Former school safety director Gary Sigrist Jr. believes the role of a school resource officer goes beyond safety and discipline.  

“A school resource officer is one more trusted adult in a building for the kids,” Sigrist said. “If we look at the roles of a school resource officer, they're a teacher, they're a counselor, at the worst case scenario, they're gonna be a law enforcement officer.”

Sigrist, now the CEO and president of Safeguard Risk Solutions, spoke at a professional development event for school resource officers at the Trumbull County Educational Service Center on Friday. School resource officers are sworn law enforcement officers assigned to work for a school or district. 

People often think of these officers in the context of school shootings, but according to Sigrist, that isn’t where they are the most effective. 

“We know for a fact that school resource officers are not a deterrent to school shootings. They'll shorten the event, but even if you look at Columbine, there was a school resource officer there,” Sigrist said. “A school resource officer is there to help staff identify kids who might be in crisis so that we can get them the help that they need. 

“We don't want to stop the school shooter at the school, we want to stop the school shooter when they're still at home,” he added.

A 2023 study from the University of Albany and the RAND Corporation found that school resource officers’ presence in schools “change school environments and student outcomes in important ways.” This includes effectively reducing some forms of violence, such as fights and attacks without a weapon.

On the other hand, the study found that resource officers’ presence in a school leads to “increased costs to students in the form of greater use of sanctions by both the school and law enforcement.” That includes suspensions, expulsions, police referrals and arrests — especially for boys, Black students and children with disabilities. 

Chad Smith, a regional representative for the Ohio School Resource Officers Association and school resource officer of 21 years, said law enforcement is “not there to target kids” or be “adversarial.”

“[That] creates a hostile environment,” Smith said. “The schools don't want people in there that are overly aggressive, right? Put the kids on the ground, take them out in cuffs all the time. They want that person that's connected, but that can still act in a major event.”

Instead, Smith said, officers need to focus on building positive connections with students.

“We're here to not only keep the school safe, but help the kids succeed … to make sure they can get through, graduate, go on to bigger and better things,” Smith said.

School resource officers also need to have an agreement with their school districts on what they will — and won't — do.

“There are times that people think that because a school resource officer is in a school, that their job is to enforce school rules,” Sigrist said. “We're there as police officers. … We don't have a legal authority to enforce school rules. We can only enforce laws.”

In other words, “We're not there to enforce, ‘Hey take your hat off,’ ‘Hey, put your cell phone away,’ those types of things,” said Smith. 

There’s at least one thing law enforcement officers inside schools are still missing, according to Sigrist: “the mental health component.” 

“We're losing more kids to suicide than we are to school shootings, and nobody's talking about that,” Sigrist said.