SRO increase approved in spite of community dissent

During the 2018-2019 school year, then-Urbana Superintendent Donald Owen was removed from his position as Urbana School District Superintendent in part due to his perceived excessively-unilateral leadership style. Now, as the 2019-2020 school year unfolds, the school board is repeating many of his mistakes.

On Tuesday November 19th of this year, the Urbana School Board voted to quadruple the presence of armed police officers, called School Resource Officers (SROs), in the Urbana Middle and High Schools. The vote was conducted over the protests of the vast majority of community members who spoke at the board meeting.

There was no data presented suggesting any benefits offered by SRO programs to school or community safety, and the large body of evidence suggesting the efficacy of increasing the presence of school counselors was ignored. Moreover, the decision contained no plans for a review process to determine if the SROs even end up being successful in increasing safety.

The only arguments of any kind made in favor of supporting the increase came from the Urbana Police Chief and the principals of both schools, all of whom have an interest in presenting the SRO program and the competence of the district in the best possible light.

Regardless of one’s position concerning SROs, it’s clear that the way in which the decision was made was neither data driven nor democratic. As citizens of Urbana, we all must do a better job ensuring that our “public servants” are held accountable to make decisions responsibly.