Amazing how almost everyone in this arema blames the victim and yet fail to realize that there is a marked difference in how law enforcement engages individuals in traffic stops or interactions.
Personal note from this past spring:
In my classroom, my students warmup and play their instruments before class begins (as instructed by me). My band room is two doors down from the SRO's office. The SRO is a new and has only been in the building a cpl weeks. My student (also a senior tightend on the football team) is playing his trumpet as he does everyday. I'm in my repair room making a minor repair to an instrument.
This particular day, I send another student to the front office to get a package. She leaves the door open. The SRO officer is on his cell phone. My student is playing his horn as he goes to close the door. The SRO officer PERCEIVES my student is playing the horn at him intentionally as to interrupt his phone call.
The student closes the door. The SRO begins walking towards the door and unlocks my classroom door to talk to the student who had turned around to come back into the classroom. He tells my student that he is on an important call and that he is interfering with his ability to conduct the business he needs to conduct because he's playing the trumpet. My student rolls his eyes and tells the SRO that he's playing his trumpet like he does every single day before class starts. The SRO begins to leave. My student turns around and says, "he's not even supposed to be in here in the first place (as he walks to his seat).
The SRO overhears this and walks towards my student who is seated by this time and tells him to come with him to go to the office. The student refuses because he's done nothing wrong. The SRO starts putting his finger in my student's face and tells him to put the trumpet down. My student says, you have no right to pull me out of class if I have done nothing wrong. The SRO says he can do whatever he needs to within the description of his job. The SRO proceeds to take my student's trumpet with my student holding on to it. The SRO crushes the braces that holds the trumpet together. The student asks the SRO if he is going to pay for the broken trumpet. The tension is VERY HIGH at this point.
It is at this moment that I intervene and ask both the SRO and student to come outside with me to discuss the situation privately. They both comply.
Outside, I ask the officer is there anything I can do to help ease the tension. I mention that the student's mother is an educator in this building and he could discuss the issue with her as opposed to taking him to the office. The SRO thinks that I'm trying to invoke some sort of privilege that would override his decision. He grabs the student by the arm and begins to walk him to the office. My heart is pounding because I'm thinking of the Spring Valley situation that occurred earlier in the school year. All the while, the student is saying you have no right to take me out of my class when I've done nothing wrong.
The student ended up being suspended for 3 days.
My question to you all, who was wrong? The student? The SRO? or myself as the educator?
