Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers, left, and City Manager Mark Watson during a Monday evening reception for Borchers, who started working in Oak Ridge in June.
School principals have to notify the Oak Ridge school resource officer, or SRO, of suspected illegal activity, and principals or school staff members who locate dangerous weapons or drugs have to turn them over to the SRO, according to a renewable one-year agreement signed Wednesday by municipal and education officials.
School staff members must also provide the SRO with the names of people who are not allowed on school property, and the staff is required to notify the officer when they expect problems from parents of students who have been disciplined.
Meanwhile, the Oak Ridge Police Department is required to tell the school board of criminal gangs and associated criminal gang activity. It wasn’t immediately clear if—or how much—any of those requirements differed from earlier procedures.
The seven-page agreement signed Wednesday is a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, governing the city’s SRO program. It formalizes the relationship between the city and schools.
“They can work together,” Oak Ridge City Manager Mark Watson said.
The MOU focuses more on operations and procedures and doesn’t discuss the number of officers, Watson said.
The Oak Ridge Police Department and Oak Ridge Schools currently have one school resource officer, or SRO, who primarily works at Oak Ridge High School, pictured above.
There is currently one SRO, based primarily at the Oak Ridge High School, but the Oak Ridge Board of Education has requested more. One of the primary obstacles to adding more officers has been funding.
The MOU said school personnel must notify the SRO “as soon as reasonably possible” when they find weapons, drugs, alcohol, or other illegal contraband on school property.
“If no juvenile or criminal charges are to be filed and no administrative action is to be taken by the schools, the contraband shall be confiscated by the SRO, according to Police Department policy and properly disposed of by policy,” the agreement said.
School safety has been a high-priority issue for many people across the country, including in Oak Ridge, since the deadly Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut in December.
In July, Oak Ridge City Council member Trina Baughn sparked a heated debate on school safety in Oak Ridge after she wrote a letter to new Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers. The MOU was already under development, but Baughn appeared frustrated with the pace of the negotiations. She alleged, among other things, that drugs are rampant in many schools, students are at risk of being assaulted, and a culture of terror has saturated the school system.
But other city and school officials and teachers rebutted Baughn’s allegations and rejected her use of the phrase “culture of terror.”
James T. Akagi
The approval of the MOU was announced Thursday, and city and school officials called it a cooperative effort.
“We at the Police Department are committed to ensuring safety and security for the Oak Ridge Schools, and the signing of this MOU is the first step of many related to providing the best possible service to students and staff,” ORPD Chief Jim Akagi said.
“In addition to being very pleased about having a signed MOU, I am also excited about the level of trust and collaboration that was able to take place today between the city and the school district,” Borchers said. “I look forward to many years of collaboration with Chief Akagi as we make Oak Ridge a model for school safety.”
On her website, Baughn called the signing of the MOU excellent news.
“This was the first, but most critical, step of many that we will take in the coming months towards securing our schools,” Baughn said. “I look forward to the continued collaboration between the city and the schools.”
Watson said there was an earlier MOU signed by former Oak Ridge Police Chief David Beams, but the new one is more detailed.
In her July letter to Borchers, Baughn used a memo that Akagi wrote in May that said Oak Ridge Schools staff “has been reluctant at best, and in some instances obstructive, in their interaction with ORPD personnel.” Akagi declined to comment on the memo last month.
Bob Smallridge, who is a former Oak Ridge Schools superintendent and was interim superintendent from January to June, said there have been some incidents where the police and the schools have “differed on appropriate procedures to follow.” But most of those differences have centered around what information can legally be provided by the schools when student discipline is involved, including under the Tennessee Public Records Act and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, Smallridge said.
Watson said the memo signed this week by him, Akagi, Borchers, City Attorney Ken Krushenski, and Oak Ridge Board of Education Chair Keys Fillauer addresses FERPA requirements and should improve interactions between the schools and police department.
