School Police: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

[@The_Real_Mier]

“Kids deserve to be annoying without being arrested” might be the most truthful, REAL and IMPORTANT sentence said out loud on any medium outlet EVER!!

[@bas_ee]

What about a small or a large outlet?

[@denelson83]

Unfortunately, there are too many teachers in the US who have very little to no ability to deal with such behaviour.

[@jlt131]

@@bas_ee what do you call a midget psychic that escapes jail? .... a small medium at large.

[@wookie2222]

@@denelson83 In my experience (student teacher in Germany) it all comes down to the quality of your training and education as a teacher. You can be the best student of your subject science yourself but still struggle in a class room, when confronted with children and reality. Didactics and pedagogy/psychology need to be taken very seriuos during the training of teachers - here in Germany, some universities do that, others still do it the old way and train jung scientists who have no clue how to interact with children.

[@obfuscated3090]

@@denelson83 Unfortunately, lack of consequences for misbehavior ensure disorder. When the only legal way a teacher can control a misbehaving student is by calling a cop they'll do so out of self-defense. Beats getting sued (any touch is considered assault).

[@classicaltrombone]

Officers aren't there to make anything safer. They're there so if something terrible happens, the school district is not blamed. It's not the students' line of defense, it's the district's.

[@EverHappyDude]

This seems very true sir.

[@Nuanced717]

That’s perfectly stated. It’s about CYA. Great insight.

[@Wolverines77]

So, they hire tubs of lard who would be so out of breath and doubled over when they got there that nothing would get done... Don't think so...

[@bigdaddi1629]

Well said

[@sands7779]

to protect the school against legal damages

[@uglypinkeraser]

When I was in high school our SRO tricked a kid into bumming him a cigarette, kid got charged and suspended. At the time it seemed funny that the kid was so dumb but looking back now its insane that there was a cop in our schools tricking kids, not even dangerous or violent kids, into incriminating themselves. The thought that the SRO was intended to be there to protect the children and was instead giving them criminal records is sickening.

[@mikrod9157]

Wow omg lol

[@Gruntman1993]

Our SRO was basically an attack dog for the principal and teachers. I never liked or trusted them

[@Hoodooboiiii]

I mean that kid wouldn’t have a criminal record for that anyways. It’s a status offense.

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

SROs will CONSTANTLY try that shit. It's basically their only form of entertainment.

[@professorrhyyt3689]

@@Hoodooboiiii Still a person that will never again trust the police.

[@domarigavjusmom]

My son was traumatized by an SRO in high school and NEVER went back. My son went to his counselor because he was depressed and the SRO IMMEDIATELY 51/50'd him even though.he said he wasn't thinking of harming himself. Our local hospital was full, so they took him to one an hour away without my knowledge. I didn't know anything was wrong until he called me from the hospital. Since it was a mandatory 72 HR hold, the hospital had a psychiatrist come from an hour away to evaluate him because the staff didn't think he needed to be there, but a psychiatrist had to sign off on it. Since it was a Friday, my son would have had to spend 3 days in an ER for no reason if the hospital hadn't been so kind to get someone to release him early. One bad call from an SRO scared my teen from trying to seek help and he stayed home schooled the rest of the year. We got him the help he needed for his depression, including seeing a psychiatrist. He is good now, but he still has panic attacks around authority figures and he is now 20.

[@justandy333]

That is absolutely heartbreaking to read. Poor guy 😢! He reached out for help for a thoroughly miserable condition, which I went through myself. And he got arrested for it?!!! I was ready to end it when I was depressed. If I was arrested for it, I don't know, I may well have done. I've got the uppermost respect for your son! He's got more strength that you realise!

[@LockGrinder]

This generation gets "traumatized" for breakfast.

[@daanachmad4032]

@@LockGrinder Why do you act like her son was traumatised by some minor BS? Unless, of course, you are one of those fucktards who think we should be okay being abused by the authorities.

[@ianbattles7290]

Aside from everything else, that sounds like a massive waste of resources. There are people who actually need help and they are wasting resources to satisfy frivolous claims from snowflake cops.

[@domarigavjusmom]

@@ianbattles7290 Very true!

[@invertedironcross9]

Funny how there’s always money to harden security at school but never enough when it comes to funding actual teaching and growth

[@allthingswavy6420]

Right?

[@khatdubell]

Except this isn't true. The US spends more on education than anyone else. We spend more and more on education all the time, and yet our people keep decreasing in scholastic ability.

[@travisanderson77]

@@khatdubell You ever been to a small town school? We got a $2.5 million dollar grant for our school, which went to a new football field and teacher's lounge while our textbooks were a decade out of date and the food was still atrocious.

[@audieh]

@@travisanderson77 I graduated in 2019 and my history textbook was from 2001, which was before some of my classmates were born

[@DasMage4368]

@@khatdubell Look into the breakdown of how that money is spent. Roughly half of all school employees are not teachers.

[@sleepylichdisease]

At my high school our SRO would stand in front of the stairs to confiscate food people were carrying and throw it away in the morning because people weren't supposed to have food outside of the cafeteria. I grew up poor, so I qualified for free breakfast and lunch - without it I couldn't eat on any given school day. But I also lived rurally and my bus was often late, arriving literally right before the bell rang. I would run and grab food and an orange juice from the cafeteria and try to book it to bio, eating on the way, and she started standing at the staircase I had to take to get there. Every. Morning. Because preventing a potential mess for the janitors was more important than children being fed. I learned quickly though. I started only choosing bagels in the morning, which came with a sealed container of cream cheese, so I could stuff them in my backpack before I turned the corner to the stairs. She would try to stop me, I'd hold up my empty hands to show her I had no food then race up the stairs and eat in class. I'm really thankful Mr. Fabian, my bio teacher, didn't care that I ate in class, because that would have been a long semester of going hungry. I graduated 11 years ago and I still think about it all the time.

[@kalebgriffin7406]

Sorry to hear that I hope the food situation is better for you now. I can relate to that story it's extremely common where I live rn and our school forbids taking the food home with you or taking it to class.

[@TheNextFiles288]

I'm from useless , "ahem" Euless tx...the schools are terrible. at least when I was growing up. they lack empathy and equality. it's more, you're minority and liability and such. false accusations, no anti bully conferences or zero tolerance for anything that disrupts the children's rights. I almost quit school, there's still a few good teachers out there who care and don't give a shit about their pay or benefits, the kids come first in public schools.. it's pretty much computers and online schooling around here now. I have no idea how it's being run here anymore, except high level security and unsympathetic profiling of the lower class in this district. God help us, responsibly is looked down on and hardly exercised for the well being of ALL individuals is what the policies show anymore. keep your eyes open everyone..

[@robertsmith2956]

High school and you didn't know the government must compensate you when they take your property? Not only did government busing cause your problem, it made the children FAT. You walk 25+ miles a week carrying heavy books you get EXERCISE.

[@ayannahendricks6266]

Thank You for your comment, I hate that you had to be crafty just to eat the food you had a right to that sucks, I wish more “officials” like that school cop had sensible compassion.

[@fragrantbloom]

That is sad 😔

[@johny11150]

I remember being in High School and the 3 SRO’s ALWAYS doing searches with the dogs. They always ALWAYS picked on this kid from a bad home who just didn’t have direction in life. Instead of seeing him as someone who needed another perspective on life they saw him as a criminal in the making. We need to change. We need reform in this country. This is unacceptable.

[@xyrus345]

I remember being in high school and there was no such thing as an SRO. I also remember when the NRA was pro-gun control and pro-gun safety. My how times have changed, and not for the better.

[@kokorochacarero8003]

I remember being in high school and not seeing a single police officer or violent criminal ever set foot on the building. I listen to americans talk about this kind of topic and to me they sound like they live in an entirely different planet where human logic doesn't apply

[@hansolo6695]

Its just sad that there are cops in US schools. And its just ridiculous how low the profile is to become a cop in general in the US.

[@rubberducky893]

I went to high school in Philly. I remember seeing STMs putting handcuffs on a student. One time, they put their body weight on a 15 year old girl. Nothing can excuse that. The dean also further silence the students & the teachers that stood against it. Teachers suddenly had gotten new jobs outside of the state. A teacher up & left without a word one time. Other teachers were racist, colorist, misogynistic & bigots. They would pick on students & teachers who were LGBTQ+. There were STMs using disgusting vocabulary towards the girls in the school. Some had copped a feel. Others made them uncomfortable. The school created such a toxic environment that many students didn't want to come back to school. They were blamed by it as well. The counselors were useless.

[@Thylacinuscyno]

SO TRUE. Every week we had to put our back packs into the hall and lock ourselfs in the classrooms until each dog and officer went through each bag.

[@thatweirdgirl23]

John saying "Oh no my good Bitch" is the greatest thing I've ever heard

[@RojiNixon]

Do you have a time stamp?

[@psyclops973]

@@RojiNixon 16:54

[@RojiNixon]

@@psyclops973 Thank you (ㅅ´ ˘ `)

[@DopeyDetector]

No it's not. Grow up

[@enbypolyshostan]

@DopeyDetector [ATTENTION FOR YOU]

[@ipwnpankakes]

I was suspended from school for calling our SRO a "dirty pig" after he came into the girl's bathroom while we were changing for gym class unannounced. Two stalls had no doors and an entire class was in there getting changed. But I was the one who deserved to be detained and suspended. Makes sense.

[@brandy3573]

This is garbage and Im sorry you had to deal with that! Its absolutely despicable and noone should have to go through that. He IS a dirty fucking pig and you were correct in saying so!

[@jgdooley2003]

How is this allowed???? Was the SRO male?? Makes absolutely no sense at all. Men should never be allowed in gender specific bathrooms or changing rooms under any circumstances, both to protect the girls and the SRO from likely trouble.

[@anjetto1]

Yeah. Cops are infallible and children are expendable. Until they pay taxes, they're worthless. Pro life

[@kellharris2491]

Terrible. Somebody should have sued.

[@kaltaron1284]

Maybe the expected response was to do a lapdance or blow him? This is disgusting.

[@rogerswab2131]

That woman wasn't stalling for time, she was deciding if telling the truth was worth destroying her career.

[@Slaanash]

So, errr, stalling for time?

[@pattygould8240]

Because careful consideration before answering is beyond the realm of possibility?

[@TheJesperX]

No, thinking is what she did

[@shalizzle793]

@@Slaanash That’s not stalling, since… she didn’t stall for anything. She was thinking about what she was going to say, then said it. If she was stalling for time she wouldn’t have said the thing that would have made it not worth stalling for!

[@MCSPARTAN501]

Well then, I'm glad that she chose to be honest

[@MsSauce10]

When I was in HS a kid we knew was thrown down, handcuffed and taken to school office while everyone looked on (it was during lunch). We later found out he was acting “weird” bc he was diabetic and was low in sugar. Pretty aggressive tactic for a child who just needed medical attention

[@Arltratlo]

he was different, its punishable by death or deportation"!

[@radaro.9682]

I am diabetic and this terrifies me about being in public. I am also autistic and have brain damage. I "act weird" all the time. Police scare me and I would hate to be a child with anything that makes you stand out.

[@breakingbacon658]

Oh if you sneeze or scratch your back you are up to something… it’s just common knowledge

[@DrBrule-mv4ir]

Scary stuff. Low blood sugar can also make your breath smell like alcohol. People have died of diabetic shock in police custody because they were assumed to be drunk.

[@erichancock6815]

the results of a militant fascist state we are becoming. Instead of "protect & serve" it is now "Submit & obey".

[@aarishowton8037]

I graduated in 2016, and my high school had ‘campus police’. They would generally stand at corners not looking at any of us, just muttering into walkie-talkies, and I couldn’t tell you a single one of their names- but I’ll never forget when one of the ‘problem kids’ got upset about getting a detention, and the teacher called the campus police, who arrested her in the middle of class. She clearly had something going on but nobody ever seemed concerned about why a student might constantly be yelling and starting fights. And for the record, I had classes with three white ‘problem kids’, and never saw the teachers call campus police on any of them.

[@olap.]

Who TF calls police on a child throwing a temper tantrum??? USA, land of the free...

[@mho...]

thats basically the core of "defund the police" and putting the money toward educating teachers & (mental)healthcare for everyone!

[@FunFails]

My experience is the opposite. Pretty much all problem kids in my class were black girls, and campus police would do nothing about them, but would get called on white boys for doing nothing.

[@chiled0g]

I graduated in 1996. We didn't have police in the schools. No one seemed to feel the need. Perhaps we never thought of this as a solution to anything. Of course people weren't shooting up schools. Funny how there were guns everywhere and there weren't school shootings.

