David H. Bland: More school counselors needed

Regarding the Jan. 5 news article “Incident on video spurs review of Wake’s rules”: The role and debate over School Resource Officers in our schools will again have its head raised by the use of force at Rolesville High School.

Having met several times with school board members about the effectiveness of SROs, I am well aware of the disruptive and sometimes violent behaviors these officers must face. I also know that the Wake County Public School System has one of the best SRO Procedure Manuals in the state, but all this misses the overriding point, our provision of adequate school counselors falls woefully short.

When a child, regardless of age, has a problem he/she should not have to schedule an appointment that may be hours or a day or more before they can talk about it with a counselor who ought to be there to guide, support and help all students.

Of course it is a funding issue, but what is the problem with our county funding counselors instead of more SROs? Our school board and County Commissioners need to begin the process of increasing the counselor-to-student ratio so that counselors can once again do the jobs their were educated to do.

This story was originally published January 6, 2017 at 5:17 PM with the headline "David H. Bland: More school counselors needed."