SOME QUESTION ROLE OF POLICE IN SHELBY SCHOOLS

The growing presence of police officers in Shelby County schools has
prompted some parents to question the role of law enforcement
personnel when it comes to dealing with children in trouble.

Two incidents this school year - one involving a student with a toy
gun and the other a student's theft of $20 - have left some parents
furious at what they believe to be the over-involvement of police.

Others said they want police to err on the side of caution. "I'm glad
they're there. I feel like there's someone trained who can intercede
if there's trouble," said Beth Slay, who has children at Thompson High
School and Creekview Elementary School.

In the most recent incident, a 10-year-old Thompson Intermediate
School student was locked up for two days after police said he used a
toy gun to make threats at the school bus stop.

In September, an Oak Mountain High School senior spent five days in
juvenile detention after she admitted to stealing $20 from a
classmate's purse.

The parents in both cases said the matters could have been handled
through school administrators. School resource officers have
overstepped their bounds, said Stephanie Spence, mother of the
10-year-old boy arrested in the toy gun incident. "Are they there to
protect our children or are they there to arrest them, or are they
there to discipline them?" Spence asked.

The answer seems to be all of the above. "The whole program or plan
behind having a school resource officer is that it is a joint venture
between the school and law enforcement," Shelby County Sheriff Chris
Curry said.

The school resource officer is part of an intricate system designed to
work in the students' best interest, said Ken Mobley, county schools
student services coordinator. "All organizations, all the way from law
enforcement to DHR to juvenile court - everybody works so well
together," Mobley said.

The Shelby County Sheriff's Department in 1991 assigned its first
school resource officer - then called a juvenile services officer - to
cover the entire county school system. It wasn't until 1998 that the
county added a second officer and cities began assigning officers to
schools part time.

Curry said the school resource officer program has flourished in the
last four or five years, with federal grants making it easier to pay
for additional police in schools. Today, the Sheriff's Department has
two school resource officers for unincorporated areas and an
additional officer teaching Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

Alabaster in 2002 received a $656,076 federal grant to hire six school
police officers at the same time that Hoover and Calera received
$250,000 each to hire two officers. Columbiana and Pelham also have
placed police in their schools.

Federal money to help put police in schools became more plentiful
following a string of high-profile shooting incidents in schools
around the country in the late 1990s.

School resource officers become part of a team to deal with student
issues alongside principals and counselors, Curry said. "It is a
combination of assisting the school system, providing security to the
school as a whole, and then being a role model. Part of the time
you're playing counselor, but full time you're a sworn law enforcement
officer."

That doesn't sit well with Kelly McCarter, a parent with two children
at Meadowview Elementary School and one at Thompson Intermediate
School. "I really think that police officers should be at the Police
Department," she said. "I can understand that there can be some need
for them, but as far as disciplining my child, I don't think they
should be able to do that," she said.

For the most part, school officials said, school administrators handle
discipline.

Randy Fuller, principal at Oak Mountain High School, said the school
handles minor offenses such as disruption of class, but if it's a case
involving drugs or violence, the school calls on its school resource
officer to step in.

Though it's usually a matter of following a step-by-step process,
Fuller said the role of the school resource officer is "defined by the
need of the individual school at that point in time."

Drugs or violence are one thing, but when the situation isn't so
clear-cut, there are judgment calls to make, Curry said. If an
incident involves a violation of school policy, a resource officer may
or may not become involved, he said. On the other hand, "If a criminal
act is committed at the school, that definitely involves a school
resource officer," Curry said.

There is significantly more leeway on the question of whether a
student should be arrested following an incident. "That becomes the
individual officer's decision," Curry said.

Many factors come into play, including how reliable the witnesses are
and how strong the case is, Curry said, but an officer can always
consult with the district attorney's office or a juvenile probation
officer on the spot to determine whether an arrest is necessary. "If
it's not that clear, then they're going to call and ask for advice,"
Curry said.

Phelan Webb, whose daughter was arrested in connection with the theft
of $20 from a classmate, said she believes the guidelines aren't being
followed. "I think they're stepping over the line, because I don't
think everything is a legal issue," Webb said.

Gray area:

"There's a lot of gray area there," said Charles Brown, a parent at
Oak Mountain High School and former PTO president. For example, he
asked, if a student commits an unlawful act but the school resource
officer didn't witness it, what happens then?

"I believe the vast majority of parents would say you err on the side
of caution and you do something about it," Brown said. "If you're in
doubt, you can't afford not to."

Brown said he believes that, overall, school resource officers have
benefited the school tremendously - they help direct traffic around
school, they walk the halls with students, they attend sporting events
- - but that doesn't mean their role isn't worth a second look.

"Maybe, with these incidents, it's time to make sure we all understand
and agree with the job description, for lack of a better word, of that
officer," Brown said. "Let's make sure we're all on the same page."