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School resource officers report steady incident counts, rise in vaping and anonymous safety tips
Summary
School resource officers for Superior’s elementary, middle and high schools reported overall similar incident totals to last year but highlighted a rise in THC vaping incidents, use of anonymous tip system for suicidal or safety concerns, and challenges at the high school after a recent SRO staffing change.
Superior School District school resource officers presented their 2024-25 school-year incident report, describing steady year-to-year totals at elementary buildings and larger incident counts at the high school tied in part to truancy citations and new reporting procedures.
Officer Matt Swanson, the Superior Middle School resource officer, told the board middle-school incidents fell to 15 from 76 last year but said last year’s figures included many truancy warnings he issued as a deterrent. “I like to send out an official police warning letter to give them one last chance,” Swanson said. He said middle school staff reported several incidents involving images shared among students and a rise in drug-related incidents, mostly THC vaping.
Amanda Mondell, the Superior High School resource officer, said she began full-time work on April 7 and recorded 268 incidents at the high school, including 54 calls in the last 36 days of school and 24 arrests. Mondell said many adult arrests reflect students who are 18 and thus cited as adults; juvenile arrests (91) were largely truancy citations in the district’s reporting system.
Both officers described the district’s anonymous “Speak Up, Speak Out” tip system and said it produced dozens of tips on suicide or self-harm (43 tips), sexual misconduct/sexting (9), weapons (7), and alleged school-attack concerns (7); staff investigate each tip and not all tips generate incident numbers. “It's so easy to get those things in the schools now, and so that's the growing problem,” one officer said of THC vaping devices.
Board members asked about trends and whether principals were handling more issues directly; Swanson said principals were encouraged to manage some incidents without officers when appropriate. The officers said the tip line remains a valuable resource to learn of students in distress even if many tips prove unfounded after investigation.