Here are some other highlights of the MOU:
- The city will assign at least one full-time law enforcement officer as an SRO and more will be assigned when funding is available. The officer is part of the ORPD chain of command and can respond to critical incidents and natural disasters outside the school when needed.
- Non-criminal student disciplinary matters will remain the responsibility of school staff and not the SRO.
- At the requests of principals and whenever practical, the Oak Ridge Police Department will provide canine officers to help with searches conducted in accordance with appropriate laws.
- The SRO will respond as allowed against intruders and unwanted guests who appear on school property, either at the principal’s request or if the officer observes a violation of state law or city ordinance.
- If available, the SRO will be present when a principal or a designee conducts an administrative search when the principal or school personnel fear for their safety.
- The SRO will confer with principals to develop plans and strategies to prevent and/or minimize dangerous situations on or near campus or involving students at school-related functions.
- The use of confidential school records by the SRO shall be done only with the principal’s approval and as allowed by law.
- The SRO shall not conduct any interviews with the news media concerning a school incident.
- The MOU may be terminated by the city or school system with 60 days notice.
Note: This story was updated at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 9.
Sam Hopwood says
Seems like primarily common sense agreements. Why did the school system and school board resist this for so long?
Angi Agle says
We didn’t. Much of what is in here is not new — it just took some effort to get the right people to sit down and sign off on it.
Sam Hopwood says
The right people to sit down and sign off on it? Chief Akagi and City Manager Watson have been available for quite some time, the school system’s representatives not so much. It took a public “push” to get it accomplished, at least that’s my view. But the deed has finally be done. Let’s move on and have a great school year!
Charlie Jernigan says
Actually, it took the new Superintendent to take his position. The “public push” was timed to appear relevant by being widely released to the media just as Dr Borchers arrived and was becoming familiar with the district and kicking off the school year. The pivotal meeting between Dr Borchers and Chief Akagi had already been scheduled.
Thankfully the baseless “culture of terror” has been replace by the very real “culture of caring”.
Sam Hopwood says
Hogwash Charlie… Why do we have a school board if not to make decisions such as this. They have handled the hiring of a new Super as poorly as it could have been done, beginning with their failure in their first attempt. I don’t agree with everything that Trina does but it took a little “encouragement” to bring this needless delay to light. Good for her and good for the school system that it has been resolved. Incidentally I think Dr. Borchers will do a good job. He certainly has his work cut out for him with the hornets nest that he has stepped into. He may actually earn that $178k salary.
Mike Mahatht says
It is done. May we give it time to work?
By the way we did not before, nor now have a culture of terror.
Charlie Jernigan says
Simply, this is an executive agreement, not a policy decision. If you think the school board should make this agreement then the corresponding organization on the city side would be the city council. I think you might agree we don’t want the city council making operational decisions for the police department.
Kay Williamson says
WHY would the two need such an agreement, MORON’S, I GUESS firearms free zone no longer exist and it’s only if your caught with it now?? and did you read that this can be terminated at anytime with a 60 day notice,, Why for one year?? PEOPLE BELIEVE SOME OF THE STUPIDEST BULLS**T in this TOWN,,, really
Skirnir Hamilton says
Finally sat down and read the document. My concern is that we have moved to the point where a fight at school can lead to criminal charges. We all know fights happen, but when should the police department become involved? When does something become a criminal offense? I think this agreement is meant to avoid problems when the school would prefer to handle things internally and the SRO would prefer criminal charges. This will happen and hopefully these situations can be handled amicably and in the best interests of the students. Personally, I believe in second chances and labeling a student a criminal tends to limit those second chances, so I tend to lean towards schools handling problems internally without an SRO/Police Department presence. So time will tell how this all works out, and I hope for the best, as my son has another three years to go at ORHS.
TJ Garland says
Typical government school–drug them with Ritalin-dumb them down with Common Core, keep the inmates in line with SRO’s.
They will be good little New World Order citizens.