School police and resource officers have various roles in school districts in Butler County

Some are assigned to one building, others patrol from building to building. Some carry weapons, some do not.

Some districts hire retired police offices while others use regular police officers.

The role of school resource officers came under the spotlight this past week when an officer was caught on video flipping a disruptive student out of her desk and tossing her across the floor Monday at a school in Columbia, S.C.

That resource officer, a deputy county sheriff, was fired.

Here’s a look at how school districts in the county use their school resource officers or municipal police.

Retired state police

The Butler School District has at least one school police officer in every building, with one in each of the six elementary schools, two at the middle school, and three at the intermediate and high schools.

All of those officers are armed, and all are retired state police.

However, teachers and administrators deal with classroom discipline, said Dale Lumley, superintendent.

“They do their metal detector duty each morning. They enforce our rules. They do not have the authority to arrest people,” he said of the officers.

“They always use the least amount of force necessarily to stop the disturbance. They follow our lead and our directions.”

The South Butler School District has four school police officers who patrol the district’s campus and its four buildings. Like Butler, each staff member is a retired state police officer and is armed.

But unlike Butler, South Butler’s school police are able make arrests.

Patrick Sarnese, director of transportation and school police, said a summer training session through the National Association of School Resource Officers made them more familiar with situations, from student disruptions to crisis situations.

“Every situation is going to be different, depending on the volatility or passive aggressive nature of the student,” Sarnese said. “You try to get as much information as you can about the child and about what the situation is, and are there any adults, any teachers, any teachers aides, any personnel that may have a relationship with this child in calming down the situation.”

Talking is usually the most effective way to de-escalate a situation, he said.

The Karns City School District has five officers, one at each of its elementary buildings and three at the junior/senior high school.

“We use them for to oversee security and not handle discipline of students. The administrators and teachers handle discipline issues,” said Eric Ritzert, superintendent.

Like in the other districts, they are retired state police officers and are armed.

Local police officers

At the Seneca Valley School District, two school resource officers from the Jackson Township Police Department work with the district, with one at the intermediate high and one at the senior high school.

Both officers also share duties at the middle school.

Terry Seilhamer, township police chief, said both officers are certified school resource officers and members of the National School Resource Officers Association.

When an incident occurs, the policy is to have the school personnel deal with the issue unless it is a clear criminal violation, he said. Once a student is in the school, the district staff is like a parent, so they have a little more authority to deal with the students than the police do.

“We let the district handle the issue administratively and then if they determine the circumstances are serious enough and there is a criminal violation involved then we will look at it from a criminal aspect,” said Seilhamer.

The Mars School District assigns a single Adams Township Police officer to travel between the district’s five schools. The department may assign a different officer on any day, said Wesley Shipley, superintendent.

Shipley said in a statement that “as the officer is an employee of the police department, the department sets the guidelines for the officer assigned to the district.”

The district does provide an annual training session for the officers on district procedures, student needs, parent expectations, and confidentiality.

However, principals are responsible for responding to classroom issues.

The Allegheny-Clarion School District has an agreement with the Emlenton Police Department, which provides police coverage for the district’s two buildings.

Superintendent David McDeavitt said the department also works with the district evaluating its safety plan, and oversees safety drills.

Emlenton officers “have full authority to arrest and assist the (staff),” McDeavitt said.

He noted it had been “a number of years now” since the district had to called on an officer to assist staff members or respond to an in-school incident.

The district’s approach is to “de-escalate” any situation involving unruly or uncooperative students, and to avoid physical confrontation unless students are a threat to harm themselves or others.

“If they’re not hurting themselves or somebody else, we do not put our hands on them,” McDeavitt said.

The first step is to remove other students from the room.

“With any kind of situation that may result in a possible arrest, our number one goal is to eliminate the audience so to speak,” McDeavitt said.

Contracted security

Slippery Rock uses two security officers who are contracted through a private firm, State Security and Investigation Services of Pittsburgh.

The officers work only at the high school and their duties include signing in visitors and monitoring the hallways, cafeteria and parking lot, according to Superintendent Alfonso Angelucci.

They do not carry weapons.

Only if a student was harming himself or others would the guards be authorized to use force or to restrain the student, Angelucci said.

If such an incident occurred, the high school administrators would be immediately notified. If a student was suspected of doing something criminal, then state police would be called, he said.

The Moniteau School District does not have school resource officers in its district.

The Freeport School District did not return calls for this story.