-
Osceola County School Board
The Osceola County School Board meets with the county’s top cops today to hash out a plan for revamping the local School Resource Officer program.
Much of the discussion will center on recommendations from a task force led by School Board Member Julius Melendez formed in the aftermath of a viral video showing an SRO body slamming a student at Liberty High School in January.
The task force didn’t address the incident specifically, but rather reviewed the longstanding SRO program in Osceola County, which currently has about 90 officers from all three local enforcement agencies assigned to each school in the district, with two at each high school.
Perhaps the most controversial recommendation to come from the group – which includes the police chiefs from the cities of Kissimmee and St. Cloud and a major from the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office – is that all SROs wear body cameras while on duty at the schools.
“I think that’s a hard line,” Sheriff’s Office Maj. Dan Weiss said last week when the group met to finalize its recommendations.
The group also debated the idea of replacing SROs at the county’s public-private charter schools with armed "guardians” to reduce strain on law enforcement agencies.
“We have to pull from investigations or traffic to cover the schools and it's just a huge impact on our agency," Kissimmee Police Department Chief Jeff O'Dell said, according to WESH 2 News.
Other task force recommendations include creating a uniform School District policy that defines SROs roles in schools, fosters more positive interactions between SROs and students and better incorporates SROs into school staff.
“The SRO program is more than just a security function,” Melendez said. “The irony of the incident at Liberty High School is that the SRO was trying to break up a fight,” he said.
Videos of the violent encounter between the white, male SRO and the black, female student went viral sparking protests from students and civil rights activists who have called for the his removal.
Several videos of the Jan. 26 incident recorded by student bystanders and quickly posted on social media show the man tackling the girl, her head slamming onto the pavement and her losing consciousness. The girl’s body is limp and facedown as Deputy Ethan Fournier, who is also on the ground at this point, handcuffs her wrists behind her back.
Fournier was placed on paid, administrative leave immediately following the incident until the Florida Department of Law Enforcement finishes its continuing investigation.
In 2018, a Florida law began requiring SROs at all public schools, part of the state Legislature’s response to the mass murder of 17 students, teachers and staff at Marjorie Stone Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
