Henrico School Board hears school resource officer update

As school systems nationwide are reviewing their school resource officer programs amid calls for reform, Henrico’s School Board received an update about its program during Thursday’s work session.

New requirements for SRO programs statewide took effect July 1, as part of legislation passed earlier this year by the Virginia General Assembly. They require departments to provide a minimum training for SRO certifications, including:
• awareness of cultural diversity and implicit bias;
• mediation and conflict resolution, including de-escalation techniques;
• working with students with disabilities, mental health needs, substance abuse disorders or past traumatic experiences;
• student behavioral techniques.

Cortney Berry, Henrico Schools’ emergency manager, told board members that the system and its SRO program are on the same page about how the program should operate.

“I’m always pleased and proud to talk about the relationships we have with school resource officers because in Henrico County, it is a solid, healthy and valued relationship,” Berry said. “I realize that is not true everywhere when I meet with my colleagues across the state and across the country, but I can assure you that it is true here in Henrico.”

Henrico Police and the schools system have a formal memorandum of understanding that has been in place before the state required such documents, Berry said. The memorandum is reviewed annually, she said.

There are 35 SROs in Henrico schools – one at each middle school and at least one at each high school, according to Henrico Police Lt. Col. Linda Toney.

Henrico Police developed the Juvenile Services Officer School, a 40-hour class, in 2015 and requires annual recertification of officers.

Police officials must submit a timed agenda of the JSO school with an outline from each presenter of their specific trainings and a sign-in sheet of officers who attended the full 40 hours to the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to have their trainings certified.

The school added training on unconscious bias and micro-aggressions, the adolescent brain and student mental health and school safety and the effects of COVID-19 on emergency planning from school division staff this year. Officials also this month have discussed the desire to increase community engagement opportunities and expand accountability procedures.

The school system and police are reviewing the memorandum of understanding, Berry said, and Toney will serve as the interim chief on the chief student advisory board.

The day-long joint administrator-police training includes all HCPS principals, their administration teams and any additional members they want to join and all SROs, Berry said. The training is also open to all department directors and their staff. The annual training is being adjusted to ensure it includes meaningful topics and will be timed to align with a return to in-person learning.

School resource officers are working to continue their engagement in virtual learning by co-teaching classes such as civics, increasing the number of after-school programs sponsored by SROs and making them virtual and holding virtual office hours, Berry said.

Mitigating trauma
Some students and others in the community have expressed general concerns about the presence of uniformed police officers in schools generally and in Henrico schools specifically. They suggest that officers may at times become involved in situations that don’t require their involvement, which can lead to traumatization of students and may impact minority students disproportionately.

Officers are not supposed to be brought in because an administrator or the school security guard is not available, Toney said – SROs are there for criminal activity.

Varina District School Board member Alicia Atkins asked about training for officers about trauma (for students, witnesses and the officers themselves) that may result from the use of pepper spray.

“When an officer sees trauma on a call for service on the road, we make sure that they have someone from our mental health team or peer support to talk to,” Toney said, “so I completely understand what you’re saying, and I’d be glad to partner with anybody in our schools where that would be a part of the school’s follow up if they felt like students needed that.

“I reassure you that I know we’ve used our Taser before, I know we’ve used pepper spray before in schools, but it’s truly not our first go-to,” she said, saying it is one of many tools that officers hope they never have to use.

Social media threats are the biggest threats that SROs typically see, Toney said, responding to a question from Brookland District member Kristi Kinsella.

School Board Chair Roscoe Cooper III, who represents the Fairfield District, spoke about George Floyd and the more recent police officer shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

“I appreciate you saying that as a police department, we recognize that we have work to do within our community, and I appreciate you saying that it starts at the schools because you’re not just building relationships…in the school, but you want them as citizens after school to trust the police, engage the police, appreciate the police,” Cooper told Toney.

The community has to be concerned about its members being traumatized week after week, he said, and that he was traumatized last Sunday by the Blake shooting and four months ago.

“It’s important that that conversation is not lost. It’s important that we are here to build those relationships and hopefully reassure our community that that’s not lost on us as leaders, especially not my peers on this board nor our superintendent,” Cooper said.

Toney said she knew she could not stand in Cooper’s shoes but that the events weigh on officers, as well.

“It affects police, too, and then we have to almost start over,” she said. “This healing process, every time something like that happens, has to start over, and I want to get back to where we were before and heal together and not have another incident, and if we do face it, we need to face it together.”