Troubled youth could be placed at even higher risk if school resource officers (SROs) at three Highline District high schools are eliminated through budget cuts to offset a revenue shortfall.

This was the message from several concerned citizens who spoke to Highline School Board members at their May 24 meeting.

Superintendent John Welch recently suggested that the district stop funding SROs at the Highline, Evergreen and Tyee campuses to cut costs. Cutting the positions would save the district $150,000 he said, noting that the final budget decision will be made in August.

But, Frank Gaul told board members, "Keeping youth from offending is paramount, and educating young people about what their choices are and how to make them in the face of peer pressure is critical."

"Parents, teachers and officers all share this goal," he said, but many kids come from homes without parents or effective parenting.

"I know of children in my own neighborhood who are abandoned by [caregivers] and are initiated into adulthood by their peers. The school resource officers give these youth a point of contact with a responsible and caring adult," said Gaul.

He added that that SROs create an open, accepting environment for students to discuss adolescent issues, such as alcohol, driving and abusive relationships. In addition, resource officers are needed for safety alone, he said.

"A cruiser parked in front of Highline High School is a great deterrent. There wasn't a cruiser in front of Ballard High School when a young woman was shot."

King County Sheriff's Deputy Cameron Lefler, an SRO at Highline High School, said that his position provides more than mere security.

When he was 16 years old, Lefler recalled, his father died and he went from a capable student to a troubled youth.

"My grades dropped down to C's and D's. I started hanging out with less than desirable kids (and) drinking beer," he read from a prepared statement.

During this time in his life, three good mentors helped him "at an age when kids need good role models and mentors the most."

Lefler added that he can arrest the same 50 people a hundred times to no avail. However, "if I spend my time and the taxpayer's money mentoring those 50 people as they are growing up, then perhaps they will become 50 successful citizens of the community and not lawless criminals....

"These are things a mentor does. It isn't a function of security to do all that."

Following the regular meeting, board members discussed with audience members the High School Improvement Plan in a study session.

Welch said the plan aims to improve high schools by creating small learning communities and building more rigor into the curriculum.

Principals and teachers noted they are measuring the success of the plan through parent surveys and student-led parent teacher conferences.

State Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park, said, "The motivation behind the [project] is clear and well founded. We are not meeting the needs of two-thirds of our students and they are not succeeding in higher education. However, there are no measurable improvements or outcomes."

While this is a worthwhile experiment, Schual-Berke said her constituents perceive a threat to the one-third of students who do succeed with the traditional comprehensive high school model.

"Please allow there to be a clear choice," she continued. "Make changes, make reformations for those students for whom the current system does not work. But leave a choice of a traditional comprehensive and academically rigorous option for those for whom that really does work."

Linda Smith, a parent who has served on several Highline High School committees, said that at this point "community" involvement remains ambiguous.

"It seems to me that throughout this process it has been very difficult to overcome that view that we are not all in this together, and it seems like this can't work if we're not," said Smith.

She thinks there is a potential for all stakeholders to have a say so, but as it stands it is unclear who the stakeholders are.