Study: Armed security officers are on the rise in US schools

Different voices

School resource officers are sworn law enforcement personnel who have been trained to work in schools. Their duties include controlling outside traffic, patrolling the school, maintaining discipline, identifying problems and mentoring at-risk students, teaching law-related classes and serving as liaisons between schools and police.

Experts, however, are divided on whether putting such officers on school campuses will make the schools safer or frighten children and lead to more arrests.

Ronald Stephens, executive director of the National School Safety Council, said that trained officers carrying weapons can help prevent a shooting inside the school and deter a possible shooter from entering.

Others have questions.

A 2013 congressional report found that the available research "draws conflicting conclusions about whether SRO programs are effective at reducing school violence".

Ron Astor, an education professor at University of Southern California who specializes in school behavior, says that putting weapons in schools will make them akin to prisons, intimidate children and hurt their studies. Instead, he says, research has shown that violence, bullying and the use of drugs and guns is reduced in warm, caring environments focused on providing support to students.

"With a lot of guns, it doesn't create a sense of safety with the children and the teachers. It could trigger post-traumatic stress disorder. It triggers nonattendance," Astor said.

Associated Press