Lincoln Public Middle Schools Welcome School Resource Officers

Middle schools in Lincoln welcomed new school resource officers Thursday.

School resource officers are not new to Lincoln public schools. Police officers have already been in high school buildings but were cut from middle schools for budget reasons a number of years ago. Conversations about bringing these officers back to middle schools started after the Parkland shooting last winter.

Russ Uhing is director of student services for Lincoln Public Schools. He says the school resource officers were one of many pieces in the school safety conversation.

“It was communication on the different standard response protocols that we had as needed. It was also in regards to mental health resources in our school and in our community. And a piece of it was the middle school resource officers,” Uhing said.

Opponents of this program worry that more police presence in schools will negatively impact students of color and students with disabilities.

Officer Kathryn Meade is the school resource officer for Park and Scott Middle Schools. She says her previous experience will inform how she builds relationships.

“A lot of my experiences are gonna come from my teaching career and so it’s just kind of letting down your guard, showing the kids that you’re a human being too, trying to get them to interact with you somehow, and the strategy I’m using today are my tootsie rolls, and that seems to be working,” Meade said.

The program is still in its early stages. Officers and students are still getting to know each other. It will likely take longer to know if the program is a success or not.

Lincoln Public Schools and the Lincoln Police Department are taking input from the community as they put together an evaluation process for the school resource officer program.

If you would like to provide feedback on the evaluation program, you can do so here.