School Resource Officers Will Be In Everett Schools When Students Return

Last week the Everett City Council approved an agreement with the Everett School District to continue the School Resource Officer (SRO) program for the 2021-2022 school year with the option for two extensions. When students return to in-person learning September 8th there will be a full time SRO at Everett High School and Cascade High School. The School District will cover the costs for those two officers. The SRO’s assignment is to build relationships, mentor students and promote school safety and security within the two high schools.

In addition to the High Schools, the City of Everett will provide funding for the SRO program for Eisenhower Middle School, Evergreen Middle School and North Middle Schools at no cost to the District. Because the Middle School SROs are solely funded by the City, the agreement says the City of Everett may discontinue providing one or more Middle School SROs, if police staffing levels and City budget capacity so require, as solely determined by the Police Chief.

The agreement also requires that the School Resource Officers receive training in the following areas.

a) Constitutional and civil rights of children in schools, including state law governing search and interrogation of youth in schools;
b) Child and adolescent development;
c) Trauma-informed approaches to working with youth;
d) Recognizing and responding to youth mental health issues;
e) Educational rights of students with disabilities, the relationship of disability to behavior, and best practices for interacting with students with disabilities;
f) Bias free policing and cultural competency, including best practices for interacting with students from particular backgrounds, including English learners, LGBTQ, immigrant, female and nonbinary students;
g) Local and national disparities in the use of force and arrests of children;
h) Collateral consequences of arrest, referral for prosecution, and court involvement;
i) Resources available in the community that serve as alternatives to arrest and prosecution and pathways for youth to access services without court or criminal justice involvement;
j) De-escalation techniques when working with youth or groups of youth;
k) State law regarding restraint and isolation in schools, including RCW 28A.600.485;
l) The federal family educational rights and privacy act (20 U.S.C. Sec. 1232g) requirements including limits on access to and dissemination of student records for noneducational purposes; and
m) Restorative justice principles and practices.

The five School Resource Officers report to the Everett Police Department’s Youth Services Sergeant. Everett Police first began the SRO program with two Resource Officers assigned to the Everett School District back in 1996.