Winooski to keep officer in schools through next year
The Winooski School Board decided Wednesday to keep a school resource officer for the 2021–22 school year.
At a special school board meeting Wednesday, April 7, the board decided to keep the officer and to form a committee to continue debating the merits of keeping an officer in schools. The committee will report back to the superintendent, Sean McMannon, with recommendations regarding the position for the following 2022–23 school year.
Jason Ziter has been the Winooski school district’s armed, uniformed school resource officer for the past three years and was expected to be on campus this school year. However, disagreements about whether he can be armed in schools and whether he should wear a uniform with Winooski PD insignia, combined with an almost six-month hiatus due to the coronavirus, had left the future of the position in a stalemate.
It’s unclear if Ziter will continue in the role, as the district’s agreement with the city gives the Winooski Police Department final say over which officer will serve in the position. The officer’s contract was not discussed at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Any officer that is assigned to the school will be armed as an active law enforcement officer, per current guidance from the Winooski Police Department, and be stationed on school grounds in a soft uniform, said Emily Hecker, communications director for the Winooski School District, in an email.
The decision bucks a trend of local communities and schools scaling back or abolishing SRO programs entirely. School officers are out in Montpelier and at the Champlain Valley Union High School. In Burlington, the school board this week decided to cut one of the two SRO positions, though the remaining officer will be stationed at the police station, not on school grounds.
These decisions come in the wake of a national conversation about the role of police after the killing of George Floyd, and has renewed scrutiny on the role of school resource officers over concerns cops in schools contribute to a school-to-prison pipeline.
Over 60 speakers gave personal opinions on their feelings of safety, having an armed SRO in schools with their children.
Parents and children alike commented on the feelings of student’s physical safety in jeopardy, with guns in schools, in opposition with feelings of parental mental stability, knowing their kids are being looked after by the officer.
Winooski School Board member Steven Berbeco was the lone no vote in the 4-1 decision at the four-hour meeting Wednesday night.
The school district has had the officer position since 1999, according to a Seven Days article from September 2020.
Due to technical difficulties that caused inaccessibility for some minority and non-English speaking families requiring translation services during the initial meeting, scheduled on March 31, the meeting was moved to April 7.
Superintendent Sean McMannon wrote a letter in favor of the officer position prior to the March 31 meeting.
“We have partnered with WPD to shape the role after the National Association of School Resource Officers model and collaborated to hire police officers who understand schools, child development, the importance of relationship and belonging in learning and law enforcement,” McMannon wrote. “It makes me very uncomfortable to think about maintaining adequate safety and security in the upcoming 2021–22 and 2022–23 school years without the SRO.”
A pair of polar-opposite bills in the Vermont Senate propose to either eliminate the school resource officer position, or provide grant funding to support them. Neither bill has yet gained traction in the statehouse.
The Winooski School Board will continue discussing the decision and the new committee during their meeting next week.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story included a quote that was misattributed to board member Steven Berbeco. The update removes the quote and adds the vote count.
