COLONIAL HEIGHTS, Va. -- School Resource Officer (SRO) Eric Allen jokes around with Colonial Heights students in an effort to build relationships. He hopes those relationships will one day make those students comfortable to come to him when something is amiss at school.
"You want to have the type of personality where the kids feel comfortable approaching you and giving you that type of information," Allen said.
As part of his day, Allen makes sure school doors are secured and monitors cameras inside and outside the school.
"Constantly scanning just to see anything unusual, if I recognize everybody," Allen said.
Colonial Heights has one of the smallest school systems in the region, but it prioritized putting SROs in every school. SROs are armed members of law enforcement assigned to work in schools.
"I think it's a vital piece in our leadership across the division," Colonial Heights Superintendent Dr. William Sroufe said.
Sroufe said he believed every school in Virginia should have a School Resource Officer. But he also acknowledged that just because a school has an SRO that does not mean a school shooting can be avoided.
"It's certainly a deterrent but I don't think one single factor would prevent a shooting at a school, unfortunately," Sroufe said. "Security is layers. You have multiple layers in schools: cameras, locks, vestibules. SROs are certainly one of those."
According to the most recent Virginia School Safety Audit, 64 percent of schools in Virginia have at least part-time SROs.
While the vast majority of Virginia middle and high schools have them, only 50 percent of elementary schools do.
Dr. Sroufe thinks that needs to change.
"I do think some of that funding ought to come from [lawmakers in] Richmond but I do think one should be in every school," Sroufe said.
But Rachael Deane, with the Education Law Center, said school divisions and the state should focus, instead, on hiring more mental health professionals at schools.
"School Resource Officers are primarily police, they are not school counselors, they are not mental health professionals," Deane said. "Why not invest more in folks who are trained to do counseling?"
She said evidence shows reliance on law enforcement approaches at school is not actually effective at keeping schools safe. Deane cited a 2021 study from the University of Albany that found no evidence that SROs prevent school shootings.
"There is however a large body of evidence that promoting a positive school culture is very effective for keeping schools safe," Deane said.
Hanover County Schools have deputies assigned to each middle and high school full-time, and all elementary schools have DARE officers assigned to 2-3 schools.
All Henrico County middle and high schools have SROs on site. Those SROs are also assigned to serve nearby elementary schools as needed.
Citing safety reasons, the Chesterfield Police Department declined to say how many schools have SROs. But Chesterfield Public Schools said it was working with police to assign SROs to each secondary school and Child Safety Officers to each elementary school.
Richmond Public Schools works with 12 SROs throughout the division. Seventeen Richmond schools have Care and Safety Associates who are not police and are unarmed, but they are trained and certified as school security.
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