School Disruptions: Tips for Educators and Police (Revised 1998)

• NCJ Number: 202998
• Author(s): Lawrence Turner; Ernest Jones; Daryl S. Borquist
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 39 pages
• Corporate Author: US Dept of Justice
• Sale Source: US Dept of Justice; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Instructional Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This brochure outlines a minimum number of basic steps that school and police officials should take in developing a joint approach to problems of school disruption.

Abstract

The school-police cooperative effort described in the brochure has the purpose of providing a safe and secure environment in which students may learn to the maximum of their abilities. The first section of the brochure describes the common elements for developing a joint approach to preventing school disruption. It delineates the activities of the school and the police in conducting a needs assessment, developing joint preventive measures, and planning for disruptions. The activities described for conducting a needs assessment include collecting data, identifying problems, identifying needs and setting goals, developing and implementing solutions to meet goals, and re-evaluating problems and goals after an appropriate period of time. Among the joint preventive measures recommended are the development of a fair code of discipline for students, the involvement of students in the early identification of potential problems, the organization of student conflict-resolution teams, the development of a school liaison resource officer program, and the keying of police patrol patterns to critical times and locations that relate to schools. Activities recommended for planning for disruptions include identifying potential problem sites, making police resources available, and developing a plan for phased intervention and withdrawal. The second section of the brochure focuses on responding to disruptions. The three parts of this section address the use of school and community resources, requests for police intervention, and the management of police intervention. The brochure advises that the best way to ensure an orderly, effective response to school disruption is through cooperative preplanning and pre-established positive relationships with parents and community liaisons. Positive relationships can best be established by designing a written contingency plan between schools and police through a memorandum of agreement or understanding.