[@sarahm9731]

i see your point. but i think too much is expected of teachers. they should not be required to be counsellors as well. their job is just to teach. do american schools not have any mental health professionals available?

[@The-Rest-of-Us]

As someone from Europe it’s absolutely baffling to me that in the US there are a) so many school shootings to the point that b) you have police officers at school. It’s like watching a story from a parallel universe where ducks are horses and horses are ducks.

[@TheGayestAspen]

How do i move there

[@matteoar]

@@TheGayestAspen emigration.

[@tranixter]

It's worse than you think.

[@Manda_Panda000]

The school police officer subbed in one of our classes because they couldn’t find an actual teacher. To this day that is the best class I have ever taken. Edit* holy shit, I had to edit it because i said “my” school police officer. Y’all this isn’t English 101, don’t look for deeper meanings in it. I wrote it at 1:00am, chill.

[@Daniel-yy3ty]

@@TheGayestAspen are you high? do you really wanna move in a place with horse sized ducks? HORSE SIZED DUCKS!!!!!! unless you meant Europe, in that case I have no clue

[@49diewj]

I’m blind, and when I was in middle school, the campus officers stopped me all the time because they thought my cane with some sort of weapon. For those who don’t know, one of the techniques for using a cane, is to move the tip back and forth across the ground in an arc about shoulder width. One of the officers actually got me in trouble and accused me of waving it around like a weapon and purposely trying to hit students. And this was about 12 years ago, I can’t imagine how bad it’s gotten today.

[@mermaidismyname]

Okay that is excessively stupid my god The fact that a cop doesn't know what a blind person's cane is is horrifying

[@allanknox8216]

Show how stupid and untrained they are. At least that can be fixed.

[@yourmother9834]

There was a blind girl at my school who got harassed too and the halls were way too crowded I never understood why she didn’t go to class like 5 minutes before the bell rang so she didn’t have to deal with the traffic. So stressful. I remember an ignorant kid threatening to fight her because she “hit” her with her cane.

[@pratikkawade4861]

@@mermaidismyname it's not that they are stupid. It's the fact that absolute power corrupts people, makes them tyranical. The fact that they don't have to face consequence makes it worse.

[@lentrax2991]

@@mermaidismyname No, they know. They just got trained to not give a shit.

[@GalapagosPete]

In fairness to Laura Garnette, after hearing that question she was thinking, “If I answer this honestly am I going to get fired?“ It can take you a few seconds to decide what you’re going to do. It is to her credit that, after weighing the possibilities, she gave an honest answer.

[@caseyjarmes]

Well maybe she should be fired then

[@ericvicaria8648]

For what, honesty?

[@chazdomingo475]

@@ericvicaria8648 He's probably a Republican. Honesty is a crime to them.

[@MU_._]

Yes honesty, when she is inevitably terminated from her position, her boss will say yes you were honest And correct, but you're not supposed to say it on camera. Obviously. Anybody in any position that works for someone else understands they better be careful what they say on camera. Although she was absolutely correct her boss will not give a s*** oh, because the next boss up will just fire them both

[@MU_._]

I'll hire her thou. So will every smart human that appreciates the advantages of working with honest people. This is the opposite of the US government. Where the more you lie the more powerful you can be. This country going to hell in a 👜

[@Jpwillia1]

You know that uneasy feeling you get around cops, like when one follows you for a few blocks while driving, or really whenever someone in a flak jacket carrying a gun is out in public, that’s great for creating a learning environment

[@BetweenTheLyons]

It's true though, you quickly learn that you don't like cops, lol

[@julia0c3anchild72]

On behalf of all my friends with disabilities, THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH for highlighting the arrest rate for disabled students, especially those with autism and related disorders. They've got it rough enough surviving the social environment of school without being arrested for silly things like Adrian was, or even worse, for things that happen when they become overwhelmed and are prevented from using the coping skills that help them calm down. I've known people on the spectrum my entire life, and I've heard some baaaaad stories.

[@peachybuttercrunch4409]

I feel such strong agreement. I have people on spectrum in my family.

[@JadeDelphi]

That's why mainstreaming is a super bad idea.

[@lindabirgittebjerke5761]

❤️❤️❤️

[@Queldonus]

I had multiple teachers with no understanding of ADHD treat me as if I was trying to get some advantage, or just making it all up. Had my mother not fought to educate my teachers so hard, I'd have never had any success with those teachers. I cannot imagine how much worse my childhood could have been if someone that shouldn't have been teaching in the first place decided it was easier to have me arrested than learn how to help me.

[@Khono]

I am a high functioning autistic man who was bullied by students and targeted by school administration. The worst was the "zero tolerance" nonsense that pretends kids making childish mistakes equates to criminals committing violent crimes. I'm so thankful there were no cops at the schools I attended. Thank you to everyone who is working towards better futures for people like me in school.

[@carolyn05]

When I was in HS, a substitute teacher thought my friends and I were eating pot brownies and called the school SROs on us. About 7 of them, all with guns, came and pulled us out of the classroom. My friend, who sold regular chocolate brownies, had his back pack searched. Then, they humiliated him by saying he wasn’t going to make enough money for college by selling brownies and he was going to end up “flipping burgers.” The worst part is we were in a class that was solely for advanced minority students whose parents were poor. I was so shaken by this incident and it took years for me to come to terms with the fact that it was WRONG and that my friends and I had been racially profiled.

[@DimaRakesah]

Holy fuck that is horrible. Kids can't even eat some fucking brownies without being harassed?

[@goldbraecky]

Wow I can't even put into words how wrong that was.... just wow....

[@Zurround]

Did you end up with a permanent arrest record that would prevent you from getting into college?

[@yousigiltube]

I honestly don't understand this strange mentality Americans have of overblowing every situation. Sure, you probably didn't like the situation and their intervention but 'so shaken by this incident and it took YEARS for me to come to TERMS' sounds kind of insane for some cops just being a bit jerky. They thought the kids were doing drugs, they over reacted, it's not a good thing but by damn do some people have issues with authority. It sounds like you could get triggered at a heart beat if you're not the one able to control the officers instead of the other way around. Heavy handed policing is a bit scary if they actually do something but it sounds like they made fun of your friend unfairly and you took years to somehow process that. It's downright freaky how unhinged people can be that the most minor cases trigger them for years.

[@hedgehog3180]

I wanna know the mind of a person who thinks you need 7 heavily armed police officers to deal with someone eating fucking pot brownies. Like even in the scenario they imagined they end up looking like huge cowards who'd probably open fire on a whoopie cushion.

[@IndianaKong95]

When I was in high school, I almost got arrested because I tossed an eraser to my friend who didn't hear me say "Hey catch" and he got hit in the eye. He wasn't mad, it was complete accident, and we laughed it off. Our teacher than held me after class (which at this point I already forgot the eraser thing even happened it was so meaningless), tried to file a report on me, and our SRO had to come in and talk to me. Thankfully, my SRO was not an abusive asshole, and really my teacher's more a POS than the cop herself, but she literally just read the incident report and was like, "This is bullshit, I'm not handcuffing the fucking kid." I appreciate her for that, but the fact that was even a possibility at all is dystopian!

[@JadeDelphi]

Maybe you shouldn't have been throwing shit in class hard enough to injure other kids. Just a thought. I bet this wasn't the only incident.

[@IndianaKong95]

@@JadeDelphi “Oh no, my lightly grazed eye, how will I ever recover from such a severe injury!” It was a light toss, not a speedball, a laughable accident. You’re right though, it wasn’t the only incident, because of pathetic people like you who believe that children who have no counseling, no support groups, no adults willing to show them empathy, should be punished by a set of laws and rules that diminish them as nothing more than a nuisance that needs to be taken care of. Let children be children, if you don’t know how to, then you shouldn’t be near them or dictating their lives, especially when they’re in need or struggling. I may’ve made numerous visits to my principal, but I also graduated top 10 in my class out of hundreds of students, and not an ounce of that came from following “the rules”

[@TrenchcoatJesus]

@@JadeDelphi Where do you think people learn? Do you think people are born known not knowing to throw an eraser before double-checking the other person is aware? I mean, how niche is that? If the other kid had known- it'd probably have been fine. There was no intentional malice here. It was a simple accident. Even if there *was* malice, even if this *was* a repeat offense (which is a completely ridiculous thing to assume, but I'll humor you)- even if it *wasn't* an accident, so what? In the worst case scenario... that is not a crime. That is a kid doing a stupid thing and (hopefully) learning from that stupid thing. No police are necessary. Trust me. It happens all the time and will continue to happen, and kids have learned good behavior from bad without having armed law enforcement officials involved. The only thing police bring to the table is a healthy mistrust of police. In that sense, SROs aren't all bad, but it's still unnecessary training for the harsh realities of adulthood that children really don't need to confront that early. Many children already deal with those realities at home and in their communities. Schools are supposed to be a safe space, not one more point of tension. Imagine that there is a police officer assigned to your house. The county says they're there to "protect you" but really they're there to police you. That's what most of these kids are dealing with. It's absolutely insane.

[@Kenjuudo]

@@IndianaKong95 Just ignore her. Judging by this and some other comments of hers she's likely on the lesser end of the bell curve.

[@melissasaint3283]

@@IndianaKong95 It all depends on how safe the kids around that kid are as they're struggling and learning. YOU absolutely should not have been arrested for accidentally hitting your friend with an eraser, no! But I went to a school in which roving gangs of kids beat people (often strangers, because the school was so large) to a pulp on the daily. Sometimes ambulances were needed. Someone was stabbed. A few years after I attended *TRIGGER WARNING* a girl with a bathroom pass was lured into a little used hallway and forcibly raped by another student who was cutting class *END OF TRIGGER* Those were kids living in a broke district, attending a broke and wildly overcrowded school, many of whom were likely struggling accademically and at home, who had too few resources and too little intervention (though frankly, I would guess a few grew up to have APD) But the damage they did to the kids around them, many of whom were equally struggling, was immense and unacceptable. Your right to be a struggling,learning kid ends at the point where you are breaking another kid's orbital bone and leaving him with PTSD that makes his life even more difficult than it already was.

[@Banana34598]

“I just thought someone would look at it and think ‘this is so cool- a legand was here’” just broke me.

[@thecornettmultiverse]

“Oh no, my good bitch” is about to become my new favorite way of correcting someone. Again Oliver nails the heart of the problem.

[@rock-n-rollfoodie]

LMAO John’s way with words is legendary!

[@Grillmaster33]

I worked at a middle school that had metal detectors, two SRO’s, and 7 security guards. It felt dystopian. More like a cold prison than a school.

[@mtb3803]

Really?! Man! 😳 I’m so glad I’m from Europe. I can’t imagine what’s it like to go to school in those conditions .. I’m really sorry to hear that..

[@flyingdutchman1352]

What country? Russia? China?

[@ilenastarbreeze4978]

jesus that seems horrific

[@Grillmaster33]

@@flyingdutchman1352 America, of course.

[@screamingphoenix8113]

Schools are literally now built similarly to prisons. They are designed so that its as hard as possible for an escapee to have free movement throughout a prison.

[@ArchmageIlmryn]

The most bizarre aspect of this whole thing is the fact that an arrest that didn't lead to conviction shows up on your record and can harm you in the future. So much for innocent until proven guilty...

[@darcyrobbs6866]

Yeah that needs changed.

[@bobxyzp]

Right? Should be “found guilty of a crime” not “arrested”

[@Zzyzzyzzs]

Mostly for people of a certain colour too. I know several Americans who have charges on their record, ranging from misdemeanors like public urination and DUIs to pretty serious drug offenses. One guy I know was one arrest away from going away for a long time (Texas, marijuana, two strikes, you know the rest); it didn't stop him (or most of the rest of them) from moving on with their lives, developing careers and becoming productive members of society. In his case he left the country on a scholarship and eventually got a PhD. You won't need to guess what race most of them are, and that of the one who, for 10 years, still had no firm job (three who hired him quickly fired him when they belatedly realised he had a criminal record from decades ago) and luckily managed to get sponsored to live in Canada where he's been able to build some sort of life.

[@katies6374]

does anyone know, i thought criminal records were expunged at 18, so does it really matter very long? sorry im genuinely curious, i could be an idiot here. I guess for like jobs at 17, 18 or college? of course i agree these small misdemeanors shouldn't be on the record anyway, especially if they don't lead to an arrest and conviction, but there is an expunction in all these cases yes?

