BALTIMORE — With school days away from resuming, it’s hard to imagine some parents and students aren’t on edge about safety.
The deadly May 24 shooting in Uvalde, Texas left parents rattled nationwide. Video from that day will always be gut-wrenching to watch, as officers responded to Robb Elementary and waited over an hour to confront the gunman who slaughtered 19 children and two teachers.
Once considered “unimaginable,” school shootings have now become all too common. They have students asking more questions than ever about what safety measures are in place at their campuses.
“I think based on recent events and things they’ve seen in news, they may feel less safe or they may feel unsure about the return to school,” said Anne Arundel Police Cpl. Lee Williams, a school resource officer and basketball coach for Annapolis High School.
Cpl. Williams and his colleague Cpl. Ashley Carpenter understand their job has never been more important.
“For any student out there who has seen what’s made nationwide headlines over last few months, and doesn’t feel safe to go into classroom, what do you say to them?” asked WJZ Anchor Rick Ritter.
“The biggest thing for me is getting the kids to have that open conversation with me, to come to me and they do,” Carpenter, who works at Crofton High, replied. “They feel comfortable with me. I’m here to protect them, I care really deeply for them.”
Williams said he treats the students he’s tasked with protecting as his own.
“It’s so important that we make sure we’re part of their community, that we build those bridges, and that we’re not just a person in a uniform in the building every day,” the corporal added.
Williams said being a good school resource officer is all about equity, which starts in the hallways.
“When you work to build up that equity, they know they have school resource officers in the building that are there to help them,” he said.
Carpenter said school resources are in schools to build relationships with students and guide them, not lock them up, a common misconception. Asked if whether pressures from elected officials or school leaders have changed things, Carpenter said no.
“Honestly, our SRO training itself hasn’t changed. We are actually the standard for the state,” she said.
One of the things that the corporals acknowledged has changed is school resource officers are more acquainted now than ever before with the physical layouts of the schools and campuses they’re responsible for protecting.
“I’ve been there for several tours myself with these officers,” Williams said. “It’s extremely crucial at all schools but especially high schools because a lot of them are sizeable. Showing them the outside of the building, the quickest door to get in, in case there’s an emergency situation. It’s crucial. Every second counts when there’s an emergency.”
Williams said the same principles apply to school administrators, staff and students when it comes to practicing lockdowns.
“If we both go into a situation where I know what my administration is doing and they know what I’m doing, it helps things move better,” he said. “Not a lot of questions are being asked because they trust me. It gets done immediately and students and staff are in their classrooms as fast as possible.”
With the massacre in Uvalde and sometimes frayed relations between police and the communities they serve, Williams said he takes his duty as a community-oriented officer seriously.
“It is very important to me. Someone has to restore the trust,” he said. “It’s a hard job, but it’s one that’s very rewarding.”
Carpenter said she cares deeply about her students because they’re our future.
“I know for me personally, I never had an interaction with an officer until I became an officer really,” she said. “A lot of these kids have either had a bad experience with law enforcement or don’t understand our roles or never even had an interaction with an officer. Having positive interactions at a younger age, builds those relationships and trust.”
Williams said it’s important to him that the community can see a police officer doing their job correctly.
“To me being inside schools, it’s not something I can run from,” he said. “It’s ground zero if you want to be a part of social reform and social justice. There really is no better place to do that than to be a school resource officer. We look at these kids as our own kids. Their victories are our victories. That couldn’t be more true.”
Anne Arundel County Police say they have 29 school resource officers in the district, one of the largest districts in the country. Every high school has at least one school resource officer, and some have two.