Medford School District officials and a board member disagree over the reassignment of a school resource officer who was released from his duties to protect South Medford High School because he allegedly failed to meet the district's expectations.
Medford Police Department Officer Josh Doney was a School Resource Officer for two years 鈥� armed policemen and women who work in Medford schools but are not district employees. But after a performance review at the end of the recent school year, the district and the police department mutually decided to relieve Doney as an SRO.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just something that, over time, (we) started to notice,鈥� said Ron Havniear, executive director of security, leadership, and facilities for the school district, said in an interview Wednesday. 鈥淲e went back and forth on these things for quite some time, to the point where when we got to our annual review. That鈥檚 when we made a mutual decision with MPD to say this officer is not a good fit for our team.鈥�
MSD Superintendent Bret Champion said in the same interview that the SRO role is 鈥渃ritical.鈥�
鈥淭he reason we have these expectations for SRO is because these are things we know that are based on research, best practices for schools,鈥� Champion said.
Havniear declined to elaborate on where Doney fell short of expectations, except to say there were communication and performance issues.
鈥淚n honor of our partnership with MPD 鈥� this is their employee 鈥� and it is not right to drag this out in the court of public opinion. There really is no story to be had,鈥� Havniear said.
Doney鈥檚 transfer, however, became the subject of online rumors suggesting the decision was disciplinary or retaliatory. Champion and MPD Chief Justin Ivens disputed those claims.
Medford School Board member Michael Williams, meanwhile, has been openly critical of the decision to transfer Doney and believes the South Medford community is worse off because of it.
鈥淭he faculty and the students of that school are less safe not having him there," said Williams, who once shadowed Doney at South Medford, where the officer taught a class, among his security duties.
Although Williams spoke to Havniear about Doney and only spoke to the officer once, the school board member claimed that what led to his reassignment were conversations Doney had with Havniear about the school district's expulsion policy and guidelines regarding students caught bringing guns to school.
鈥淸The transfer] was directly associated with the breakdown in the relationship between Ron [Havniear] and the officer,鈥� Williams said.
Havniear denied Williams鈥� claim.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just misinformation and mischaracterization to say this had anything to do with the word 鈥榬etaliatory,鈥欌�� Havniear said.
According to Williams, Doney was concerned about those students coming back to school too soon and the district鈥檚 ability to monitor them during expulsion. Under state statute, students caught with a gun in school will be expelled for more than a year, but that time period can be extended, according to Champion. District guidelines were updated recently to include better monitoring of expelled students, he said.
Havniear responded to the allegations about Doney鈥檚 concerns with expulsion by saying he has met with the officer more times than Williams.
鈥淚鈥檝e had thousands of interactions with Officer Doney,鈥� Havniear said. 鈥淲e certainly have discussed numerous concerns 鈥� specifically, the weapons policy with Officer Doney 鈥� that is not a secret. This was already something being worked on as we started to encounter these firearms in the schools.鈥�
Havniear added that of the four firearms found on a handful of MSD campuses, two of which came from South Medford, those students served their full expulsion and did not come back early.
鈥淚 think the only disagreement (with Doney) was the speed in which we were trying to navigate the discussion on the policy,鈥� Havniear said. 鈥淚 100% concur we should have a monitoring mechanism in place for when students are out on the expulsion to make sure that behavior is not escalated in the wrong direction. I 100% concur that we need a strong re-entry plan.
Despite his performance as an SRO, Havniear took the time to defend Doney as a police officer.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 discount the fact that numerous people have likely had very positive interactions with Officer Doney,鈥� Havniear said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not here to vilify an officer of the police department who we continue to have a longstanding partnership with. It just comes back to, 鈥榯his is not a good fit for the team.鈥欌��
Medford Police Lt. Geoff Kirkpatrick emailed JPR to say, "We have no further comment on an employee matter." He added that Doney was directed to refer all media inquiries to him.
Williams said he would like the district community to move forward and 鈥渇or us to put more of the focus on the challenges we have around safety.鈥�
Doney鈥檚 successor will be named in a few weeks, according to MSD spokeswoman Natalie Hurd. The school district currently has five SROs, including Doney鈥檚 position. The district also has marshals, who are part-time, retired police officers, throughout MSD campuses.
Clarification: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect a statement from Medford School Board member Michael Williams.
