Literature Review
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particular components of the School Resource Officer program are actually” works (Johnson, 1999)? Professor Johnson conducted a questionnaire survey for several SROs, school administrators, teachers, students, and parents. The research findings were since the SRO program was introduced, the use of handgun, knives, or other objects used as weapons has decreased. It also showed that many of the students felt that the presence of SROs in school made them feel safe and it deterred students from engaging in many negative behaviors (Johnson, 1999). However, school administrators and SROs feel the following changes of the program are needed: “more training classes and seminars are needed, to hire more SROs, and more outreach with the parents” (Johnson, 1999). Her report also revealed that if there was teamwork between school administrators, teachers, and SROs that the program could focus more on school problems and provide counseling services in problematic areas (Johnson, 1999). Overall, the components of the SRO programs that are in place are working smoothly by reducing school violence and other violent related activities (Johnson, 1999). This indicates that SROs do decrease the violent activities that happen at school and their presence helps deter many criminal behaviors.
Also, author Matthew t. Theriot, a professor at the University of Tennessee, conducted research on the impact of school resource officer’s interaction on student’s feelings about school and school police. His quest was to find out if “interactions with an SRO positively or negatively influence middle and high school student’s feelings” about school resource officers and do “interactions with SROs influence students’ sense of school connectedness” (Theriot, 2013)? He surveyed seven middle schools and five high schools to answer questions to determine the above research questions. His findings state that there is evidence that student interactions with SROs positively influences students attitude about SROs. Furthermore, those SRO interactions are related to better attitudes about SROs and students feeling safer at school. Lower levels of school connectedness are explained by a student’s experiences