Many Tremont School Board Members Worry About Officer With a Gun in School
Carrie Jones and
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by the Maine Seacoast Mission.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—Several teachers, the select board chair, and the Tremont town manager all asked the Southwest Harbor School Committee to reconsider its lack of action on a school resource officer (SRO) at the Pemetic School.
Bonnie Norwood teaches science and math for grades 6-8. She’s done so for over twenty years. For Norwood that ask is personal.
“My son is an SRO, and I’m amazed by the impact he has had on this island’s community. I have been approached by students, parents, and teachers who have expressed a positive impact he has made. Some of our kids from Pemetic who are now high school students or just graduated, spoke to me and told me what a difference he made in their lives,” Norwood said.
Norwood’s son, Officer Elias Burne, is employed by the Bar Harbor Police Department and is the SRO for Conners Emerson School in Bar Harbor and Mount Desert Elementary School and Mount Desert Island High School. Burne grew up here and he and his wife live on the island.
The comments came at the beginning of the school board’s October 9 meeting during a section of the meeting designed to hear from the public.
The board had discussed the possibility of an SRO, most likely Southwest Harbor Police Officer Kristen Roulet, at its September meeting. However, the minutes for the meeting (approved at the October 9 meeting) do not show any notes on the discussion. While not up yet on the MDIRSS website, they are viewable via a link on the October meeting’s agenda.
Southwest Harbor Select Board Chair Noah Burby asked for the minutes to be made public, invoking the Freedom of Information Act. School Superintendent Mike Zboray said that minutes are always publicly available after the board has approved them.
The minutes currently available capture nothing of the September meeting discussion about the SRO position.
The public comments were all in favor of having a resource officer at the school.
“I had one boy saying, ‘He was someone I could talk to; I knew he was there for me,’” Norwood said. “Parents have expressed how grateful they were that he was there when their child needed him. Teachers have expressed the positive influence he has been in their schools. I had no idea how powerful this connection could be.”
It wasn’t just about her son’s influence. It was also about Officer Kristen Roulet and the positive impact she’s already made on students.
“This is what this position is about. Connection. I have watched Officer Roulet with our students. I have seen the eyes of the children light up when they see her,” Norwood said. “Last week I saw a little boy run down the hall to give her a hug, and she then calmly said to him, ‘Okay, time to return to class.’ And away he went with a huge smile on his face. She reads with them, plays football in middle school, encourages them, and most all, believes in them. Sometimes she is the person who responds to their homes when they or a family member are in need. I also work on the ambulance and I’ve seen her on calls when a family child is in crisis. They are scared. When they see her, they know they are safe and she is aware of them. I am just beginning to truly understand the importance of this role and the impact this person can have on our children and community.”
The position isn’t just about having an officer in the school, Norwood said.
“The SRO position goes far beyond just walking the halls. It’s about building positive community connections and most of all, connecting with children. It truly does take a village,” Norwood said. “I’m requesting that you take time to talk with staff, parents, and community members before making a decision on whether or not this is something we’d like to pursue for our kids.”
Norwood’s comments about talking to the staff before making a decision were echoed by other staff members attending the meeting.
“My kids were here when Officer Dave was here, and it’s just such a difference in his life,” Barbara Logue, the school nurse, said. “Especially the kids who might have been going down the wrong road. I mean, he made such a difference for them. Officer Kristen— she is so great. I wish you guys would come in and see her with the kids, and just see what she really does here at school. It would be great. She’s wonderful, and I hope you guys will reconsider that. And she’s trained, like, she came from Texas, so she’s a professional in doing this type of job. She’s so good . . . just so good.”
Kimberly Schroeder, a fifth grade teacher talked about Officer Kristen’s current interactions with the students, who she made feel safe and seen.