[@ZombiLady16]

@@katies6374 You have to ask for that from a judge in court when you turn 18. Records are automatically sealed for a minor only when the minor is a victim of a heinous crime like CP or SA.

[@melodiousmelody]

My school officer was arrested a few years after I graduated for pedophilia so... That was great

[@leerzeichn93]

I kinda wondered about that one too...

[@bluemonkey1886]

Happens often! Happened at my high school too after 7 victims came forward and it still took over a year to take him job 🙃

[@kellbell4588]

An SRO was busted here for having an inappropriate relationship with a 13 yr old girl. A few years ago one was caught having sex with a student in the football field bleachers. They aren't sending their best that's for sure.

[@Laeiryn]

If a cop gets arrested they were really, really obvious about doing a really, really bad thing *and* really, really bad at covering their tracks.

[@1111dsjfb]

You went to school for pedophilia?

[@topperharley2593]

My son was handcuffed and shoved into a cop car for running through the sprinklers. I had to go down there and go full Karen on them for having the sprinklers on during school in the first place. He. Was. NINE

[@lc9072]

Yeah you might just be a Karen and your bad Karen parenting made your kid fo shitty things and face consequences when it should have been you in the cop car. Other people's kids I guess.

[@kaushikiyer4881]

@matt yes. They're a kid. A fucking kid

[@dragonchiId]

@matt Who should give a bloody shit if even an adult runs through sprinklers?

[@SilverMe2004]

This is so nuts that the only way I can make senses of it is that he set the sprinklers up inside How does anyone get arrested for running through sprinklers?

[@snoopy_peanuts_77]

@@SilverMe2004 they do it for anything..unfortunately americans are s up cop culture arse they cant see straight to the blue line thats taken over their flag

[@JorgeDiaz-ly5qp]

I've been working in schools for nearly 40 years. This is one of the most brilliant assessments about where we are in schools today that I have seen. A HUGE thank you to your researchers for providing cogent and well-constructed facts that basically casts a searing light on how adults today perceive the children we are supposedly raising - all the while forgetting who we were (the same) at their age. As a wise, old football coach once advised me, "Being young allows you the privilege to sometimes act stupidly; however, don't abuse the privilege." In these overreactive times, we seem to have completely forgotten that salient fact.

[@Paranitis]

Too bad the people who NEED to see this video, will write it off as LiBrUl PrOpAgAnDa.

[@reubenmorris487]

People blame kids for their manners, bad behaviors, and habits, and say there's no hope for the kids. Children model themselves after the adult "care takers" in their lives. So who's really to blame??

[@JorgeDiaz-ly5qp]

@@Paranitis Bull's-eye!

[@JorgeDiaz-ly5qp]

@@reubenmorris487 Checkmate!

[@professorginz2379]

I am a retired 24 year elementary school teacher. I worked for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Every word John Oliver uttered during this video rings true. I am moved to tears watching it.

[@DizzyBusy]

Answer, please. WHO IS JIMMM?

[@professorginz2379]

@@DizzyBusy I sure don't know

[@sharonsumnerlott]

Thanks for your service to all those kids over all those years 🙂

[@squirrelisamazing6522]

At my college we have a small army of officers although our campus isn't big. Last year in a public area I witnessed racially motivated harassment from a small group of students to a single student. Me and a few other students had to step in to stop things from escalating, despite there being 2-3 officers nearby clearly within hearing/seeing range. The police only came over to us after me and the others got involved, seemingly upset that we somehow made the situation worse. Luckily no one was arrested, but it was scary and sad.

[@LeahIsHereNow]

The “ADRX” on your backdrop is why John Oliver and everyone who works with him are also legends! So sweet, I teared up! ☺️

[@thfacts]

Yeah, It has been a rough couple of weeks for me and that really made me cry not gunna lie!

[@AntiFurryJihad]

*ADRX*

[@DK-yh4xt]

Cool! I'm going to etch it into the side of where you live. Also, my initials.

[@ny2ct187]

@@DK-yh4xt if it comes off with soap and water... etch till your heart is content

[@eartherinfire]

Loved that!!

[@piedpiperprince784]

my high school had a full-time SRO. He was on a first name basis with most of the student body, went to almost every game no matter the sport, and was an amazing member of our community. however, despite all of that, I still wish he hadn't been there. one of my senior classes, a requirement for graduation had 50 students. FIFTY. and still my school decided that it would be a better use of resources to have an armed man roaming the halls than get anouther teacher for a required class. I wish that America knew how to prioritize educating and supporting students than just punishing them.

[@lc9072]

Why not both? Why pick between safety and a strong role model and another teacher? America need some stop rereading like to can't afford to give the non elite the best. School police would be a deterrent against gang violence and drugs that plagued my school. I'm Canadian. We only have school liason officers fromm the police, an officer in.the school was an unattainable luxury so we just had to deal with the school being full of overdoses fighting and kids getting jumped outside of class

[@kaemincha]

@@lc9072 let me tell you, the schools that have problems with gang violence and drugs in america already have SROs and guess what? they still dont help that much. you cant just throw a cop at a problem and expect that to solve everything...

[@EmanDeMoan]

@@lc9072 I agree, there has to be some way to fund public schools better in order to keep the officers and still have proper resources for students. The taxes in the US are crazy high, how come their schools are always underfunded? (Probably because they spend all the tax money on random wars in the middle east)

[@TmanT321]

I wish america knew how to prioritize educating and supporting everyone, instead of punishing them. It seems that knowledge is no longer considered to be a powerful thing. I feel like a conspiracy nut because I keep thinking "wow this country really doesn't want it's people to be educated or know anything important".

[@steveharvey2102]

Are you from Quebec? Salut

[@asanelson4178]

I’m glad he mentions kids mental health. It’s an issue often ignored.

[@jessicathomasflute]

An issue ignored until that kid shoots up his school, after which we blame all people with mental health issues then continue doing absolutely nothing to solve either issue.

[@mariegarside8830]

Cutting mental health funding in order to fund more cops in schools. (Shaking head)

[@ghostreyn]

it is absolutely ignored, it is more likely for a school to have a cop then a nurse and mental health professional.

[@AnimatronicBadgerlord]

This is true. I can't even imagine the mental damage being done to children around the country. Even more morbid, the students at the schools where the shootings happened are going to need to go through some serious therapy that I fear most cannot afford.

[@mikek9297]

Mental health is an issue everywhere. Only in america children are gunned down at schools in mass numbers. The problem is guns, stop deflecting.

[@dobbsmill3676]

Scrubbing, sanding and revarnishing desks was classic detention work in my old school (UK). One ink pen picture of a pretty girl was so good, it was just varnished over to immortalise it!

[@sfx.1355]

As a foreigner, having armed officers in campus and students acknowledging them so casually is extremely disturbing

[@GrayGamer889]

Better that than to be shot I guess

[@masondill878]

It truly is normal here has been a long time. I graduated '09, my school had two full time officers there. They had their own office, basically a little miniature police station. It had a detainment room in it. Bullet proof glass for their window looking out on the school. It was rather nondescript but oh yeah. A male cop and a female cop to do searches appropriately of course. Both armed with a taser, a gun, pepper spray. And it's a pretty complicated issue. They were mostly fair never arrested anyone over anything ridiculous that I recall but I do remember them getting involved in legit stuff. Fights, gang fights, drugs etc. Honestly sometimes it'd be surprising the stuff they DIDN'T step in over and left it to the school to handle. I dunno.

[@ps374249]

I went to high school in a small-ish town, and not only did we have an armed SRO, but, that SRO did double duty as a member of the SWAT team. There were mornings where you would see him, at the school, in his SWAT gear because he was coming from a raid.

[@nathanlonghair]

Denmark: We once had two officers on school grounds while I was there. Once. They weren’t carrying weapons or cuffs, and were there to talk about heroin addiction. Honestly I don’t even think they were the right ones for that job either, but at least it made an impression.

[@abramrexjoaquin7513]

Hear me out. Sounds like a POLICE STATE. And finally... America is like this to give White people JOB with IMMEDIATE AUTHORITY. And arresting Minority students will put Criminal Rap sheet on them disallowing them to further any Fair and Equal means as their WHITE classmates are offered. Do you not see the whole process of this? SCHOOL TO JAIL PIPELINE. Literally having cops patrol rounds in school as if its prison. The Visual aesthetics of that can be traumatizing to an already traumatized minorities.

[@AndrewMovie13]

I agree heavily with the statement he made about school cops and disabled kids. Growing up as an autistic teen in high school, I was haunted by horror stories turned news headlines about disabled kids being severely injured or killed by school police officers. Every interaction I've had with those of them on my campus has been one in which I've had to accept that I could be attacked or killed at any moment due to circumstances outside of my control. Circumstances that were very much in the officers' control, as a matter of fact. I will never understand why straight up abusive practices like the prone restraint have never been outlawed in my state.

[@NQSchile]

I have autism and my sro was an absolute douche to me

[@123gocrazypeople]

When I was in high school I took College Credit Plus classes which basically meant that I got to HS 2 hours late every morning because my day started at our local university. An important thing to note is that it was the high school paying for my tuition and I had every right to go to my locker before the rest of the students. However, that also meant that every morning I was in the hall by myself the resource officer harassed me incessantly. Every single day he’d ask to see a pass - knowing full well I didn’t have one - and every single day I would have to walk with him to the office just for them to tell him to leave me alone. Every single day. All I did was go to college part time.

[@dcgregorya5434]

Ridiculous. Not for nothing but "adult" security is handled by security guards...who are very nice to you because you work for the company that pays them and its their job. No idea why a school would instead hire something closer to prison guards who are there to arrest you rather than security guards who are there to improve safety.

[@arachnid33]

That is not ok. Sorry that happened to you. Honestly, he was probably jealous of you. Going to college young like that when he probably never went.

[@dbone3356]

@@dcgregorya5434 I mean... You aren't wrong. But also, because they won't do anything when something goes down. That isn't their job.

[@dcgregorya5434]

@@dbone3356 All they have to do is not let someone get inside. In most modern buildings that just means not enabling the elevator for the intruder but a locking front door is good enough as well. Don't need superheroes just common sense security.

[@dbone3356]

@@dcgregorya5434 Not sure how much, or how little having a functioning elevator is going to deter someone. Unless they're in a wheelchair, or on crutches. In which case, it should be fairly fucking easy to run away from them. But most people will just use the stairs to conduct their act of terrorism. But also. Maybe don't have guns so easily accessible. Full stop. Not saying do away with them altogether. But at the same time, there is absolutely no reason a civilian needs an automatic rifle, or an assist rifle or anything like that. "Oh but if the baddies want to get them bad enough, they will." Maybe. But that doesn't mean we can't try to make it more difficult for them to do so. And yeah. Just not let them inside is great. Doesn't help when they get in. Just not letting them have guns would though. But, I'm sure you can't possibly be echoing the B.S that the spineless Ted Cruz did? I mean only having one door, really? Yeah. That'll make it super quick and easy and not at all an inconvenience for hundreds of students to enter every day.

[@dolfinsbizou]

Having police officers in schools on a regular basis is just another thing that seems batshit insane to lot of people outside America. I mean... Cops patrolling in schools harassing disabled and POC kids, this is some high level dystopian stuff here.

[@Fabzil]

"high level dystopian stuff" yep, america

[@RSVPrr]

​@@Fabzil land of the uncivilized

[@chaosprince8291]

When I was in middle school, my student resource officer sat my 6th grade class down, looked us dead in the eye, and said they would SHOOT us if we pulled a water gun on them as a prank. So much trust building. So much.

[@purplepixie274]

😳

[@theguywhoisaustralian1465]

Why tf would you pull anything that even resembles a gun on a police officer?

[@chaosprince8291]

@@theguywhoisaustralian1465 Missed the point. No one actually did it. None of the kids even suggested it. He just said that he would. Unprompted.

[@theguywhoisaustralian1465]

@@chaosprince8291 I understood perfectly, thank you for checking tho

[@Mama_Bear524]

@@theguywhoisaustralian1465 why would a cop shoot a kid for that? Be mad! Be annoyed. Send them to the principal and have a serious talk with them. But don’t shoot!!

[@spornge]

A comment sparked my memory of this , this is an example of how a brilliant educator handles discipline: at my school we were hanging out after school and we had taken to shooting each other with paperclips launched from rubber bands, the physics teacher leaving the school called us over asked us what we were doing we told him, he took us in the classroom and taught us how you calculate and build catapults when done and a fun time was had , he had us go outside and pick up all the trash in the parking lot . I dont remember the trash picking up as punishment , I do remember learning about catapults.

