Police officers in school: Yay or Nay?

The next time you go to your child’s PTA meet, chances are you may encounter a police official there. Do you need to be perplexed? Not really. In fact, police officers in Mumbai are gearing up to attend Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meetings at every school, after the murder of a seven-year-old boy at Gurgaon’s Ryan International School. And now it seems as though both the Telugu-speaking states are toying with the idea.

G. Ramesh, Hyderabad District Education Officer, says, “It’s a good move if the police are involved in PTA meetings with parents and teachers. The Telangana government will view it as a positive step.” 

Meanwhile, the AP government is leaving no stone unturned when it comes to the safety of children.“We are prep-aring guidelines to ensure a safe environment for children at schools. We plan to discuss the draft guidelines with the police department and issue the same. Their presence at PTA meetings can be assuring for the parents. But it can also be intimidating if they are aggressive in their communication. It really depends on how the cops conduct themselves,” says Sandhya Rani, Commissioner, School Educ-ation, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh.

A call for vigilance
Are the schools and the police ready for such a move? “My view is the police should be kept out of it. Probably, we should have more frequent visits to schools by SHE teams. They should be accompanied by trained psychologists. The staff must strictly follow the do’s and don’ts. The police should periodically check on sex offenders. Let us all be extremely vigilant to deviant behaviour and probe every complaint thoroughly,” says Sandeep Shandilya, Commissioner of Police, Cyberabad. 

HPS Principal Skand Bali thinks it should be a team effort. He says, “Any step taken towards a better future for children by authorities in particular and society at large is more than welcome. We will have to wait and see how this decision of the Maharashtra police will impact the functioning of schools. It should be a collaborative effort from all involved rather than the policing of these associations. If this decision aims and focuses on collaboration, then I have no doubt that something productive will come out of it.”

A systemic response
Teachers and parents must do more to instill what is right and wrong in children. Will involving a police watchdog help in preventing crimes? “The police attending the PTA could bring in some seriousness to safety and security concerns among stakeholders. It should not be just some cosmetic measure. It has to be a more systemic response,” says Gautam Sawang, Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada.

“It’s not necessary that we follow what other states do. The city police is already doing various awareness programmes,” according to Anjani Kumar, Addl. DG, Law & Order. He adds, “There is already an informal mechanism to fight against crimes in children. We do various awareness campaigns regarding the issues of boys and girls in schools across Telangana and in city.”

An impractical decision
Meanwhile, Mahesh Bhagwat, Rachakonda Police Commissioner, wonders how practical this is. “There are so many schools and it’s not possible for the police to attend PTA meets every month. The same parents will complain about the police intruding in their privacy. But once in a while, interactive sessions with the police is a welcome move. In our commissionerate, we have many individual programmes like drugs awareness, co-education, traffic safety, ragging and so on, along with schools. ”

Although PTAs are crucial, they are non-existent in most schools. “We are preparing guidelines to ensure safety in schools. In our zone, there is no concept of PTA meet. So we are preparing a list of schools to encourage them to have a meet,” says, Vikramjeet Singh Duggal, Commissioner of Police, Ramagudam.