“They wrote thank you notes to her, and her doing our town hall assembly last week was a huge success, a huge hit, and in some of the letters, I was going to read some, but she was here and I handed them over because I was supposed to. The students said they feel safe when she’s here on Wednesdays. Now, whether she’s really here on Wednesdays or not, but for a third grade to write that and just, oh, and I truly wish she would open this discussion back up,” Schroeder said.
Jesse Dunbar said that everything he’s seen and witnessed and heard from the public about Officer Kristen’s work in both the Tremont and Southwest Harbor schools has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I think if the board just does not entertain it further, speak to its staff and parents, that it’s just doing a huge disservice to what she can do,” Dunbar said.
Within the AOS system, three schools currently have a resource officer and have done so for well over a decade. Those three schools are served by Officer Burne: Conners Emerson, Mount Desert Elementary, and Mount Desert Island High School.
The drivers of school discipline are not the SRO, Zboray stressed. Each school votes on its memorandum of understanding, which clearly defines the SRO roles, no arrests or interrogations occur on school grounds, and there is a collaboration with the police officer about safety planning.
TREMONT SCHOOL BOARD DISCUSSION
At the Tremont School Committee meeting, October 7, School Superintendent Mike Zboray said during that board’s talks about potentially have a resource officer, “I see this as the beginning of the discussion.”
The Tremont school, Zboray told the Mount Desert Elementary School Board last week, was historically serviced with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department and deputies would come in periodically. The school in Trenton still has that happen.
Recently, he said, the Southwest Harbor Police Department began covering Tremont and also hired someone who could serve as the SRO for both of those schools. Tremont could approve an SRO agreement and Southwest Harbor could not or vice versa, he said.
One Tremont board member, Eliza Bishop, said she was skeptical of having law enforcement in the school and asked what the positives would be.
Two areas that Zboray said that he saw that were most important was that the position allows having someone who is close and has a sense of community and bridge the connection between home and school and being a liaison for kids who need that during times of crisis. The other connection would be to help students who are struggling by providing a confidant.
“I lean on that person quite a bit at the high school level,” Zboray said.
Board member Jessica Stewart said that a better liaison would be a social worker.
“A lot of things you’re describing sound like they are better done by other people who are not an armed law enforcement officer,” she said.
Tremont School Board Chair Kerri Hayes said she was interested in knowing what training an SRO has before they are taking on the role and needed to understand the training.
Vice-Chair Jessica Bass said she sees it as a positive addition.
The SRO training is through the criminal justice academy and includes adolescent mental health classes as well as ongoing training. They’ll also go to restorative justice training, Zboray said. He said he’d gather a general list of the trainings.
“We’ve been really thoughtful about what the MOU looks like” in the three communities where it exists and that has been important to the program’s success, Zboray said.
“Having that extra friend is great but having that extra friend wearing a gun is not something I’m in favor of,” Hayes said.
Officers do carry their service weapons while on duty, currently, including when visiting schools.
Tremont Select Board Chair Jamie Thurlow said an officer is a good asset to the school.
“Kristen has done a phenomenal job in our school and throughout the community,” Thurlow said. He recalled his days at school when now-Sheriff Scott Kane would come to do the DARE program. “Just being there … just the presence makes you more comfortable…. You remember that as you grow up.”
Thurlow said he understood the concern about officers carrying weapons, but they do carry weapons in the real world.
Wanda Ellis said, “I think it’s a great idea to have a police officer here as often as we can.”
Tremont Select Board Vice Chair McKenzie Jewett asked that the board talk to parents and the community. “I understand that guns are scary, but I guess 80% of the people at WalMart are carrying guns.”
Dunbar spoke at this meeting as well, stressing what he called Officer Roulet’s exceptional skills in interacting with and caring about the community.
Students love her, he said.
“They run up and give her a hug in school and out of school,” Dunbar said. “It’s a huge benefit for them to have a friend to interact with.”
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Acadia Brochures of Maine.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Mount Desert Elementary School Board Reviews School Resource Officer Agreement
More about Maine’s Department of Education’s SRO program and training.
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