[@groobs]

yay cool teacher 😎 📚📖🎓☺️

[@disappointmentjuice8676]

oh my god yes this is the solution. its harder to try and put a full stop to a kids activities, it'll make them want to do it anyway to spite you. its much easier and more productive to channel that energy into constructive mechanisms- such as launching paperclips turning into learning how to build catapults.

[@TheFuzzypuddle]

According to some of the examples in this video, an SRO could have arrested you for assault. wtf

[@DennisJayDole]

Unfortunately, your teacher would likely now be charged with arming students with weapons. Probably also have a lawsuit brought against him, on behalf of firearm manufacturers, for encouraging weapon manufacturing without firearm manufacturing licenses. After all, they can't have a physics teacher stepping on the toes of the gun lobby, by turning child interest in weapons towards science, rather than purchasing guns.

[@YoshinoYosh]

I actually cried at the ending description of what a kid should be allowed to do. I had never put it into context that I was so terrified of my SRO that I stopped myself from having fun and making mistakes and being a child. I guess I had kinda compartmentalised and thought “That only happened to other kids” but hearing all of the things I was stopped from doing just hit me in the heart

[@ap114]

I cried too. I had decent interactions with SROs in the 1990s but for the most part I wasn’t in their presence much. Now that I have kids - black, male kids - I’m much more wary of SROs. Thankfully, they haven’t had that in their schools … yet.

[@iamReddington]

If you're scared of a cop being at your school, you have far worse mental issues. I went to two schools with an SRO, we never had any problems at all with them. Y'all need to grow up. Just because YOU PERSONALLY had bad experiences doesn't mean everyone else agrees.

[@brianhollington7818]

​@@iamReddington Do you notice the irony in your statement? Just in case you don't let me spell it out...You belittled two people because they had bad experiences with an SRO because YOU PERSONALLY never had any problems with them. Do the global community a favor and try to imagine what it might be like to have grown up differently, in a different situation while watching this very video from the 8:00 mark. Empathy is powerful and rare. Try it on for a little while.

[@kathifuller5332]

@@iamReddington My daughter, who is white, went to a high school that never had an SRO. Then we moved to a similar community in a neighboring state following her sophomore year. That first week at the new school, she came home and told me she was surprised to see an SRO in school (funny that it wasn't mentioned by the guidance staff or in any of the handbooks we received when we enrolled her in the school). hter came home and told me that she saw an SRO in school. When I asked her what she thought about it, she said her first thought was that it didn't bother her personally but that she thought it could be of concern to students of color and those from different backgrounds. That's called empathy. Understanding and acknowledging that other people have different life experiences that shapes their perspective. At 16, my daughter had that figured out. You are the one with the issue, dude.

[@morethanmoth]

I was a stupid kid once. As in I thought I was hilarious knocking over trash cans once, in school, during the summer's drivers training. I couldn't imagine being arrested or being charged for something so dumb. I was nearly kicked out of driver's training, which seems understandable. That at least made more sense. Now, I was in the whitest school there is, so that might be the reason.

[@davidmedlin8562]

I am autistic and was arrested in 6th grade by an sro. It destroyed my whole families life not just mine, my parents divorced and moved over halfway across the country so I didn't go to jail for not standing in line for a substitute, ruined my intellectual development lost all my special classes and my scholarship to college I had won as a part of a mensa contest I ended up dropping out. Schools don't need cops kids don't need cops.

[@she_is_sherri1492]

Where did you go to school if you don’t mind me asking? Thank you for being brave to share. Horrible what they did!

[@wolftitanreading5308]

​@@she_is_sherri1492 dudes clearly lying and wanting attention. All they are doing is going duhh cops bad and trying to sound like he was the innocent victim when he probably did something far worst

[@johndoh4537]

@@wolftitanreading5308did you even fucking watch the video? Who are you to assume the validity of his story?

[@lays5277]

​​@@wolftitanreading5308ou got proof that he's lying? Are there any inconsistencies or glaring issues with his story? People lie on the internet all the time, but you shouldn't just discredit every account you see, even if you personally think they're lying you don't have to go out of your way to act like it's the obvious truth.

[@wolftitanreading5308]

@@lays5277 do you proof he's telling the truth? The thing is people lie all the time and a sad story is easy it catches suckers all the time

[@racheljoseph1221]

I was mercilessly bullied in school-particularly in Middle School in the hallway & my Art Class. This occurred EVERY day; I finally made the bad judgment mistake by bringing a jackknife to Art class, one of the bullies went into my bag, found the knife, ANNOUNCED what I’d done-and my “weapon” was confiscated. Shortly thereafter, the Assistant Principal summoned me to his office. I wasn’t disciplined, someone on faculty knew my intention was to try & protect myself and he just wanted to talk to me. He did-and did so very gently. He let me know that HE knew sth was going on, he was watching-and that I should come to him instead. The bullying lessened (didn’t stop) but I was grateful for his efforts

[@MoneyGist]

Had my heart in my mouth while reading this. Just waiting for the inevitable twist. Glad it never came. Also grateful for that Assistant Principal. Teachers are simply the best.

[@Simon-nw9bf]

@@MoneyGist you became that emotionally invested in some stranger's made up story? No wonder our civilization is in decline, its men are weak! Bring back initiation rituals. On your 12th birthday you perform cannibalism of a captured enemy villager.

[@racheljoseph1221]

It’s one of the reasons I BECAME a high school teacher many years later. I was a foreign language teacher but I also worked with at-risk children. Boku Hendrickson truly taught me the value of ALL children and I am grateful for him.

[@racheljoseph1221]

Oh & btw: my local school district recently forced the principal of the high school to resign due to safety issues. They are discussing the insertion of SROs. This school district, the one where I graduated in 1988, is NOT a high crime area NOR is it a rural, hunting area (e.g., Oxford, Michigan) with loads of gun rights activists. It’s total bullshit to not address the real issues needed. Also: where the HELL are the parent volunteers?

[@zingzangspillip1]

If the asst principal knew something was happening, why didn't they do something about it?

[@inflamesdude]

This doesn't even get into the fact that cops aren't legally obligated to protect you as evident in what happened in Uvalde. So, what they really are there for is intimidation, basic rule enforcement, and dealing out punishment (as mentioned). When it comes to real threats like a school shooter(why they were there to begin with) they don't have to do anything to protect the students.

[@tysonreuter5788]

Yep, let's let only them have the guns.

[@SwearMY]

Like the cops who let a drowning man drown. Horrific.

[@jacksevert3099]

Castle Rock vs Gonzalez I believe is the Supreme Court case

[@AliceYobby]

I am completely convinced that the Uvalde police shot at least one kid that day. It’s the only thing that makes sense at this point, piecing together their changing stories. It’s likely why the first piece of information the cops released was “he had a handgun”, when he had an AR15, and why they aren’t cooperating with investigators asking for ballistics. What cop would confuse a handgun with an AR15. How did that mistake get made? It wasn’t a mistake. It was a panicked attempt at covering up the real “mistake”.

[@Sndyj457]

@@AliceYobby I wouldn’t put it past them

[@comedyblastYT]

Canadian here. I always assumed when Americans talked about school police, they were referring to a fancy security guard, it never even crossed my mind that you'd have ACTUAL POLICE just in schools at all times

[@ronevans6958]

yeah for real...that shocks me as a Canadian too..

[@dre3004]

toronto liver here we have those 😭

[@sytherwusky]

shocks me as an australian

[@lorisreality8681]

Oh yes, we have real cops with real guns walking around high schools and middle schools. I actually was questioned by one once for wearing a pink bandana tied into my hair . He honestly thought I was in a gang and asked me to not wear the bandana at school any more because " a bandana is considered gang related paraphernalia." Honestly what gang wears bright pink? The biker Barbies? Lol

[@quidditch1991]

When I was in elementary school, one of the kids in my class got dragged out of the classroom by an SRO because she wasn’t listening to the teacher. Mind you, this girl obviously had stuff going on at home, was 9 years old, and had *adhd* . What made it worse was she was one of the only four of us black kids in the *entire* school. Instead of my teacher getting her help (also quick note, we had no counselors) or at least putting her foot down as the adult or even just explain to the girl why she should at least consider listening, our teacher instead called the SRO. When the girl refused to go with him, he called another officer and they both dragged her out of the classroom as she screamed and cried. Considering the fact that I had to deal with a lot of racism from that school, watching her get dragged away like that by the SROs scared the shit out of me not only because it was horrible, but also because I though I was next if I ever so much as told my teacher “no”.

[@timmylean]

My wife taught at a school where the SRO threatened to arrest and charge a victim is sexual abuse with rape because the victim herself was underage. The vice principal and my wife lost her shit on the officer, accused the officer of overstepping her role as SRO, so the PD stopped placing an SRO in the school. As a result, security incidents in the school continued to never happen.

[@Zurround]

NO offense meant but your grammar is hard for me to follow. Are you saying that he arrested someone for rape? That is pretty serious. But because of your grammar I cannot really understand your comments. Raping someone who is underaged is horrific though.

[@matttorres5510]

@@Zurround I think they're saying that the SRO said they would charge the person with "Statutory" rape (underage sex) as a threat to convince the person to not pursue action against another person for sexual assault.

[@matttorres5510]

Never happen meaning like they swept stuff under the rug or they prevented stuff from happening.

[@Zurround]

@@matttorres5510 How is being the VICTIM of sexual assault statutory rape? You are not making any sense? Plus I think its only statutory rape if one partner is significantly older? If 2 sixteen year olds sleep with each other then do you have 2 rapists and 2 victims at the same time? Its a legal paradox?

[@matttorres5510]

@@Zurround honestly we're going off very limited info. That's just what it sounded like to me. Lots of could'ves.

[@malarkyy]

When I was in highschool, there was a fight between two students (No weapons involved, no one was hurt, not a major fight) The SRO decided the best way to stop the fight was to release the entire canister of his police grade pepper spray down the hall. The entire hallway had to be evacuated. The two kids fighting got more injured from the SRO than each other. And multiple kids had asthma attacks from it, some of which did not have their inhalers on hand and were forced to take the long walk, outside in the heat (because they couldnt get back in through the hallway) to the front office to get their inhaler. SROs are just cops with even less empathy for kids.

[@soiledhalo2296]

🤬

[@malarkyy]

@@selfhelp321 Not exactly but if you wanna look at it that way lmao

[@christopherbedford9897]

"SROs are just cops with even less empathy for kids" - and, probably, less capable than average cops, because what officer would prefer to be a school beat cop? Probably those who are past retirement age, or overweight and unable to hack it as real patrol officers, or too thick to pass advancement exams, or whose commanding officers just don't want them on the actual police force because they're just useless. Or all of the above. Yeah, _those_ are the right people to put in schools.

[@christopherbedford9897]

@@selfhelp321 😆 Whereas you have so much that you are prepared to make judgements like that with no evidence at all. Troll.

[@friedrice207]

ACAB

[@abandonedmuse]

I’m so glad you bring this up. This year my 13-year-old daughter was depressed because her dad moved to a different state and I caught her cutting herself. The day that I caught her I called the school and I told them to please talk to her and see if they can refer her to some sort of counseling or psychology program where they could talk to her in reference to cutting. Well, what the counselor did was call the SRO. This turned into a two day struggle with the school and the Miami police to prove that I was not the one causing her this trouble even though she told them numerous times that I was not an issue whatsoever. They brought the police to my house while we were at the hospital, scaring my mom half to death and left a message saying that I had to call them. I completely ignored that request because I didn’t do anything wrong…. in fact, like I spoke to them later and told them, I was the one that called them to ask for help. And they made me out to look like the bad guy. But I wrote a letter to the district and we had a little meeting with everybody in that goddamn school - The principal, the assistant principal, the counselors, and the school resource officer. I told them what I thought they had done wrong. They ended up deflecting like they always do, but I’m glad I got my two cents in edgewise. By the end of the meeting, they said that they understood that it had nothing to do with me and that they would try to help her with counseling. My daughter was so freaked out thankfully she realized how serious what she did was, and I am happy to say, she hasn’t done it again. But when I talk to her now, and asked her about the principal, and the SRO, she’s basically stated that she hates them and that she would never go to a counselor to tell them about anything ever again at a school. Thankfully, I have a really good relationship with her and we were able to talk it out, and since then, we’ve had a really great year. She even got into the high school that she wanted, so I’m happy to say on my side everything turned out well. But I was so upset that instead of giving her counseling, they referred her to the freaking cops! The actual cops showed up at my house at 9 PM that night to see if I was a good mom. Like I told them later, YEAH I AM A GOOD MOM, YOU DIDNT SEE THE CUTS. I FOUND THEM AND CALLED YOU AND YOU ALL COMPLETELY DROPPED THE BALL. Freaking idiots.

