OSSEO, Minn. — School resource officers have been absent from many Minnesota schools for most of this year, but some of them have returned to the hallways in recent weeks.
Detective Missy Parker of the Maple Grove Police Department is the SRO for Osseo Senior High School.
“When I walk into school every day, I enjoy coming to work,” she said.
Parker’s bond with students is evident when you walk around with her. Developing those relationships is a big part of her job.
“I’ve had students come up to me and say, ‘You’re the only adult I trust in this building,’” Parker said. “It’s pretty powerful, especially with the barrier we have with law enforcement. It makes me emotional because we’re doing good things.”
For seven months of this school year, Parker and her partner, Tony Mollen, were removed from the building by Principal Eric Werner, just as SROs across the state were doing.
The reason was a change in the law on standards for the use of force that many police found ambiguous.
Chief Werner told WCCO in September 2023: “My decision [to pull our SROs] is solely what is best for the students and what is best for the officers.”
Until one twofold solution When the law allowed her back last month, Parker says it felt like she had been fired.
But she supports Werner’s decision to withdraw.
“We’re not going to work with kids here,” Parker said. “It’s very rare. Maybe there’s a little fight and they get pulled apart. I think there’s such a misconception about what police do in schools, and it’s the opposite of what the public thinks. “
Parker calls it a sigh of relief to be back in the hallways: for her, but also, she thinks, for many students.
“A lot of it is about being safe at our school, but it’s also being an advocate for our students,” she said. “That’s the best part.”
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Parker does sense a barrier with some students. Not everyone is so willing to trust an agent.
“Then I think that’s the student I’m going to make that connection with,” Parker said. “Every year I get to give that student a slightly different perspective, and I think that’s the rewarding part of this job. There’s such a view of what we are, and we’re just people as they Are.”
A spokesperson for Osseo Area Schools said in a statement:
“School safety and security are community efforts – we all need to work together. We are grateful to community partners, such as local law enforcement, who join us in building safe and inclusive school environments. They are constantly investing daily in the safety and security of our students, employees and buildings. We look forward to continuing to work together to create the safest school environment possible.”
David Schuman
