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Last October, the Lexington School Board voted in favor of appointing the school system’s first school resource officer. As the school year is a few short months away from concluding, school officials recently reviewed the goals they established at the onset of the program, and they considered their options for continuing the SRO program next year.
At its March meeting, the School Board heard from the SRO, Ricardo “Ricky” Haston, and the school division’s director of operations and student services, Jason White.
The first goal of the SRO program was to “enhance school safety and security during school hours, and after-hours during athletic, school, and community events.”
Haston keeps extensive records and documents everything he does within his day. He’s documented his oversight of morning and evening arrivals, 13 basketball games, one school assembly event, one band concert, three school dances, two PTA events, and one parent-teacher conference. He has also kept track of disciplinary and criminal actions, which has amounted to zero.
“It’s good to have that consistent one person that we go to in these [disciplinary/criminal] scenarios instead of just whoever is on call [at the police department],” White commented.
As SRO, Haston monitors the halls, assessing any potential threats.
“At 8:15, school begins and that’s when I begin my first school check. With that, I go around, check all the doors – I push them, I open them, I make sure they close and latch. Then, I do the exterior of the building,” Haston told the Board.
Since beginning in October, Haston has performed these routine walk-throughs approximately 454 times, he said. He has completed three threat assessments, two student crime prevention projects, and five in-school drills, fulfilling their second goal for the program of “providing continual school safety and security assessments if the building, classrooms, and procedures,” White said.
“… One of our points of emphasis and what we talked about earlier in the year with each time there’s mass casualties particularly in a school, we try to dive in and say, ‘Okay what happened and what can we learn from that.’ Uvalde, Texas – the big thing with that was the door being propped open. Door malfunctions have been blamed on some,” White said.
He continued, “Officer Haston has been great. As soon as he finds a door that is not latching the right way, he lets the principal and myself know, and we can’t say enough about public works. They’ve gotten the message from us and when I call and say there’s a door not latching, they drop what they’re doing, and they get there and take care of those doors immediately.”
The district’s third goal for the SRO program was to “annually review and coordinate with school administration updated crisis planning and management.”
Currently, Haston is in the midst of fulfilling this goal as he is reviewing the LCS crisis plan and making additions and alterations, which are to be implemented later this spring, Haston told the Board.
He was also instrumental in coordinating crisis planning professional development during the month of February. With that, he conducted ALICE active shooter preparedness safety training, he reviewed the reunification process of a school emergency, and he conducted training for the use of the Intrado safety app, which connects the three local districts to each other and local law enforcement and is now fully functional, White mentioned.
The fourth goal and perhaps the most important aspect of the SRO program is “[serving] as an additional mentor, instructor, informal counselor, and conduit for outside resources to assist students, families, and school staff,” White noted.
Sharing quotes from teachers at Lylburn Downing Middle School, White attested to the natural relationships forming between Haston and the students. “This is where [Haston] is thriving right now. This, right here, the relationships he’s built with our kids and our families, it’s just so neat to see in action,” White said.
He continued, “I’ll give an example without going into too much detail. He had a very distraught student come to him today at the middle school in a situation where the student wanted someone to listen and needed some assistance. What are we: five months in? She came to Officer Haston … That’s just one more adult she felt she could trust with the information she wanted to share with him …” Apart from his daily visits to elective classrooms, Haston has had 13 classroom visits, five one-on-one tutoring sessions, and two sessions of reading to students. Other opportunities he’s taken to connect with the students are a bullying prevention program, partnering with school counselors; and classroom character lessons like thinking before you speak when upset. He has also planned a family internet safety night for March 29, Haston told the Board.
For his fifth and final goal, Haston began this program in October with the hopes of “[improving] overall wellbeing and safety of the school community through proactive roles within the schools as well as neighborhoods.”
Haston told the Board that he serves as a great resource for students to learn about events going on in the community and he is also a great resource for teachers on school issues not pertaining to students.
To continue being a strong resource and community advocate, Haston keeps up to date with the “best practices” for SROs. He has undergone training for his basic SRO certification, impact of trauma on youth and handle with care overview and implementation, a SRO connect quarterly webinar, and a Victim Care Assistance Response Team Introduction.
At the end of their presentation, White asked the School Board for their thoughts for issuing a parent survey, similar to the survey they issued in October, on reinstating a SRO for next year.
School Board member Tammy Dunn said, “I had no doubt that those natural relationships would develop, and the students would begin to trust him and he’s that face and that person for them, whereas they might reveal something to him that they might not [to the principal or guidance counselor] – he’s there in a different capacity.”
Dunn continued, addressing implementing the program again next year, “My honest opinion is that this is working great, and I would hate to build the students up just to let them down. That could cause some adversary reactions and lots of behaviors and mental health issues, especially the kids with high anxiety. It might have a negative effect if we do not continue this.”
Board members Katie Shester, Mollie Fox and Michael Saunders want to survey both teachers and parents to gather feedback that will help them determine the success of the program.
Funding for the SRO program came from a grant with a four-year renewal. Having to apply each year, White told the Board, LCS has already applied for the grant funding, which can be turned down if it decides to discontinue the program.
The School Board will work with LCS administration to develop a parent/teacher survey that will be administered toward the end of March.