[@Finaggle]

I would suggest going outside the school system to get her help. That's ridiculous and I'm sorry you all had to go through that.

[@idontwantahandlethough]

It really sucks that people can't get this stuff straight. How are kids supposed to be able to trust adults in positions of authority when they see those very people do awful stuff (like in your story) constantly?

[@abandonedmuse]

@@idontwantahandlethough I know! They broke her trust.

[@abandonedmuse]

@@Finaggle definitely ! I found a great clinic but she opted not to go bc she said she would rather forget the whole incident. I felt her PTSD was too much so I opted to respect her wishes and we had some good talks. Thankfully she says she would never do that again. She decided it wasn’t worth ruining her very bright future. She won a few awards in school after that. She graduated with honors this semester. It’s also worth noting i caught her on her first try.

[@jamesc7894]

You are the parent. You don’t send kids to school to get professional counseling but learn. Many insurance companies have free emergency services along with other community programs. Shuffling it off to the school and not knowing how they handle things sounds like you’re passing the buck.

[@qeshetanimals]

School police man tried to drag me into a loud auditorium while I was having an autistic meltdown because I had an ear infection and it was very loud in there. I was screaming absolute bloody murder because there’s a man trying to drag me Also when I was sexually assaulted by another student he came to my house and harassed me about it. And invited himself into the house because the front door was unlocked.

[@Dlúith]

“Oh no my good bitch, that is very much your business” is a powerful sentence

[@gregorykeating4195]

John - thank you for this video. I was in the “it couldn’t hurt” camp until now, but you’ve expanded my thinking on this. I hope it has a similar effect on others.

[@idontwantahandlethough]

Proud of you Greg :)

[@elius1548]

I think the hard thing is that when looking at it broadly, putting more cops in schools seems like a solution to shootings. It sounds like protection so why not. But when you look at the details, cops in schools is a terrible idea.

[@7kngz]

i wish people weren’t stubborn in their beliefs it’s cool you can see the actual effects certain decisions have

[@Nick-xy9ko]

Same here. I knew it wasn't a proper solution to anything, but I figured it wouldn't make anything worse. I was wrong.

[@8088I]

Disgusting that Students & Teachers have to go through this recurring trauma today . . .

[@Crimethoughtfull]

I'm an American who has been living in New Zealand the last 5yrs...the thought of being back in the US with my 3 boys is HORRIFYING. No police in the schools here, and no fear of a school shooting. Money for schools actually goes to...teachers and books and stuff! It is almost as if guns being harder to obtain, and mental health being easier to obtain, has some sort of strange relation to each other........

[@lucascurio8345]

Hey a fellow kiwi 👍

[@Simon-nw9bf]

Shootings happen constantly in New Zealand, you just don't hear about them because the government makes it literally illegal to watch the videos.

[@h3ck774]

lol doesnt new zealand have decent gun rights to like its still pretty easy to get one at least within reason

[@h3ck774]

ah thats scandanavia and sweden

[@seanm4405]

@@h3ck774 you can still have a gun in NZ, but there needs to be a legitimate reason, and no military style weapons. Need to go through a fair bit of checking etc. I personally can’t understand the obsession Americans have with owning guns guns guns.

[@JoshuaDHSW]

Stories make me think about how lucky I was in school. When I was young, I had bad anger issues; I yelled at people, ran out of the classroom, even threw punches sometimes. I'm not excusing my behavior, but I was just a kid who needed help, and thankfully I got it. People who didn't know me in elementary school are shocked when I say I had anger issues. But imagine if an SRO came to handle the situation every time I lost my temper instead of a trusted counselor. Would I, an 8 year old, had been arrested instead of getting the help I needed?

[@tad7441]

Yeah many of these stories make me happy I was homeschooled.

[@buen0_]

I work at a pet store and I can honestly say that throwing large towels over birds is actually very effective at catching them

[@cchristinefan]

😂😂😂😂

[@oneearthmerged6855]

💜

[@Mondfischli]

...do them birds go ballistic?😆

[@matthewmcallister9354]

☺

[@kingjamos2422]

It's true. I think that's how HBO keeps catching John when he escapes the void.

[@wentkat]

My son is on the autism spectrum. When he was in middle school (he's now 22) his school had an evacuation for a bomb threat. While the kids were all outside, one of the other students asked my son why they had to leave the building and my son responded, "it's a bomb". The SRO went after my kid for saying, "it's a bomb". Thankfully, my son's teacher heard him and saw the SRO go at him and she intervened. Cops in schools is a bad idea. I'm sick and fucking tired of getting shredded and being accused of being anti-cop because I want cops to get additional training. Cops view EVERYONE as criminals (the same everything is a nail to a hammer). Cops need more and better training, especially cops that deal with kids. Many professions require additional, annual training for CEUs (doctors, nurses, electricians, etc.) so why not cops? Why are they exempt from additional training? Why are they exempt from criticism? They hurt kids. The cops that are in schools aren't there to help kids, they are there to patrol.

[@wolftitanreading5308]

Hey If morons didn't break the law we wouldn't need them blame those assholes not the cops

[@dustyrose192]

I honestly though cops did get that much training and was really shocked to find that wasnt the case

[@RodneyG669]

Those undertrained cops are all given qualified immunity in addition to being so poorly trained.

[@markmickman]

They're trained that they could be harmed by anyone at any point

[@laurencemoore2105]

Apologies, hit the wrong button by mistake, liked your comment, agree with what you say.

[@ministryoftruth8523]

When "Don't take away my guns" carries more weight than "Don't take away my children", we know we have a serious problem of conscience in the country.

[@orlock20]

This is about shock and not safety. 100 children die year riding their bicycles and 12 youth commit suicides every day. Meanwhile there have been 154 active school shooters that have killed 637 people and wounded 1,700 people since 1970. There are 130,000 K-12 schools in the U.S. on top of all the trade schools, colleges and universities.

[@JABRIEL251]

@@orlock20 Fair Point...or it would be if guns weren't the leading cause of death for children in this country. Mass shootings are just an attention grabbing way of showing what already happens. Yeah Mass Shootings are are less than other causes of death if you narrow your data like that, but they are just a fraction of the gun death total. Take your bike statistic; it'd be like only measuring the bike deaths in a triathlon, instead of the year.

[@orlock20]

@@JABRIEL251 The number one cause of death among children is vehicle accidents and automobiles have no protection in the U.S. Constitution.

[@JABRIEL251]

@@orlock20 I mean neither did guns until VERY recently, but no. It used to be automobiles, but auto deaths have since been supplanted by gun deaths. Admittedly, they are close to the point where a year can be either, but right now its guns.

[@laurenwalker1048]

@@orlock20 no matter what, no child should have to worry about being gunned down in their school. No person should be afraid of doing their groceries or attending a crowded day out. Watching from the outside, this is NOT normal and is absolutely a problem that *can* be fixed with legislation. I don’t think anyone in America should be trying to argue that this isn’t a problem, a few years ago the death count for children who died by guns surpassed the death count for children who died in car accidents. It is not normal and it’s not how people should have to live in a functioning democracy. It’s pretty clear that American democracy has failed though.

[@AnonUser6309]

The SRO in a New Hampshire school where I worked refused to wear a mask, and encouraged students not to wear masks when masks were mandated both by the governor and the school department. It took the school months to get him out of there

[@penginator89]

Based officer

[@RamseyRimkeit]

"Oh no my good bitch, that very much is your business." is my new favorite John Oliver line.

[@jaipiepeach]

I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU!! I *needed* there to be someone else who caught & celebrated this. 😆😂😂

[@Eric-sk2yh]

Yo Factsssss i had to know I wasn’t alone in thinking about that line😂😂

[@jasonfuentz8717]

I don't know I thought calling him a budget Bill Murray was even funnier.

[@andrewolsen2319]

Oh my good bitch, that is very much your business - made me laugh out loud! Budget Bill Murray also classic.

[@danibeautylove]

I haven't laughed as loud as I've laughed at that line in years

[@Elrond_Hubbard_1]

Can you imagine anything more pathetic than a grown man who, for a career, goes back to school to bully children?

[@andrewbaker730]

Yeah. A lot of them are called teachers

[@spongeintheshoe]

A society that allows that to be a viable career option.

[@neond6740]

Yes, I've met gym teachers before.

[@voltjmgaming2119]

That officer is being hit by a child and they cry.

[@Chrisko1492]

Yes. A country called USA that claims to be 1st world but has a society like a 3rd world shithole. THAT‘S more pathetic than a grown man bullying children.

[@pizzabandit1518]

Republicans: “It’s not a gun problem, it’s a mental health problem” Us: “Okay, can we at least have more money for mental health programs and intervention?” Republicans: “No, that’s socialism”

[@Unknownusername1004]

Anything that benefits everyone without lining their goddamn pockets they vote against. I can’t wait til this fossils die and are replaced

[@Stevenco9124]

Hehehehe...

[@Ravenholm337]

"Can we not let people who have mental health issues buy guns?" "NO! That's unconstitutional!" * (This actually happened)

[@grady7420]

Democrats are just as reluctant to fund these programs and republicans. Even with a democratic majority in the house and executive branch and several parts of the country, they put more money into police. This state is useless and antithetical to social equality and justice.

[@Poldovico]

Duh, disabled children should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps, get a job, make money and get therapy. That way they can go to elementary school and know how to not get bodyslammed by the police.

[@Yasha277]

One time I called my teacher an asshole to his face and walked away so he called the school police officer. I walked past the officer and he recognized me and was just like "this is the kid, really?" and you could tell this officer knew how stupid the situation was, so I just hung out with the officer and talked casually about our day for a bit. Luckily he was cool. By the way, that teacher later got fired because he was indeed an asshole and also racist. I regret many things from high school, but calling him an asshole is one of the things I am most proud of.

[@jordans7028]

When I was in 3rd grade my music teacher called our schools SRO to her room and he forcefully dragged me out of the room while threatening to arrest me the entire time. I was an 8 year old with severe OCD that I had little control over, so this piece hits very close to home for me.

[@ginkgotriloba4623]

It seems like the teachers themselves are a big part of the problem too.

[@arielschleicher6114]

As a person who actually went to school with Kiera (Bartow High / Summerlin), I have to say, the other level to this is the discourse amongst the student body. The administrators bashed Kiera to defend their decision and therefore the bullying that she and her twin sister had to then endure was wrong on so many levels.

[@SoloEcho]

And you all just stood by and watch. Pathetic.

[@Wetcamerainc]

Jesus

[@mermaidismyname]

Oh man, that's even worse. I'd actually heard of that story before this episode years ago, but not that aspect of it We have a system set up to traumatize kids, and we wonder why we have a generation of depressed people

[@mirandasmith35]

I graduated from high school ten years ago. We had one officer on campus during school hours, 4 security officers, and no nurse. When a student was injured they had to go to the gym teachers and hope they had something for it. We had counselors, but they were purely for schedule management, they had no training in regards to mental health and dealing with home issues. We had several students start hurting themselves after visiting the counselors. They offered grief counseling after a teacher died in an accident, but only for one day. We literally starve our children of health and mental health care in schools, as well as restrict their use of necessary facilities, medications, and medical equipment. But at least we had armed guards. >.>

[@DaFieFie]

The prison experience.

[@ijusthatedmyoldhandle]

i had so much contact with police in school just for being autistic in a way my teachers found annoying because like that teacher said most of the staff would default to calling the police instead of dealing with it in literally any other way. i'd get threatened with arrest for things like stimming or going into autistic shutdown, the former i had very little control over and the latter i had no control over at all. thankfully they never made good on these threats but it's like they thought they could intimidate or bully me into being "normal". i never had an officer not be awful to me about it either; none of them ever went "wow there's clearly something going on with this kid. i should try a gentler approach." it's a career that attracts bullies and they're going to bully children just as much as they bully adults and the more vulnerable that child is the worse they're going to be.

[@lilyblade3289]

I just wanted to say thank you, John Oliver. Thank you for being a voice that people like my father will listen to when you talk about issues like this. My dad’s dad was a police officer, and I think if I had tried to talk to him about how the police are a problem and why, he would have gotten mad at me, but when you talked about it here, he listened to you. Thank you so much for sharing these things when no one else will listen to those who are directly affected by them.

[@deadmanreading3152]

'Some things don't look good on camera." Yeah, I imagine it doesn't feel good to have a grown man slam you to the ground and be knocked unconscious, either. Yet the second a room of full of little kids is being shot-up they just stand there.

