As it does once each fall, the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education met in the media center of Central High School Monday during school hours, giving two groups of students of about 40 each the opportunity to observe the board in action and ask questions and make comments along the way
By: John Tredrea
As it does once each fall, the Hopewell Valley Regional Board of Education met in the media center of Central High School Monday during school hours, giving two groups of students of about 40 each the opportunity to observe the board in action and ask questions and make comments along the way.
This year’s session was completely dominated by the issue of bringing in one or two police officers to work full time in the high school and Timberlane Middle School. The Police Department of Hopewell Township, where the two schools are located, has applied for federal grant money to pay for two officers to work in the schools for three years.
The officers would be known as school resource officers (SROs). That title did nothing to impress a boy who spoke during the public hearing in the media center Monday.
"He’d have a pretty name, but he’d still be a cop with a gun and a walkie-talkie," the student declared bluntly. "It will decrease student morale." He added that putting an SRO on duty in the high school would be a misguided attempt to keep students "in a glass house" when it would be a better idea to let them start getting used to the real-life adult world instead.
Another boy said he felt differently about the proposal to bring an SRO here. "We should give it a try," he said. "If we find we have problems with the program, we can fix them," he predicted confidently.
Of the approximately 15 students who addressed the SRO program, most expressed opposition to bringing the program here. Noting that the SRO would be armed, one girl said of the gun the officer would carry: "It’s a symbol of authority, authority that can be backed by violence," she said.
"I find the idea of having a gun in school like this very distancing and uncomfortable," another girl said. "It scares me to think of it. Do our students really feel unsafe?"
"I’ve had encounters with the police that seemed age-discriminatory to me," another girl said. "I feel kind of intimidated by police."
Responding to these comments was a team of teachers, parents and students that visited Lawrence High School on Sept. 13. Lawrence has installed an SRO program and the purpose of the visit was to give the visitors from the Valley a chance to encounter the program firsthand, question students and school staff who have lived with it, and to question the Lawrence policeman who worked as an SRO in that town’s high and middle schools for three years, before being promoted to an administrative position in charge of the SRO program this year. That officer, Brian Caloiaro, met with the Hopewell Valley school board Sept. 10.
The CHS students who visited Lawrence all said that, going into that visit, they had many of the same reservations about the SRO program that other students who have not visited Lawrence expressed during Monday’s meeting.
"I didn’t see a need" for an SRO and "was nervous about the gun factor," said Megan Haggerty, one of the students to visit Lawrence last week. "The students and teachers at Lawrence really showed me what a benefit this program can be, and how it can help build your community. The kids loved Officer Caloiaro. He’s such a nice, approachable guy and a positive role model for kids to have."
CHS Student Council Vice President Vikram Aorawal agreed. "I was skeptical, but now I think it’s a good idea," he said. "The principal’s still in charge of the school. The success depends on the personality of the SRO, so students as well as parents should have a say in picking one." Vikram added that he was told at Lawrence that "there have been fewer drug and disciplinary problems" since the SRO program came on board.
Numerous speakers Monday agreed with Vikram’s point that "the personality" of the SRO is important. CHS history teacher Jeff Newman, a member of the team that visited Lawrence last week, said: "The feeling I got is that it worked well at Lawrence. The question I have is would it work here. The key point is to find someone who can function as well as they do in Lawrence. Pick the wrong person and the SRO program won’t work."
Superintendent Robert Sopko said, "It’s been our practice to involve a broad-based interviewing group," including parents as well as faculty and administrators, for the hiring of some school employees, particularly administrators. "I would expand that to include students as well as staff and parents in this instance," the superintendent added. He noted that Hopewell Township Police Chief Michael Chipowksy "gave us a commitment the schools would have an equal say with the police in the hiring of this individual."
The SRO, who would be a member of the township Police Department, would cost about $45,000 annually plus benefits, Dr. Sopko said.
Parent Dabby Palmer, who also visited Lawrence, said her mind was changed on the SRO issue by the visit. "I went in there thinking: ‘Oh my God guns in the schools in peaceful Hopewell Valley! How can we have that?’ I was really amazed at the way the students in Lawrence have accepted this program. The SRO functions as an adjunct to the school, and to students. He does not eavesdrop, but he makes himself available and can intervene in a positive way if a problem comes to his attention."
Parent Lynn Gustafson said her mind was changed similarly by the visit to Lawrence. The SROs "right to search is lower than the principal’s," she said by way of stressing that school officials, not the SRO, still rule the roost. "The students have embraced him as a friend," she said of the SRO in Lawrence.
CHS teachers who visited Lawrence brought back strongly favorable comments about the SRO program. CHS English teacher Suzanne Snyder-Carroll said an SRO officer "would be another adult in our midst who would really care about us, who would help us put together a community that would be safe for you. This would be an asset that would make us feel more secure and would help us clarify misunderstandings we may have about the law."
CHS Latin teacher Rosemary Walker said, "I was very impressed by him (Lawrence SRO Caloiaro). The reaction of students to him was very positive. He had an open-door policy and knew everyone in school. It was a very pleasant, nonthreatening atmosphere."
In response to a question from a student, Dr. Sopko said, "There have been no specific incidents" that have led the school district to consider bringing in one or two SROs here as early as January, assuming the federal government approves the township police’s grant application. Nor has there been an increase in the rate of incidents the superintendent added. "This is a proactive step, intended to increase your safety in a changing community."
Student Vince Caristo, one of the team that visited Lawrence, said that school’s SRO is both a certified firefighter and EMT (emergency medical technician) as well as a police officer. "That can really cut down response time in an emergency," Vince said.
Another student who visited Lawrence said, "I asked if having an SRO was going to infringe on students’ privacy and create a more guarded atmosphere. Before the SRO could answer me, students said no, that wouldn’t happen. That made me feel a lot better."
An aspect of the SRO program supported by CHS English teachers Ellen Davila and Lori McCone is that the officer’s duties are specified in a written document approved by police and school officials. "This is a national program with clearly defined roles," Ms. McCone said. "It was very clear the principal was still in charge of the building we visited. It was a relief to me to see the hierarchy was well-established. The kids expressed a sense of feeling safe, and that there was someone there they felt they could go to for advice."
"I like the idea of having his (the SRO’s) guidelines in writing," Ms. Davila said. "The SROs don’t takeover the building. They work in conjunction with the disciplinarians of the school."
CHS senior Kevin Kirby, the school’s representative on the school board, said the Lawrence SRO teaches in classes "continually … from use of triangulation at accident scenes in math class to matters involving the law in history class."

