ST. CLOUD — As the St. Cloud Area School District prepares to embark on another academic year, its school board received an update on Wednesday from the St. Cloud Police Department regarding its school resource officer program.
The school district is keeping officers in its schools this academic year, which comes after the program's brief two-month pause last fall due to a state law that has since been altered, with six school resource officers spread out throughout the district.
“We have multiple roles within our programs,” Officer Greg Klinefelter said. “We look at ourselves as educators (and) emergency managers. We obviously do safety, and we do safety first and foremost and prioritize that, but we also work strongly (as) mentors.”
This mentorship role comes in many different forms and is varied based on student age. In middle school, students get an introduction to drugs, alcohol and online safety. Klinefelter told board members there’s a special program for sixth graders to get them started, and the depth of discussion for middle school is not as thorough as at the high school level.
At the high school level, the same topics are covered but in more detail, and online safety often focuses on social media. The school resource officer program also offers support for students impacted by incarceration, creating a safe space to cope and recover from their situation’s emotional impact.
“We get this group together, and we have a lot of presenters come in and talk about being able to do self care and social-emotional healing,” Klinefelter said. “We try to create an environment which is safe for them to be vulnerable and talk with other kids that are in the similar situation. That's a huge success.”
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The safety-focused program is expanding this year as well. School resource officers and the rest of the St. Cloud Police Department are joining forces to offer a new introduction to law enforcement classes. One class will be offered at both Apollo High School and Tech High School, according to the school board presentation.
“(We’re) going to actually put the curriculum together, work with you and figure out how we can get that done,” Klinefelter said. “We're going to have to do it in fairly short order, but we're super excited about it.”
Many Minnesota schools removed school resource officers in 2023 after Gov. Tim Walz signed a law into place that some school districts and police departments allege was ambiguous. These departments say the 2023 law provided a possible legal liability to officers responding to an incident that may require physical intervention.
The St. Cloud Police Department removed its school resource officers from schools Sept. 1, 2023, to Nov. 6, 2023, but has since reinstated officers. Walz signed a new law into place this past March, which clarified the language regarding how school resource officers play a role in schools, particularly regarding the use of force in the event of an emergency. This action put many school districts and police departments at ease .
The St. Cloud Area School District's six school resource officers are posted in both float positions and at specific schools. Apollo and Tech High Schools and North and South Junior High Schools have a designated school resource officer, according to the presentation.
"We want to keep the students and the staff safe, and we want to have strong relationships with as many staff and especially students as we possibly can," Klinefelter said.
Roughly 69% of school resource officers nationwide respond to at least one classroom incident a month, according to a 2023 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report.
Corey Schmidt covers local government for the St. Cloud Times. He can be reached at cschmidt@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: St. Cloud Area School District keeps school resource officers for new academic year
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