[@jamielondon6436]

Much easier to pick on unarmed children, I suppose. :-(

[@roryross3878]

No they don't stand there, they obstruct and abuse the parents who have the guts and motivation to try and actually do something to rescue children. Cops are practically trained to be cowards, someone with a gun is an actual threat, as mentioned unarmed kids are much easier to control.

[@ThreaT650]

Yeah the real victim was the police officer who had to deal with the emotional trauma of knocking a student unconscious on the floor. Absolutely amazing stuff.

[@Simonsays90]

Except they dont just stand there, they turn around and run away as fast as they can

[@amillar7]

Being knocked unconscious indicates a TBI, which can have lasting consequences for learning and employment. That’s not a presence we need.

[@pidgeonmayhall1910]

I’m autistic and my SRO threatened me with a taser when I had a meltdown(shaking and crying). He knew my parents and knew me outside of school, but It didn’t matter.

[@camelopardalis84]

Did you know that tasers are meant to substitute guns in cases where a gun would be more dangerous and a taser also works? It's meant as a "Hey, you don't need a gun anymore for this thing, you can use your taser" weapon. And nothing else. Meaning that every single time a cop used a taser they can either truthfully, correctly and reasonably say that they would have used their gun had they not had their taser - or they used their taser in a situation it was not meant to be used it. This does apply to how police are meant to use tasers.

[@prabhatsourya3883]

@@camelopardalis84 It is interesting you mentioned weapons, because I heard this argument a lot of times that "we are training the police like an army to fight, and not like policemen to protect and serve". But here's the thing, even soldiers in the army are heavily trained not just in force escalation, but also in force de-escalation. Army people don't go about pointing their guns at people unless they are fully willing to shoot, because they know that the primer can occasionally self - discharge, leading to someone getting shot. The army soldiers would know how to better de escalate the situation, and would not threaten people with pointing guns or tasers at them.

[@XMysticHerox]

@@camelopardalis84 And for good reason. We call tasers non leathel but they are not. They are pretty dangerous. Electric shocks that strong are no joke. They can easily do permanent damage or even kill. You shouldn't use a taser in a situation in which you aren't willing to use a gun. It's why a lot of european cities don't use them. There just isn't as much inhibition to draw a weapon when you think it's not lethal.

[@camelopardalis84]

@@XMysticHerox Fully agree, nothing to add, thanks for contributing and validating/confirming.

[@antonbrakhage490]

@@prabhatsourya3883 Yeah. Dear God I WISH we trained our cops like troops, compared to what we actually do.

[@eggs8021]

The absolute state of schools in the US is absolutely tragic

[@thedebatehitman]

I love John Oliver so much because he doesn’t just complain about problems; he proposes viable solutions for fixing them.

[@FireTriple8]

That's what makes him the best comedian/late night show host

[@Tuturial464]

@@FireTriple8 sorry that goes to Stephen Colbert in my opinion

[@FireTriple8]

@@Tuturial464 I think that he is too biased to the left

[@Tuturial464]

@@FireTriple8 well is the right really someone you can call sane? And you wanna support?

[@Tuturial464]

@@FireTriple8 the republicans are a joke that is what makes them easy targets for jokes.

[@lynnc1382]

My 6th grade daughter with special needs reported bullying and the SRO ordered a 5150 hold and an ambulance FOR MY DAUGHTER. I was present the whole time. My daughter was not having any kind of psychotic episode. The SRO forced her in the ambulance. The ambulance drivers and intake nurse at the hospital were appalled; they did not admit my daughter to the hospital and couldn’t figure out why the SRO would do such a thing. The ambulance bill cost me just over $4,500.00. The same SRO attempted to conduct an illegal interrogation of my daughter two weeks later. Fortunately I was present. The SRO had my daughter removed from class, held in a room, came in and read her Miranda rights. She wouldn’t tell us why. I ordered my daughter not to say a word. The SROs (two of them) told my daughter if she wanted to know why she was there she would have to waive her rights and agree to speak to them. I told her not to say a word, asked if she was being detained, and left. They never followed up. No idea what that was about. I reported the incident to their sergeant. That stuff happened within the last six months. In a suburban school in California. By the way the sergeant I spoke to told me he never heard of the SRO triad…even though it’s advertised on their website. They’re a nightmare.

[@lucyduarte9990]

Holy fuck

[@lynnc1382]

@@lucyduarte9990 Holy fuck indeed. We live in Temecula, CA by the way. Part of Riverside County Sherrif’s Office if anyone out there has any power over this and gives a shit. Lawyers welcome.

[@JH-jl5me]

Can't you change school? How does that work in the US?

[@closer02001]

@@lynnc1382 Holy crap! You're better than me because I'm not sure if I would've been able to hold it together. Good for you for being there for your daughter. I hope she stays safe, you are able to help her see a positive path for her future and of course, that you are able to extract some measure of justice out of those crazy SRO's hide. You probably won't be able to get anywhere with the police but maybe if you make a bunch of noise at the school board meetings?

[@lynnc1382]

@@JH-jl5me I changed her school after the 5150 incident. The SROs have access to the whole district; the illegal interrogation was conducted two weeks later at her new school. The police are county so it’s tough to escape them.

[@chebikitty5566]

I had a service dog in high school. One day the SRO came up to me at lunch and spooked me. My service dog responded as she was trained and the SRO threatened to have her put down for being feral. My service dog(which I still have) was a ten pound chihuahua who wasnt barking, growling, or even looking at the SRO. All she did was climb into my lap to do the job she was trained to do.

[@catness1809]

That's so horrible. So many people become cops just for the power trip. That SRO sounds like one of them.

[@Manlyman47]

So can I call for feral cops to be put down or is that unreasonable?

[@ashenrose2262]

I'm so sorry, that's fucked up

[@freezoneproject567]

Typical police bravery.

[@distantignition]

These are people who believe they're doing the world a service and don't even register that it's a pursuit of power. When they get into the day-to-day work and realize that they have value extremely rarely, they lose that impression of selflessness or compassion, and all that's left is to thrive on their unmitigated power. The worst part is they may not even register the logical fallacy. That cop may have gone home that night and convinced their self that they were protecting kids from danger. Otherwise, they would have to face the reality that they're actually a menace.

[@TheLiberaceTheory]

When I was a teen in 2006, I and a hundred other kids were on campus “after hours” for band camp. We were playing on the unused football field, running in sprinklers and throwing a deflated football. Our band teacher said we could be there. Within 20 minutes, 3 police cars raced up and skidded to a stop, lights ablaze. A lot of kids freaked out and ran, and it caused a stampede of panic. Several kids tore flesh trying to jump a fence; one kid dislocated an ankle. Even though our teacher had cleared it, this was our school, we were at an official event, and we were not doing any vandalism or dangerous activity- we could’ve been arrested for “evading the police”. If my school had been any less white, kids could’ve been shot for that. This was in 2006. This has been going on for a while.

[@lynnspring2378]

I’m a high school teacher, and we have a resource officer. I can’t imagine ever asking him to get involved in discipline. It blows my mind that there are campuses where the majority of teachers do that.

[@TheNeshkey]

I'm a teacher, I love my job, and every now and then, I become super grateful that I'm not working in the U.S. Just the thought of just sitting by and letting a possible brute who has zero training or experience handling groups of children in a school setting on a regular basis is just shocking to me. And all because one of them might come to school on any day and shoot down a bunch of us??? Whoa! Probably, the worst I've ever worried about when interacting with my students is that one of them might try to verbally insult me during a heated discussion, but getting shot, never even crossed my mind that could be a concern for a teacher!

[@dRumpfsadouchebag]

@@TheNeshkey only here in the great USA.. the GOP love to see children murdered.. it's so sad.

[@mjkittredge]

you'd hope it would be a last resort where some actual crime had taken place

[@lynnspring2378]

@@mjkittredge Even then, my first thought would be to call an administrator. They’d make the decision whether or not involve the SRO.

[@hugoschkiglitz]

@@mjkittredge actual crime like when there’s a school shooter? They don’t show up for that

[@zufalllx]

Yes, more cops in schools. That way when it happens again, instead of having 20 of them hiding from the gunman, there can be 40.

[@dr.braxygilkeycruises1460]

Preach the truth, Zufall!!!!! 💯🙌👍😥

[@Lapantouflemagic0]

stupidest thing is that if you want to shoot your school, i suppose you'd start by gunning down the police officer.

[@DrFunk-rk6yl]

Well somebody has to make the runs for coffee and donuts.

[@Time_Is_Left]

That’s completely unfair. They weren’t hiding from the gunman. They were just getting the parents under control first. You know, they were working their way up to it. /s

[@eightytwo946]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@jawstrock2215]

Wait.. you guys get a CRIMINAL RECORD, for just being arrested even if case dismissed? Just for being arrested? That's fucked up. That means presumed guilty from the start.

[@iglidor]

What you get is arrest record. Not criminal record. But arrest records are just as searchable as criminal records. Iirc you can look up both at the same time when looking for criminal history of someone

[@cityraildude]

Not even. Say that you happened to fit the description of someone who is a suspect of a crime, get arrested, and then released as it turns out you're not the suspect, then you've technically been arrested. At least I hope it doesn't work like that

[@jawstrock2215]

@@user-cr4pz5yg7y that's f-ed up. For one that's not the DA's call, but the judge's.

[@cityraildude]

@@user-cr4pz5yg7y That's absolutely terrible. Why do you people put up with that? I've never heard of that happening here in Australia

[@allanwidner9276]

@@cityraildude This is the norm in the Land of the Free.

[@georgewilliamson5667]

The highschool I went to had two SRO's, who's names I frankly dont remember because I never interacted with them, but it also had a couple of security guards, on of whom was named Goardy. And I'll say this, everybody loved Goardy. The other security guards were fine and we all liked them fine enough as well, but Goardy was truly something special. And not a single kid I remember has good memories of the SRO's. Everyones memories of the SRO's was them walking around with guns on their hips, poking their noses into innocent conversations, and just gernally being intimidating and frightening. Goardy on the other hand was actually trained for his job, and did all the things SRO's are supposed to do, but with none of the intimidation factor that is funadmentally inherent to what the police are as an institution. If you were having a bad day, you could talk to Goardy. If another kid was bullying you, you could talk to Goardy. Hell, me and a couple of my friends once got caught smoking weed out back of the school by Goardy, but he didnt know who had what on them, and when we all individually were brought to the principle and didnt snitch on our friends (even though it was already so apparent what had happened) Goardy looked me in the eye and said, and I swear I am not lying about this, "Listen man, we all know what happened. But I respect you for standing up for your friends to the bitter end." I still think about that regularly, the school security guard looked me in the eye and said 'hey you did something wrong and its my job to punish you for that, but I respect you for not backing down and standing up for your friends.' Goardy was a truly good man who truly did his job with nothing but respect and honor, and clearly took great pride in being a part of the educational process, teaching us kids what is and is not acceptable, but also in his own weird way teaching us that a little mischief from time to time is OK, so long as you arent causing any real harm. Anyhow, my highschool was never great, there was a lot of drugs in my town and a lot of kids in that school came from rough families and rough areas, but they have since shut down the whole program they had for the security guards they had there where they trained them really well to be resources for the kids as much as the people you called in if a big brawl happened in the halls. Which did happen a couple of times while I was there. But they shut down whatever program it was that they had for Goardy and his two colleagues to be there in favor of bringing in two more SRO's, about a year after I graduated. And from what I understand of the culture of that school now, while it was never great, its a lot worse now. Now they have drug sniffing dogs in the school, and kids are more scared of being in school, because they are afraid that by getting into trouble its not going to be Goardy coming along to take them to the principles office and maybe tell them what they did was dumb, instead its going to be and SRO who comes along and puts them in the back of a squad car.

[@RubenDM94]

As a european watching, this is absolutly nuts. I can’t even wrap my head around how it is possible to arrest freaking kids. IF you decide there will be a cop at a school for protection against school shootings, that is the only thing that officer should be allowed to do. They should be prohibited to interfere with anything happing in a school. Leave those damn kids alone and let them be kids.

[@FlappyBelly]

Our kids are way different than Euro kids. Look up Tessa Majors and Colleen Ritzer. This is why we need cops in our schools.

[@Digital-2_4_6]

@@FlappyBelly Colleen Ritzer was murdered after school though, wasn’t she?

