The San Ramon Valley Unified School District is one of the most prestigious districts in California, ranking highly in value of education, quality of teachers, and student arrests.

During the 2013-2014 school year, SRVUSD reported their students to the police 291 times, the most out of any Bay Area school district.  This was 270 more times than Oakland Unified, the largest school district in the Bay Area, and 288 more times than Fremont Unified, the second largest.  The reason why: many point to school resource officers

Many districts, especially those with low funding for school counselors, rely heavily on school resource officers for disciplinary issues.  This was shown during the 2011-2012 school year when East Side Union High School District, another Bay Area school district, reported their students to the police 1,745 times, the 14th most times in the nation for that school year.  

In the NBC Bay Area article School District Called Police on Students 1,745 Times in Single School Year, Chris Funk, Superintendent of East Side Union High, said, “I think that we had a practice here where we were relying too much on having the officer do the facilitation and the legwork versus the administration doing the legwork.”

However, since then, the police reporting of East Side Union High has dropped drastically.  During the 2013-2014 school year, East Side Union High reported their students to the police 214 times.  Although that was still the third most times in the Bay Area, it was an 88 percent decrease from their 2011-2012 school year.  Funk accredits this drop to school counselors.

“We hired 207 new staff members in the last two years as budgets continue to grow,” Funk said. “There were a lot of loop-holes where kids were falling through the cracks, and hopefully we’re closing them now.”

Thanks to East Side Union High’s drop, the SRVUSD lead the Bay Area in police referrals for the 2013-2014 school year.  

When asked for the data on the 2014-2015 school year, Elizabeth Graswich, Director of Communications and Community Relations for the SRVUSD, said, “We cannot share the data from 2014-2015 at this time as it has not yet been finalized.”

Nonetheless, considering SRVUSD schools are located in some of the safest cities in the state, it’s peculiar that the SRVUSD has more school-related crimes than districts in statistically less safe areas, such as Oakland Unified.  However, Monte Vista resource officer, Matt Roderick, stated that the numbers do not tell the whole story.

According to Officer Roderick, resource officers in the SRVUSD report every offense, from vape pens to weapon possessions.   On the other hand, officers at Oakland Unified will only report major offenses, such as violent crimes. This is why Oakland Unified appears to have less crime than SRVUSD.  However, SRVUSD’s practice of reporting even the small crimes can greatly hurt a student’s well being.

Involving police officers in a school-related disciplinary issue can be extremely harmful to a student’s future.  This is called the “School to Prison Pipeline.”  Policies that force students, especially at-risk students, into the criminal justice system cause them to identify as criminals.  These unhealthy thoughts can lead to an unsuccessful education, and, therefore, an unsuccessful post-school life.

Students being pushed into the “School to Prison Pipeline” are often being referred for non-serious offenses, as is seen in the SRVUSD.  Laura Garnette, Chief Probation Officer for Santa Clara County said that her officers drop almost 70 percent of the school-related cases that they face due to the negligible nature of them.  Nonetheless, the arrest still shows up on the student’s record whether or not charges are filed.

Despite these facts, Elizabeth Graswich, Director of Communications and Community Relations for the SRVUSD, believes that school resource officers help more than they hurt.

“We view law enforcement officers as partners–as people who can provide support for our students.  We want students to view the officers on our campuses as resources, as people with whom they can build positive relations.”

Joseph Grubbs, president of the School Resource Officers Association said that school resource officers are all about education.  Their goal is to ensure that every student has an opportunity to learn in a safe environment, and that students who break the rules can learn from their mistakes.  However, how effective is this “education” when students are receiving arrests on their permanent records?

Oakland Unified has found a solution that both educates the student and keeps an arrest off their record.  They use a method called “restorative justice,” which serves as alternative to suspension or police arrest.  The main purpose of restorative justice is to help students understand why their actions were inappropriate while keeping them engaged in the classroom.  Due to restorative justice, Oakland Unified had the fifth fewest police incidents (out of 20 of the Bay Area’s largest school districts) despite them being the largest school district in the Bay Area.

Graswich said that some SRVUSD schools have started using methods of “progressive discipline,” which is similar to restorative justice.  An example of this is the “Alternative to Suspension” program which educates first time offenders for tobacco, marijuana, and alcohol-related violations.  Students who choose this program get less suspension time.

“With progressive discipline we hope to intervene and provide to students that may need help,” said Graswich.  “Thus far, we have seen success with these programs.”