Dealing with trespassers.

Trespassing. It doesn't sound so bad. But, left unchecked, trespassing can lead to far worse violations of your school's safety. Here an expert recommends steps to take.

The trespasser on a school campus can pose problems ranging from minor disruptions to mass murder. Fortunately, the latter is still an extremely rare event; while it grips our attention, the much more common act of violent behavior falling between the two extremes poses the most danger to our schools. Trespassers

First, we must define the term trespasser in the context of a school setting. I include as trespassers non-students, students on suspension, employees on suspension and, under certain conditions, parents of students. Let's first consider non-students and students on suspension before moving to the much less pleasant topic of suspended employees and parents who pose a threat to school order and safety.

Where the Danger Lies

Schools have a tremendous advantage over most jurisdictions because they can usually prevent crime by banning those who are likely to commit unlawful acts from school property and in some cases, from the school safety zone around each campus. Most police departments would have a much easier job if they could simply ban the "usual suspects" from entering the city. Banning local criminals before they commit crimes on campus is a proactive measure to create safe schools.

The next category to be dealt with is students who are on suspension, assigned to an alternative program or being expelled from school. The student who returns to a campus and commits an act of violence following a suspension is not at all uncommon. If your state trespassing law allows it, each school should make it a standard practice to ban all such students during the period of the disciplinary action. Students need to know that they will be arrested on sight if they are found in a school safety zone or on school property. Police personnel assigned to the school should be made aware of all suspensions for this reason.

As a general policy, students should also be prohibited from entering schools in the system other than the one they attend. Students from other school systems and private school students should not be allowed to enter your public school property without just cause.

Our officers once arrested two students from a nearby rural high school with loaded handguns as they tried to sneak the guns into a basketball game. My officers have also arrested numerous private school students for weapons violations and drug charges, and have arrested one private school student who attempted to come to an event to shoot a public school student from a rival gang, and another parochial school student who attempted to pull a loaded gun on three of our officers to shoot his way out of an arrest.

When Employees and Parents Pose a Threat

In some rare cases, an employee who has been suspended from work or is being terminated may pose a threat to the safety of other system employees. While such cases require careful evaluation, it may be wise to ban such employees from school property when their words or actions indicate that they pose a threat.

The same is true of parents who have shown by their actions that they pose a danger or are likely to disrupt the school significantly through violent verbal or physical behavior. While no one wants to ban a parent from the child's school, we cannot allow our students and/or employees to be subjected to threats, cursing or acts of physical violence.

Appropriate Responses

All schools should consider the use of environmental control measures such as signs, posters, visitor's badges, dress code and diagrams showing the location of the central office to help deter those who pose a threat to the peace and tranquility of the learning environment.

These measures will deter a number of trespassers. But one of the most effective means to keep people whose presence causes concern off school property, is the use of criminal trespass warning slips or "barring slips" to advise these individuals that they will be arrested if they do not stay off school property (and in some cases, out of the school safety zone).

Following a review of your state's statute on trespassing, an arrangement should be worked out to have a police officer present when any non-student is banned from school property. There are two important reasons to do this. First, it may eliminate the need for school personnel to go to court to testify when violators are arrested. Second, dealing with these individuals can be dangerous - that is why we ban them in the first place.

Officer Euel Thomas Smith of my department was shot and killed on a city street while stopping a suspicious person who had been trespassing at one of our schools in 1983. Another Georgia School Police Officer was shot and killed by a high school student who was trespassing at an elementary school after hours last year (he turned out to have just burglarized the school).

These incidents illustrate just how dangerous trespassers can be to police officers, let alone unarmed school administrators. Always use police personnel to deal with situations that may require a police response. Let us prevent serious crimes by denying access in a legal and safe way to those who pose a threat to our students and employees.

RELATED ARTICLE: ARE POLICE OFFICERS IN SCHOOLS THE ANSWER?

A recent study in the state of North Carolina showed that assigning police personnel to the school reduced weapons violations by half. There are numerous examples of violent attempts (including at least one bombing attempt) that were thwarted by police officers assigned to the school setting.

School police personnel can prevent other problems that are just as important to our schools, including eliminating fights, preventing theft and damage to property, controlling truancy and disruptive behavior and reducing the amount of alcohol and drugs.

Officers can also teach a wide range of crime prevention and safety programs that not only reduce undesirable behavior, but can help to address the crime problem in the community as a whole. It is amazing how much a carefully selected and well-trained police officer can improve a school.

There are several issues surrounding the decision to assign police officers to the school campus:

Who will bear the expense of placing them in the school setting? Funding can be derived through grants; covered by the school system; paid by the local police agency; or generated through student parking fees. The availability of grant money is currently very good, because of the tremendous amount of public concern for safety.

Will they be armed? The concern for image should not take precedence over the safety of children and employees. There have been several instances of police officers who were helpless to intervene in weapons assaults because they were not allowed to carry a firearm.

Under what circumstances will they make arrests? This causes the most apprehension on both sides. The best solution is to have a standardized school policy; students who commit a felony should be arrested. The policy should go further, however, and mandate the arrest of all students who commit misdemeanors such as fighting, theft and possession of alcohol. These misdemeanors could be "ticketed" to avoid booking students into a jail.

This approach may be controversial, but I contend it will:

* Reduce crime and disruption in the school.

* Significantly reduce the number of weapons and other contraband.

* Dramatically reduce the amount of time educators and administrators spend on disciplinary issues.

* Reduce the truancy rate and reduce turnover of school system employees. Both may be caused by fear of victimization.

* Improve the learning environment and academic performance.

* Reduce vandalism.

* Foster a feeling of security.

Our nation's recent history is filled with many examples that document the need for police protection in schools. It is time to face the facts of our changing society and do what is right to protect our students and those who dedicate their lives to the education of our children.

Michael Dorn is Chief for the Bibb County (Ga.) Board of Education Campus Police Department.