Two bills aimed to tackle school resource officers in Nebraska schools

At the state legislature, there are two bills that were introduced from Senator Patty Pansing Brooks and Sen. Ernie Chambers.

In the bill Ernie Chambers introduced he is asking to take out school resource officers from any Nebraska schools because according to a statement from him, it causes a pathway from the classroom to the courtroom.

As of right now in Lincoln Public schools and the city agreed to have six new school resource officers inside of 12 area middle schools.

This is in addition to some school resource officers already being in some local high schools.

In the bill that Senator Patty Pansing Brooks introduced it states that school resource officers are there for school safety and actual law violations not disciplinary issues.

“To make sure that the police are being used in their legal capacity and not in a disciplinary capacity and the schools will fill their role as disciplinarians,” Sen. Pansing Brooks said.

Senator Pansing Brooks and other police officers have been working on her bill to make sure that if a school does have an school resource officer they receive proper training.

The overall goal is to make sure that if a student were to make a mistake while at school it does not have a long lasting effect on their future with an arrest.

“Some of the issues aren’t even criminal in nature maybe they ‘re having a  bad day maybe they have an issue with their friend with a teacher, just someone else besides a teach or a  staff member that they can talk to and that they can relate to,” Officer Luke Bonkiewicz of the Lincoln Police Department said.

Both bills are just being introduced and still have a long process to go until it can reach Governor Ricketts desk.