Police officers were placed in Iowa schools to keep students safe from violence, but the threat they most commonly deal with is illicit vaping, according to a report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Iowa.
The ACLU of Iowa used public records requests and federal data to study the impact of the increase in school resource officers (SROs) across school districts in the state. The report cited examples of what the civil liberties group says is the unnecessary use of SROs to handle classroom discipline issues: Besides fighting the proliferation of tobacco and THC vapes, SROs in the state were called in to deal with a 7-year-old boy running through the hall and a disruptive 6-year-old. They also investigated students for such behavior as being "disrespectful" in class and "drama with a group of girls."