[@nilsmeyer7278]

@@FlappyBelly fix ur fcked up system and ur kids dont turn that way

[@lunakoala5053]

1) you can't penalize kids under 14 2) the arrest itself isn't on your record, because why the hell should it be? 3) even jail time you got as a minor is automatically striken from most records when you turn 21. Stuff like this couldn't happen for so many reasons... I'm still not convinced the US is a real place. It's just too good of a satire.

[@chriszvernec]

@@FlappyBelly Tessa Majors was not murdered in school. You come up with 2 incidents ( 1 to be precise ), and that is valid to have cops in schools? USA needs to sort out it's gun issue, massive shootings happening on that scale and periodically ONLY in that country. Most of the mass shootings have been with guns LEGALLY purchased. Doesn't get any clearer than that. It is truly difficult of course because the whole country is heavily addicted to guns, on a scary level but it is the way forward for a safer country. You have a good day man.

[@rheah4622]

Scariest moment in high school was when the teacher invited the school cop to a debate class. It took all my courage to go through with it, and I “won” the debate. The anger and open hostility was scary. At the time it was a huge confidence boost because I overcame the fear and would not let him bully me into losing. But now I feel stupid and lucky that nothing happened to me.

[@FatButDisease]

As if the school coo was going to shoot you? 😂 gtfo

[@mayb8876]

What was the topic?

[@skygard49]

Wait, they were being hostile, and the teacher didn't do anything? The cop was breaking one of the major rules of debate alongside scaring a student!

[@conquistadorrocket]

it wasn't stupid and there isn't any luck involved. if he got mad and did something, that was his entire responsibility. besides, he was the adult. he needed to act like one.

[@millertime7275]

I'll take things that didn't happen for $800 Alex

[@pstathopulos]

Went to a nice high school with an SRO. School developed an anonymous tip line to crack down on 'crime'. Countless students were pulled out of class and had their rights violated because of the tips. People ended up abusing the anonymous tip line and reporting false evidence. Kids were getting pulled out of class left and right. The entire process imparted a deep mistrust of law enforcement with all who were affected.

[@JJangoFett]

Hell yeah this is why I hate Red Flag Laws!

[@wanderlustwarrior]

Happened to me, too.

[@morwaze]

What In the J. Edgar Hoover is going on!?

[@melissasaint3283]

That was stupidly done! Meanwhile, though, I went to a terribly overcrowded Jr high school that was so broke that we could not afford a SRO. (Trigger warning) There were multiple violent fights every day. There was a stabbing while I was there. There was gang activity, and there were kids falling through the cracks and staying back repeatedly until they were much bigger than everyone else, and there were kids so angry at life that they would form little mobs that would randomly pick out and then beat strangers horribly before and after school. They would try to get you into the ground as quickly as possible so they could all kick you. It was very dangerous. One of my friends was once beaten so badly by a crowd of kids who didn't even know him that when I saw him days later, his head literally looked like a purple and red potato, with a pair of swollen split lips on it. I didn't even know who he was until his eyes turned to look at me through little swollen slits and he said my name. An ambulance had to take him and his best friend away, with broken ribs, noses, orbital bones and concussions. They had tried hard to fend them off, but there were just so many of them. There were other problems, too. I remember once having to run the mile for gym class.. we were directed to do it around the exterior of our huge, aging building in a very urban setting. The one gym teacher stood in one spot and we only saw him briefly during the process. I tried to do my best time while being sexually harassed by kids who were bunking. It sucked and was more than a little scary. A few years after I matriculated out, there was a rape in a little used stairwell during class time, And after that, things changed, and funding was found for SROs. Other important major changes were made, but I'm sure it is hard to avoid the idea that you need a police presence after a child with a bathroom pass is lured into an isolated stairwell and violently sexually assaulted. Does a school like that demonstrate that a whole community is actually in crisis and needs help? Absolutely. ABSOLUTELY. It was a dying city and most of the well paying blue collar jobs were rapidly going away. There was a lack of good mental health services there at the time, too. But does that mean that, while it's happening, you don't try to protect the kids who are trying to learn from being threatened, harassed, chased, beaten or groped?

[@HT-pl8du]

My hs has SROs and some students report having terrible experiences with them, but when the people in charge were debating whether or not to get rid of SROs they kept them citing numbers that those negative interactions were very rare and the majority of the time, SROs greatly helped people. Idk where they got those numbers bc as a student and hearing word of mouth, no one liked them and it was a majority white school. Seriously one black kid was so tired of being harassed he literally made a KZbin video to talk about it and

[@torialbs7290]

When I was in highschool my school was one of the highest crime rates in the area and not one fight was broken up by the SRO. He for some reason was always conveniently somewhere else. But if you had a vape he would sniff that shit out and arrest you

[@ChaseVaccaro-ge3gk]

Of course the school police act just like normal police, focusing on taking the drugs instead of anything useful.

[@raef90]

A friend told me, in Northern Utah, that their SRO slept with all of her and her friends when they were maybe 16, using intimidation or some other form of coercion. Apparently that one in particular was engaged to one of them 8 years later, and they were all led to believe that it is fine because he is a cop and has a career, so better than how women can't support themselves and have to have a provider. It was, itself, bananas. I know growing up the cops in schools were always awful and massively made things worse or deeply intimidating or unsettling in an environment that should not have them. A town where the "good kids" break into the school and truck the vending machines to the middle of the football field and break several snacks out with just a chuckled response about mischief, vs myself where during the same hours I couldn't walk 3 blocks to McDonalds to collect a paychect without being harassed and frisked down for drugs. Walking. On a sidewalk. Without any indication for probable cause. I gave him a lot of hell because it was unacceptable harassment. That officer was removed from the force for failing drug tests and apparently stealing from arrests and evidence lockers. Him at half the department. Go police. Yaaaaay. Feel so safe when I see them. Except not.

[@peterpain6625]

Having heard other "utah stories" that's almost believeable.

[@anonnyanonymous4800]

Did you leave school during school hours? Did you have off-campus lunch? Schools are like that if they don’t allow you to leave during school hours - they’ll abuse their power and punish you harshly. It’s a stupid policy.

[@e4t662]

So you've seen "We own this city" too.

[@johannageisel5390]

Damn, that cop is a rapist. If somebody had done that to me at 16, he would have destroyed me. :(

[@zuglymonster]

The SRO in my old school got a girl pregnant and was dating her. It was only one girl though, at least that we knew about. Funny thing is in our district anyone who got pregnant had to go to the alternative school at least until they gave birth but SHE was allowed to stay in the regular high school the whole time because she threatened to expose who got her pregnant if they didn't allow it, but then people were suspicious because she didn't have to leave

[@IsaacClodfelter]

I have never seen a SRO ever de-escalate a situation. Literally never. I have seen them turn shouting matches into physical altercations and I have seen them turn physical altercations into meaningless arrests solely because their ego was bruised. They do nothing but worsen the school experience which is already awful.

[@spongeintheshoe]

That's because it's not the police's job to de-escalate situations. It's not what they're trained to do, it's not what they're incentivized to do, and it's no different for these guys just because they're in a school building.

[@charlx8979]

Where do you think the school bullies get jobs after school? The police department

[@applejuice5272]

@@spongeintheshoe Compare to the restraint and professionalism of UK police - Durham (North East England) Specialist Firearms Officers > kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJy2e5ypnaanrMk

[@ari_the_tricksterlokai9404]

I graduated from high school a year ago and while I was in attendance there was a shooting. We were a school that had an active police station inside our school. Not a single cop helped us in that situation. It was one of our school therapists that managed to talk the kid down. None of us ever forgave our sros. In our eyes they abandoned us and our teachers. On a slightly lighter note, my mother, who was a teacher there at the time, did brain our vp with a stapler that day. She hide behind the door so she could protect her kids if the shooter tried to get in, and he unlocked her door and opened it to tell her that it was ok to calm down now. He announced his presence when he went to the next class room.

[@sebastianrubin7476]

Huh. Wouldn't you know it; it actually IS possible to beat sense into people. I guess we were just using the wrong implements all along. Staplers; who knew?

[@apexnext]

The teachers brained him harder after he announced his presence. 😂

[@greghowell9986]

The solution to a bad guy with (or without) a gun is a good teacher with a stapler.

[@melaturn]

Yet again, brilliant and thought provoking. Thank you.

[@kiteracer]

I gotta give props to the unsung heroes of LWT, the graphic designers. That insect repellent perfume was just *chef’s kiss* perfecto. That, and all the over-the-shoulder graphics they make are consistently on point. They always nail it!

[@AnaDiaz-wz4cf]

That's what an HBO budget will get you!! 🤣

[@james-faulkner]

That and they really showed their empathy and refrained from childish jokes while talking about the mass murder of children. I was wondering if they were at least show some good taste and not stoop to the childish level of the audience and make a bunch of stupid jokes, I was wrong. Unsung heros? Read the credits, they literally given credit.

[@atmaqmf7383]

​@@james-faulkner Thanks for checking the credits, however, I did not see any. Where do you find these credits which sing, out loud, the praises of the graphic designers? I also agree that Oliver showed almost no empathy to the Republican lawmakers and public figures who make such ridiculous suggestions - you could almost call them childish jokes - about how to address gun violence, you know, with wall hangings and such.

[@jessielauzon4117]

"ON by OFF" ... perfect!

[@victorlannister5606]

When I was in high school in Alabama. A football player was suspected of having “something” in his truck. So the on campus police got a drug dog to say there was something! And the busted the kids windows truck, tore up the the floor, ripped out the console and basically destroyed this dude truck. To find nothing. He had nothing, there was no reason for them to do it!! And they still ended up arresting him! And he did nothing wrong!

[@lilpenguin092]

must've had a pigment problem

[@pensacola321]

Alaphuckkenbama

[@aluisious]

@@lilpenguin092 should have left his melanin in the truck

[@JTwelks32]

Sounds like they found something. The story you told is fictional

[@davidbjacobs3598]

Do school police not need a warrant, like they would in any other situation?? How is this legal?

[@krissydiggs]

Dude. I’m a teacher in Japan now and sometimes my students ask me about my school life growing up. At first I didn’t think much of it, but as I described the metal detectors and cameras and police officers I started to feel embarrassed. That shit is weird and wrong and I grew up with it my whole adolescent life. I had to take my belt off every morning. Be wanded down. And still all sorts of violent actions happened at school… it’s so humiliating. It’s embarrassing to think back on. America should be ashamed of itself.

[@matteoar]

When you see it from an outsider view it really is absurd, yeah.

[@JimMonsanto]

I'm also an English teacher in Japan. Fortunately, I grew up in the 80s and 90s when we didn't have to deal with any of this crap. I briefly worked as a substitute teacher in my state and then as a full-time teacher and the difference between my school days and what I witnessed every day was night and day. Other teachers were so quick to call the SRO for the pettiest crap. I came to Japan and never looked back, the _worst_ kids here are 1,000 times better and this crap with metal detectors and SROs is just not a thing.

[@hilaryyokoya4433]

I'm also a teacher in Japan now, but I'm from Canada. Although we did have a member of the RCMP on staff, she was specially trained for the position and worked alongside the social worker and Native Liaison Officer. We also had three psychologists on staff. No metal detectors, no school shootings. Kids got into fights on the occasion, but no one as ever assaulted by the RCMP officer, who was never armed while at school.

[@str8delco589]

Biden’s America

[@germancomment2244]

@@str8delco589 Stupid comment. It is quite clear who is responsible for these conditions. It's the NRA-owned GOP, and this is not even up for debate. Sure, you can propose more plcops at schools, more metal detectors, more stuff that makes every other nation's students shake their heads in disbelief... But then say so. Just own the fact that owing the libs and keeping your automatic weapon is worth a few hundred children's lives per year.

[@belagrolaub8746]

I live in Germany and school shootings happen very, VERY rarely. The one that did happen during my schooltime (not at my school) was something very tragic and outstanding. It is not a daily threat. That a country can have hundreds of shootings each year, numbers increasing, and not do the one sane thing to stop it, is wild to me

[@kylelibby2241]

Yup it's wild to us too :(

[@junkmail1203]

Wow, John Bravo!!! The closing arguments was strong. There needs to be a place where kids can be kids without them getting arrest records

[@abstract_extremist]

Mental health and education are the issues here. Shootings only happen because we fail to meet the needs of mentally ill kids. I blame the parents. That and we allow the legal age to purchase a rifle be that of a child which is crazy considering adolescence is thought to go well into your early 20s.

[@Arltratlo]

funny, here we have it, so why dont you have it is the question...they write children rights into our constitution, all you get is MTG and Teddy " the eel " Cruz!

