Speak Up: Dover High resource officer addresses behavior from front line

Cpl. Demetrius Stevenson says his 12th year as Dover High School’s school resource officer has been the most trying of his career. While Capital School District administrators have been working to address the multitude of behavioral issues plaguing its facilities, Cpl. Stevenson can be found in the hallways of Dover High, interacting with students every school day.

• This tracks. I feel for school resource officers. — Cari Matthews
• Nothing to do in Dover. Someone should build a few things. — Semora Bleue
• It’s because public education has failed our society. All across the country, trade classes were removed. Home ec, shop, auto repair and pretty much anything useful was removed from the curriculum. You force boys indoors in prisonlike conditions (which is not how young men learn), and you blamed their hyperactivity on them and then forced ADHD meds down their throats. Modern parents don’t know how to teach their children to be productive because they weren’t taught anything either. Schools are teaching them to rely on the government. There’s no discipline. Men are being raised effeminately. Women are being taught to hate men because they’re soft and weak. Y’all act like this is new. It’s been happening to us for a while now. It’s directly our government’s fault, and they’re still “looking for answers” on why things are so drastically out of hand? Come off it. It’s the elected officials’ fault. — Steven LeMarble
• Much the same as the divisions we are seeing in our country. The news and media are perpetuating a lack of respect for police, a lack of sanctity of life and spurring racial divides again. Perpetuating hate and anger. — Lisa Rohlfing
• Dover is run-down. There is nothing for kids. Adults have to find places that are safe and diverse to allow kids to do things without being bored. Idle hands do the devil’s work. — Tony Richardson
• Social media has turned everyone angry. — Bob Hice
• A lot is fueled by social media. The kids fight on their phones, and it progresses from there. Not enough parenting. — Michael Westergom West
• Maybe kids see people all over this country killing, shooting, stabbing, beating, stealing and entering our country illegally, and they see adults violate the law and walk away with no punishment. Heck, in Delaware, you can steal a vehicle, open up fake bank accounts, do drugs, put drugs in your baby, have an infant involved in two high-speed police chases by 11 months of age. Put the kid in foster care — not with responsible family — then drop 99% of the charges and then work to get the baby back to the parent. You want to know why kids are out of control — it’s because they see adults get away with everything. Police arrest, and courts act like a consequence is a violation of a right. No — it teaches the next generation that you can do anything, and nothing will happen. So, why do the right thing when there is no consequence for doing the wrong thing? Deterrence is nonexistent. — Diane Butters-Eastburn
• Accurate and well said. — Michael Westergom West
• It’s the food they eat. — Dylan Jacob McCaffrey