The Rye City School District, in partnership with the Rye City Police Department, has spearheaded a local chapter of the Adopt-a-School program, which was originally developed in 1994 as a community outreach program by the FBI.
The program, which identifies schools in disadvantaged communities, puts special agents and staff members on the ground to mentor and tutor kids, helping them to steer clear of drugs and gangs. Today, the Adopt-a-School program is active in 56 of the bureau’s field offices nationwide.
In Rye, the program being adopted involves eight police officers, known as student resource officers, who have volunteered to make periodic visits to the district’s six public schools with advanced notice to administrators. The program started the week of June 6 after four months of planning after the program was first suggested to the school district by the police commissioner, according to school district officials.
Rye City Board of Education President Katy Keohane Glassberg said she had an opportunity to meet the officers involved in the program, and told the Review that each one brings a unique background, knowledge and experiences that make them well suited to their respective school communities.
The impetus for the program in Rye is combating an escalating drug problem among youths and a police department that has been viewed by its new police commissioner as out of touch with the community.
According to Rye City Police Commissioner Michael Corcoran, who took over the post in February 2016, some of the program’s benefits include becoming familiar with both the schools and the students within them.
“We want the police officers to know the school children and we want the students to see the officers as individual people,” Corcoran said. “This is ‘Community Policing 101.’”
Keohane Glassberg credited Corcoran for his vision that schools should just be a part of the regular police beat and not separate from the rest of the community. “We think that’s fantastic,” she said. “I love that they want to make it ordinary to see police officers coming and going in our schools.”
Implementing the Adopt-a-School program also blossomed from discussions among the Rye Action for Children and Teens, Rye-ACT, coalition formed in 2012, as a way to address issues facing kids in the community.
At a packed town hall meeting held on May 24, the coalition announced the startling results of a 2014 state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services survey. The survey is a statewide standardized methodology that measures high school and middle school students’ use of drugs and alcohol. The survey data revealed that Rye High School students indulge in markedly increased rates of alcohol and marijuana usage, binge drinking and consumption of prescription stimulants.
During that town hall, Corcoran announced his intention to aid the effort in decreasing drug and alcohol use among teens with the Adopt-a-School program.
But the concept of having police officers in area schools is not a new one.
Janet Buchbinder, president and board of directors member of Larchmont-Mamaroneck’s Responsible Action: A Drug and Alcohol Resource, RADAR, program, said her group attempted to implement this type of program involving law enforcement in schools a few years ago. The idea was rejected by parents of high school aged students who expressed opposition to police in their children’s school.
“This model has a tremendously positive effect,” Buchbinder said. “I’m encouraged that Rye is doing this. If they can set up a successful program, it’s possible that maybe we could do it here [in Mamaroneck schools] as well.”
Buchbinder said a benefit of having police presence in schools is their ability to stop illicit parties.
“If you can stop parties, if the parents and students know that the police are paying attention… [their presence] is a deterrent,” she added. “I’m encouraged that Rye is doing this. My hat’s off to them,” she said.
Rye High School and Rye Middle School each have two officers assigned to their locations, while Midland, Osborn and Milton elementary schools have one officer, and one more is assigned to the Rye School of Leadership.
-with reporting by Christian Falcone
