The Chartiers Valley School District played host to a training workshop for campus safety personnel last month, but came away with a distinction of its own.
The district, which began employing resource officers early last year in the aftermath of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, trained the last of its campus safety personnel. All safety personnel are now certified by the National Association of School Resource Officers.
“We want everyone to be on the same page,” said school resource officer Bill Oslick, a member of the Collier police force. “I can't be everywhere. We all have to be part of this team.”
He said that while the certification is not required of school resource officers, it is something the district wanted for its safety personnel.
The certification course covered safety officer roles and responsibilities, effective communication with kids, child abuse investigations, working with special needs students, substance abuse and addiction, school safety and emergency preparedness.
NASRO President Kevin Quinn said few schools have their entire campus safety staff certified. He likened school resource officers to a specific police department division.
“Lots of times, a police department will take an officer and throw you into a school without specialized training,” he said. “You can't do any sort of specialized assignment without proper training.”
He said familiarity with kids and experience are not enough.
“You may have kids, you may have worked with kids and be a cop, but until you know how to mesh the two – know the intricacies, the school administration, staff kids, what to look for – you're not going to be successful,” he said.
Mary Margaret Kerr, a University of Pittsburgh professor specializing in educational psychology, said it is important for officers in these positions to be familiar with inner workings that are often unique to education systems.
“For anyone coming into the culture of a school, it's important that they get some orientation, because school culture is different than the culture of any other organization,” she said.
She said there are differences in language and regulation that must be learned, and school officers must know how to create an atmosphere of trust.
“Student resource officers are one of those adults you really want kids – and faculty, for that matter – to feel comfortable with,” she said.
Quinn said the push for NASRO certification doubled in 2013.
“The Sandy Hook incident had a lot to with it. It made school districts and police departments look at their situations and realized they wanted to get school resource officers on campus or, for the ones that had them, they wanted to get them trained to do the job effectively,” he said.
Oslick said the distinction is a good one, but there is still work to be done.
“We've done so much in a short amount of time, but we're not done,” he said.
Megan Guza is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-388-5810 or mguza@tribweb.com.
