School’s Out for Summer But Learning Continues for School Resource Officers
The school year is over, and students and teachers are on summer recess. But while school facilities are closed, many School Resource Officers (SROs) are still hard at work.
During the summer, the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department (MDSPD) continues to work on issues impacting schools and students within their respective communities, receives professional development, and supports the primary law enforcement function within our community.
Miami-Dade County Public Schoolsprovides various training courses and programs for its nearly 500 school police officers. The SROs’ roles and responsibilities can vary from police officer to counselor, teacher, coach and mentor.The officers have been working closely with theMental Health and Crisis Management team, TRUST counselors and school social workers to address many issues.
MDSPD SROs are currently going through the mandatory training course, Youth Mental Health First Aid, a nationwide, evidence-based training, which was created to teach participants how to help someone experiencing a mental health crisis. The course educates participants on identifying, understanding, and responding to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders to help prevent or intervene in situations that may lead to more significant issues such as crimes or suicide.
After living through a year-long global pandemic, the District’s Department of Mental Health has encountereda rise in students needing additional support. This initiative provides SROs with the skills and training to dive right in and know how to deal with students displaying certain behaviors. It also gives the District more eyes and ears in classrooms and on school campuses.
While the SROs are trained for crisis intervention, they are expanding their knowledge on prevention, trying to spot the signs to prevent issues students might have from turning into bigger challenges.
The officers also receive training to support theirhealth, safety and wellness,learning about building resilience, preventing injuries, peer support programs, physical fitness, proper nutrition, stress, mindfulness, suicide prevention and more.
Recognizing the diversity of our District and unique situations within each school community, particularly involving mental health and child developmental issues, it is imperative to have specialized training such as Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) and many other critical areas of school and community policing.
The MDSPDofficers also have access to cultural awareness training to help them better understand and interact with people from other races, cultures and religions. These trainings initiate the process of seeing past stereotypes by raising awareness of the culture in which each officer lives and works.
Autism and Exceptional Student Education trainings help prepare the SROs to better respond to the needs of children on the Autism spectrum as well as students with developmental delays and mental or physical challenges.
Each day, MDSPD officers strive to keep schools safe. They do so by serving as role models and forming strong relationships with students and staff, ensuring they feel comfortable sharing information that is prudent to providing a safe school environment.Together, with the community’s support, our police department stands ready to bridge the gap between law enforcement and our students
