Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: School Resource Officers

June 6, 2022 2:26 AM - Season 9, Episode 13

This week.... The Queen of England's Platinum Jubilee. The school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. That leads us directly to the main story: school resource officers, pitched as a way to deter school shootings, but there is little evidence that they do, and there are many drawbacks to their presence in schools. Get ready for terrible stories of police involvement in schools, including a girl getting arrested for a science project that made the cap of a coke bottle pop off. On YouTube (27 minutes) And Now: People On TV Get A Little Too British For The Platinum Jubilee. Finally, vandals last November attacked a banana-and-skull sculpture in Melbourne. The show offers the city, if they will give their sculpture to them, to compensate with donations, plus as a return gift, their statue of a cartoon alligator flipping the bird that they've had pointed at the offices of Dr. Oz.

Solutions to school shootings presented other than gun control:
From Fox News contributors:
"The only solution is Christ Jesus."
"A series of interlocking doors at a school's entrance that are triggered by a tripwire."
"...instead of parents buying their children all these tools and toys and games, invest in the classroom to make it safer. They have blankets that you can put up the wall that are colorful and beautiful, but they're ballistic blankets!"
From Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the NRA, at the NRA convention that still took place three days after the shooting:
"...[W]e also need to fully fund our nation's police departments, and school security resource officer programs."

posted by JHarris (6 comments total)

I'm still baffled at tap dancing Officer Griffin. Um...
i appreciate your interest in theater, but aren't the high school shows supposed to be for...high schoolers?!
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:56 AM on June 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

Right? Also maybe lose the gun and belt if you're in rehearsals? Just sticks out like a sore thumb.
posted by Carillon at 12:27 PM on June 6, 2022

I was in high school over 40 years ago, and my old classmates finally (sigh) found me on Facebook. What strikes me is how many of them are still friends with our high school counsellor. They are constantly thanking her for letting them talk whenever they needed to, for letting them eat lunch in the counselling offices, for caring. And she still answers them and says nice things. I can't imagine an SRO making such a difference in the life and well-being of kids today. I suspect the answer to school shootings (besides better gun control) is more counsellors like her.
posted by acrasis at 3:43 PM on June 6, 2022 [4 favorites]

To me (🙃) the idea of a permanent police presence in a primary/secondary school is horrific. I even looked side-eyed at the tiny station on university campus, but they weren't wandering around harassing people.
posted by Marticus at 4:12 PM on June 6, 2022

Also maybe lose the gun and belt if you're in rehearsals?

I say good on her for keeping it on. There are some pretty strict rules around having immediate control of one's duty weapon in most departments. You either have it on your person or securely locked up with a key only you control. Not that the rules are necessarily enforced evenly or well, but still, it's nice to see someone (presumably) giving a shit.
posted by wierdo at 7:51 PM on June 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

My absolute favorite part of this episode was the concerned parent interviewed at the school board meeting who described the children as future tax payers. I admire his ability to frame the issue of children's safety for an audience of soulless bureaucrats, even if I disagree with his policy recommendations. Maybe gun control advocates should try the "protect the tax base" angle, since protecting lives has not thus far been a winning message with Republican politicians.

Also that skull banana is nightmare fuel, and I support the vandal.
posted by the primroses were over at 8:20 AM on June 7, 2022 [2 favorites]