last year, my student government board was responsible for donating money to the district's technology efforts. Of course we were happy to donate this money because we wanted to improve technology, but that meant taking this money away from other areas: we were supporting a charity called Good Grief, that helped families and children grieve with loss of a loved one. In my personal opinion, it was very upsetting that I couldn't donate more money to this charity because of the pressure to support a technology effort that would not even be in place if the budget could cover it. I think that if you surveyed students, many of them would tell you that they do feel safe with the current system in place. And by comparison, they would be much more supportive of having something like new laptop carts instead of 7-10 year old computers with outdated software and few capabilities. There is such a long list of items and areas that need budget support and aren't getting it - spending $100,000 on an SRO will only force the board to continue to neglect these items.

I know that this email is quite long, but I feel very passionate about this topic. I really hope that more students will speak out against it because it has the biggest, most direct effect on them. Thank you for your time and I hope that you will strongly consider these points before reaching a final decision.

Sincerely,
Krysta Huber


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