Partner Webinar: Intercepting Narcotics in Schools Post Pandemic – School Resource Officer Education and Training

Module 1	Module 1
Recorded on: 2021-03-03
Unit 1	Slide Deck: Intercepting Narcotics in Schools Post Pandemic
Unit 2	Transcript: Intercepting Narcotics in Schools Post Pandemic
Unit 3	Workbook: Intercepting Narcotics in Schools Post Pandemic
Unit 4	Recording: Intercepting Narcotics in Schools Post Pandemic

The pandemic has created different challenges for everyone. The kids and youths are forced to stay at home without their peers and school support system. In the critical adolescent development stage, this can create destructive and problematic coping mechanisms such as substance abuse. Given the shift that occurred in students’ lives over the past year, it’s an all-hands-on-deck effort from the school administrators as well as law enforcement in the form of school resource officers (SROs) to ensure that the school re-opening does not unlock mental health and substance abuse issues.

This session’s speakers are:

Michael Lee, Vice President of Swabtek
Mo Canady, Executive Director for National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO)
Ronald E. Brooks, Founding member of Brooks Bawden Moore, a government relations and business strategy consulting firm based in Washington, DC
Chris Loane, Chief Technical Officer of Swabtek

Topics discussed in this webinar are:

A glimpse into the NASRO and their work in professionalizing SROS through training and certifications.
Understanding the goals, qualifications, and responsibilities of an SRO.
The collaboration required between the school and law enforcement to ensure an SRO program becomes successful, the need for a formalized MOU, and the factors to take into account in the partnership.
How SROs can prevent the school to prison pipeline through a community- and relationship-oriented approach to policing.
The concept of the SRO triad – the threefold role of an SRO as a law enforcement officer, teacher, and counselor/mentor all at the same time.
The prevalence of drugs in schools, the different substances available to students, and the anticipated increase in substance use and abuse as a way to cope with the new normal.
Swabtek’s technology that fills the need for an effective testing procedure that can be administered swiftly and easily on the campuses.
A live demonstration on how to use Swabtek’s convenient test kits.
- The different substances their test kits can detect.
- How to identify positive indicators of the test.
- The instant turnaround time for results.
- Tips of how to properly collect samples of the various substances in different forms these are made available.

Questions from the audience were about:

The school to prison pipeline.
Where to collect substance samples.
Dismantling vaping devices to get samples.
Schools administering the tests.
Involvement of parents in presumptive tests in schools.
The shelf life of the tests.
Cost of the test kits, tax-exempt purchase, and qualifying for the discount offer.

Other Webinars in this Series:

Fentanyl and First Responder Safety: Myths vs Reality
Intercepting Narcotics in Schools Post Pandemic – School Resource Officer Education and Training (this webinar)
Understanding Hemp vs Marijuana – and how to test for the difference

A Partner Webinar is a sponsored webinar with an organization that provides products or services to the criminal justice industry.

Resources and Handouts

Audience Comments

“I loved the explanation and breakdown when telling us about SRO’s. I also liked the live testing demonstration.” — Paige
“Helpful to see the actual testing being performed.” — Randi
“In light of recent controversy indicating that the presence of SRO’s in schools leads to an increase in juvenile crime numbers, I was encouraged to hear statistics supporting the opposite!” — Suzanne
“The SRO Program is an important part of Criminal Justice … The drug test product is excellent.” — Robert
“The importance of school resource officers and that is community-based and the officers should be seasoned or veterans also dealing with the adolescent mind. Also, you should have a love for children. I learned that school resource officers cut down on school arrests in that area is research to validate that statement. I learned that drug testing and the handling of certain narcotics such as fentanyl can be handled safely. This was a wonderful presentation also I learned there are quality testing products.” — Marc
“Mo’s presentation and the information on how to break open and obtain “juice” from vape pens/pods. Thanks!” — Margery