LEBANON — City residents this week debated whether to do away with Lebanon’s school resource officer position as the School Board prepares to take a decisive vote on the matter next month.

About 20 people spoke about the job in-person and virtually during Wednesday night’s regular School Board meeting, attempting to sway the nine elected officials to their side.

Most argued that the post does more harm than good, particularly to students of color who might not feel comfortable with an armed officer patrolling their schools.

Daniel Chaffee, who said he has children of color, told the board that his kids have discussed being afraid of police.

“My child does everything possible to stay away from the SRO,” he said via Zoom. “… This actually is an issue that affects specific children. It happens, it’s a problem.”

Meanwhile, some urged the board to maintain the post and talked of the positive interactions they’ve had with school resource officers.

Joshua Flanders, a 2007 Lebanon High School graduate, said it was a former school resource officer who played a “monumental role” guiding him through challenging times.

The officer “was there for me when others were not,” including educators who openly pondered whether Flanders would wind up serving prison time as an adult, he told the School Board.

“If you asked me one thing that I learned from eighth grade, it wasn’t my math studies, it wasn’t dissecting a frog, it was how to treat people with respect regardless of the walks of life they come from,” Flanders said.

Wednesday’s meeting follows a nonbinding citywide vote in March where residents narrowly voted, 1,011-1,006, to “discontinue” paying for a school resource officer.

The position, held by Lebanon Police Officer Gregory Parthum, costs around $120,000, with the expense shared equally between the school district and the city.

Ahead of this week’s meeting, the board received about 40 letters from people and groups arguing the benefits and drawbacks of the job, which dates back to the aftermath of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Racial justice advocates, including some of the city’s students of color, say schools are no place for police and point to national reports showing that Black students face higher arrest rates and have more negative interactions with school resource officers.

Meanwhile, their opponents argue that things are different in Lebanon, especially given Parthum’s good reputation in the community and the fact that he isn’t tasked with enforcing school rule infractions.

During the meeting, Lebanon resident Renee DePalo said the notion that school resource officers negatively affect students of color is “malarkey.”

Lebanon children are sent to court-ordered diversion programs, but it’s school employees and administrators who often call for action, not Parthum, said DePalo, who runs Grafton County’s juvenile restorative justice programs.

“It’s important, especially right now when everyone sees police officers in such a negative light, to continue such positive interactions that we’ve had in our school,” she said.

But former teacher Lindsay Dearborn countered that it’s clear that having armed police in schools is detrimental to some students.

“I know in my bones that when we invite law enforcement into schools for whatever reason and one child, any child, feels unsafe, threatened, feels uncomfortable or is otherwise harmed, then we are all harmed,” she said. “It means our school isn’t working.”

The fact that students of color say they’re not comfortable with a police presence in Lebanon’s schools means the city isn’t meeting its obligation to make classrooms a “safe, secure and loving place where children can thrive,” she said.

Lebanon High School Principal Ian Smith later in the meeting said that whatever decision the School Board makes, his first priority is to keep students safe.

“If there is any population in our building that feels unsafe as a result of the SRO in the building … I’m concerned about that. I want to support those students,” he said.

Smith declined to say whether he supports maintaining the post, but told the School Board that if educators can address concern, fear or angst from students “then I think we have a responsibility to investigate it and pursue it.”

The School Board is scheduled to debate and vote on the matter during its next meeting on Wednesday, May 12, at Lebanon Middle School.

A link to access the meeting virtually will be posted at sau88.net.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.