There is a discomfort many Jamaicans feel but struggle to articulate when they see police officers stationed inside schools. It is not hostility towards the police, but a deeper societal question: what does it mean when law enforcement becomes part of a child’s ordinary school experience?

Not all schools are psychologically experienced the same way by children. Some environments are built around enrichment, identity formation, leadership, confidence and expansion. Others are increasingly shaped by containment, surveillance, behavioural control and institutional anxiety.

The School Resource Officer programme operates under the JCF Safe Schools Programme. The role of SROs is to support school safety, maintain discipline, identify at-risk behaviour and respond to unlawful activity on school compounds. On paper, this sounds reasonable. Schools should be safe. The concern emerging, however, is whether policing has gradually entered spaces better addressed through counselling, psychosocial intervention, emotional regulation support, restorative practices and education itself.