[@charlottemartyr]

Things I personally had the school resource officer called on me for during high school: •talking about adderall, which I had a prescription for and took bc I had ADHD (threatened to arrest me for “drug dealing”) •bringing my prescribed meds to school bc I had to take them every 4 hours and our school had the resources for a cop but not a nurse qualified to hold onto my pills (threatened to expel then arrest me for “drug dealing” again) •doing a science experiment above the clearance of our science lab where I grew some bacteria in a Petri dish (literally told me I’d be arrested for “DOMESTIC TERRORISM” if I didn’t immediately burn my project bc someone could get a stomachache from my bacteria if they touched it then licked their fingers) •having a panic attack bc the school had resources for a cop but not a psychiatrist/councilor (called me “wild and unmanageable” for crying too loud and threatened to arrest me for disturbing the peace) •pushing away someone who literally shoved me into a corner and groped me (I got in trouble for “violence” but he never got in trouble for sexual assault) •skipping class to avoid a classmate who openly threatened to rape and murder me (I was a “delinquent” bc I occasionally skipped class and sat in the library doing my homework so my word was no good when I said I was avoiding a serious threat, but the guy threatening me had a dad who played golf with the cops and principal so he MUST be a good egg 😒) Things the school officer got called to for other students while I was there: •a boy who took off his shirt to use as a tourniquet for someone who was seriously injured (indecent exposure) •a couple who got caught fooling around during an assembly (got put on the SO register at 15 for getting a little handsy while making out in a dark room) •a black student talking back to the principal after the principal made a racist remark towards him (kicked out of school for a week and escorted off the campus in HANDCUFFS) •a couple of girls who got drunk on vodka and laughed so hard they peed their pants during class (expelled and arrested for public intoxication) •an autistic child who had a tantrum bc he was overstimmed (was literally put in a CHOKEHOLD by an officer 10X his size to “calm him down” and was eventually arrested bc HE assaulted THE OFFICER apparently 😒) Things the school officer didn’t get involved in: •the superintendent that was involved in literal human trafficking of students in her care •the school lunch lady who stole over $100,000 of lunch money before being caught by a parent •the school rigging it’s standardized test to get better funding, also uncovered by a parent •the school disobeying a court order to end discriminatory practices against its lgbt and non-white students •a group of hyperviolent bullies who brought weapons to school and once even kidnapped a fellow student who was too traumatized to ever talk about what they did to her (same “good egg” who threatened to rape and kill me was one of them) •a special Ed teacher who was physically beating her students, also caught by a parent •a VP who was giving girls “bra and skirt checks” and kept porno mags in his office (wound up getting reported by a student after he made her take her pants off during an office visit)

[@lucyduarte9990]

Holy fuck

[@oliviabigley3378]

Holy shit that school and others like it needs to be taken down

[@far2ez539]

I think we've entered "too many assholes" territory -- if you're running into SO MANY problems with EVERYBODY (SRO, other kids, special ed teacher, VP, superintendent, lunch ladies, and so on) it's far more likely you're just a compulsive liar and making shit up.

[@ShePudding]

Where was this?

[@flaneurtales710]

This was difficult to read. I hope you are in a good place now and may those scumbags get what they deserve.

[@lauraduplooy]

Here's an idea: ALL public officials should be obligated to enroll their children in public schools. Yep! Senators, representatives, governors, commissioners, you name it; local, state, and federal. If it's good enough for their constituents, it should be good enough for them. I wonder how many of their children injured or killed it would take to see new legislation. Proverbial food for thought.

[@MindALot]

Wouldn't help as much as you suggest. US is one of the few countries where we spend more money on schools in rich neighborhoods. The 'public' schools in their areas would most likely be well funded and wouldn't be as bad as public schools in other ares.

[@candielandssweetadventures]

You are so right. I've thought that for years. It's like a documentary I once saw about how most high up politician's children are not in the military. It's ok to send someone else's child to war and possibly die but not theirs and if they do go they definitely won't be on the Frontline more like behind a desk.

[@Demmrir]

@@MindALot You say that, and it's totally true, but that's for mere millionaire peasantry. These people are IMPORTANT. THEIR children won't go to filthy public schools no matter how well off the district is. So no, it'd still work.

[@fliptophiphop1894]

Nice

[@bigdaddynuts]

Impossible. It violates the constitution. I understand you want them to be forced to experience the same circumstances they’re putting in place, but you can’t discriminate against them or their chosen based on their professions, nor can you impede their “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. This would be their defense in court and they would win.

[@skintech8620]

This is a year old, but to John Oliver and his staff, I love you! This story is the BEST! get'em guys!

[@alicyjinx8923]

When I was in high school I was dealing with stuff like bullying and mental health issues and home drama and I wrote an angry letter to my school counselor about how I was pissed about how stuff was going and about how I didn't want to go to school anymore Im no way in that letter did I make a threat against anyone at the school or any of my classmates, I didnt even own a gun nor do I like guns. The one time I had the chance to fire a gun at a shooting range with my uncle I chickened out becuase I genuinely don't like guns nor do I like being around them A day or two passed and my school resource officer pulled me into the principles office along with my dad and he made all these threats like "I could put you away for a long time" and they were actively treating me like I was some potential shooter and this guy was making so many threats and I started to cry and this dude legitimately starts laughing at me. I guess he liked seeing gay nerd kids cry. For like the next month this officer was ghosting me fallowing me around like I was some sort of active threat that needed to be monitored and I ended up pulling out of high school over it. These are not "good guys with guns" People need to stop acting like every police officer is some sainted holy white knight. they aren't.

[@mickeymuckelrath4416]

More often than not, cops are bullies with guns and control issues.

[@blurredlights5235]

That's heinous. These people never want to test their mettle against anyone who can fight back. Kinda like the people they're supposedly put there to stop.

[@bearwarner4994]

Wtf would the counselor rat you out to the SRO? What sense does it make to have counselors for kids if they're not going to follow procedures that adults get where they're only reported for threats of harm to self or others?

[@mattlogue1300]

I'm sorry I ran out of things to say

[@ricochet4674]

God it sounds like he just got a kick out of literally harassing you. There is no reasonable way to interpret that as anything close to a threat of violence. Fuck cops.

[@luckyassassin1]

The SRO in my school had his own little class we attended a few times a year where he basically told us that if we get arrested we should forgo our right to a lawyer and just talk to police because they can't talk to us if we had one, and a bunch of other crap that was basically just teaching us to let police incriminate us and make it easy for them to do so.

[@mermaidismyname]

That is horrifying

[@luckyassassin1]

@@mermaidismyname no one believed him. He had already arrested and illegally searched several kids that year. When we covered our Miranda rights in civics people were pissed

[@luckyassassin1]

@@mermaidismyname oh and I should mention nothing happened to him, he outright dismissed abuse claims against students parents calling us all brats and harrassed the minority students and faculty didn't care, except the history teacher who was very much liberal and threw out the course material for the civil war and told us it was driven primarily by slavery when the course material said "many reasons that are still being debated upon"

[@LarsaXL]

Holy fuck that's dystopian.

[@luckyassassin1]

@@LarsaXL it's American

[@Takillama]

My son is autistic and has ADHD. One day at his new school he was told by the after school program organizer to go home cuz he wouldn't stop running around the gym. They kicked him out. Just kicked him out of the school and no one called me. He had a panic attack and accidentally scraped the paint on a teacher's car. He was arrested. The cops called me, told me what he'd done and that he was at the police station. He is an extremely curious and friendly kid, so he was having fun talking to the police about different things, they were so great at the police station. He didn't understand what he did wrong, or why the cops took him from school, and thankfully the school police officer had an autistic daughter and helped him. They didn't book him, and the teacher refused to press charges. However, because it was on school property, the school district charged him with destruction of property and something else regarding violence. We ended up in court for THREE YEARS trying to fight the charge and get him the help he needed to put him in a school he would actually thrive in. Thankfully he was given a scholarship and attended a private school for children with issues like his. He graduated and now works in healthcare.

[@anandsharma7430]

Good Lord, what a bunch of power tripping self righteous Nazis in the school district from your story.

[@jomama3849]

That’s why public schools need to be defunded, no help for students

[@utubefreshie]

OMG. What an effin nightmare! So sorry you had to go through that. I don't have children. I chose not to have any. I have never been more grateful for making that choice because I don't think I could ever raise children in a kind of country America is turning into. I would just be pathologically anxious for their safety and well-being both physical and mental every day. I applaud all parents who can do it. I don't think I could ever put my child, if I had one, in an American public school. I would have to homeschool or send them to private school or send them to my home country which although poor, mass shootings don't happen every day! Only in America! And it is horrible that we have a small minority of citizens who would prioritize guns over our children! I hope things get better for this country's children one day.

[@AlwaysANemesis]

@@jomama3849 What a completely ass-backwards answer. You funnel _more_ money out of the public system, and you're going to have the same problems alongside the addition of a critical lack of resources, with even worse-paid teachers and _far less_ of them; we already have a shortage of qualified educators, it's not gonna get better when Coach Bubba from P.E. has to triple-down as both the students' English and Math teacher.

[@theonegoldengryphon]

@@jomama3849 Like private schools would be any better?

[@MrAchsas]

I feel so bad for that 5 year old with adhd that got arested.. Having adhd myself i cant imagine how traumatising that mustve been for the kid Absolutely insane that stuff like this even happens how the fk can you arrest a 5 year old for anything???

[@weirdkd54]

I would have given anything to go to a school that had a therapist/counselor/psychologist on staff. Instead we got a cop that would stand by the entrance a couple times a week. And this was in the early 2000s. Nothing's changed.

[@TheGayestAspen]

My school had these. But they didnt do anything. Neither did the cop. I guess im lucky that we just got cops and counselors that never do anything

[@nicolebogda1482]

Our officers were great. Counselor’s? Dangerous!!!! They wanted me to apologize to a dumb girl that broke into my locker & stole items out of bitter jealousy

[@EndeavorsDnB]

Same

[@kristaberta7922]

I just graduated last May. We had a school nurse that worked at all three schools in the district, a counselor who's only job was to tell us which colleges we could go to, and three difference officers who were there ever day of the week.

[@panzerwolf494]

We had one back in the early 90's in high school. Dude did nothing but make people nervous and kept taking the "trouble maker" kids away when they did shit. They never changed, just back the next week to do something again.

[@christopherhughes2211]

My autistic son was charged with a felony when he said his mother was going to kill him over a poor grade so he ought to just get it over with and kill himself now. He was charged with terroristic threats of killing himself. He was actually convicted too. This was in Kansas 10 years ago. He was never Able to attend college because of the felony and it has severely affected his life in so many ways. This isn’t even a rare thing. Cops gave absolutely no business being in schools.

[@rebeccanascimento8234]

What the actual f*+&£ , this is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard 😭sue their ass

[@angelamaryquitecontrary4609]

I, too, have a son with autism. Fortunately, we live in the UK. (And it's not often I count myself lucky on that account.) He has had amazing education throughout, and is at a wonderful programme now as an adult, and lives at home with us. I am so, so sorry that your son and you had to go through that. Sending you virtual hugs.

[@audreyh6628]

That is so beyond disgusting...I can barely believe it. I hope he manages to have a good life regardless of this horrific mistreatment

[@robinb9036]

My heart goes out to you.

[@DirtyLifeLove]

He may have inadvertently added "everyone" and then himself(at least that would be in the police report, cops lie, but I can't imagine they would arrest a suicidal kid, unless you had a deranged cop). I still agree they shouldn't make that in itself a crime. He should have gotten help

[@car22404]

At my high school, a friend of mine fell asleep in class. As a senior in high school, most students at one point or another had fallen asleep in that class (including me). Our SRO, who decided to walk in and observe the class, went over to my friend, put his taser on the back of his head, and charged it. My friend woke up suddenly (obviously) and really scared. Half of us felt unnerved by the situation, the other half found it as the SRO “playing around”. I guarantee, if my friend would have retaliated against the SRO out of pure fight or flight, he would be charged with battery or even assault, and the SRO would still be an SRO.

[@1mpulv]

Wtf!!!

[@f.w.3823]

@@1mpulv Wtf indeed.

[@maggiee639]

Yea that’s not funny

[@simonwyzik8661]

Jesus! Isn’t the illegal? Like… if I(as a civilian) tased someone on the street, wouldn’t I go to jail for battery or something?

[@rythmverma9780]

Ok that has to be illegal

[@karimeotto1976]

YOU ARE THE BEST JOHN OLIVER!!! Thank you for saying the WORDS that need to BE SAID. (just hope they reach the apt target)