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Dialogue key in school parking issue

The handling of a situation created when Warren school resource officer Adam Chinchic issued a parking ticket to the principal at Warren Jefferson PK-8 School where he worked was unfortunate for all involved.

Hasty decision making and a lack of open communication are largely to blame, and now that Superintendent Steve Chiaro has openly acknowledged that breakdown and publicly apologized, let’s hope any damage to the relationship can be overcome quickly.

It was Jan. 8 when Chinchic placed a ticket on Principal Carrie Boyer’s vehicle after he said she parked illegally in a handicapped loading zone. Boyer had been warned twice before not to park there, police have said.

When Chiaro learned of the ticket, he reacted by having Chinchic escorted from the school property. Chiaro later explained he had perceived an already eroding relationship between Boyer and Chinchic, and he wanted to head off further problems.

Instead, resulting outcry by Chinchic’s fellow police officers and public backlash ensued.

The lacking element, of course, was communication.

In a prepared statement released several days later, Chiaro called it unfortunate that school officials “were not able to fully discuss the school resource officer change with police officials before the matter was made public.” Further, he said, “Hasty discussions about this incident resulted in misinformation circulating.”

We agree that hasty decisions and misinformation often come from a lack of dialogue. Better communication between Chiaro and his principal would have been a good start. That’s because Chiaro later said he didn’t know at the time about the prior parking warnings that had been issued to his principal. If he had known, he likely would have put an end to it.

Communication between Chiaro and the supervisor of the school resource officer program also would have been the preferred course of action — all before calling for the officer’s removal.

At the same time, we wonder if Chinchic had communicated about the eroding relationship and problems he was having with the school principal. Again, if that conversation had occurred ahead of time, perhaps the dispute could have been headed off before it rose to this level.

Language in the Warren school resource officer contract grants the parties the ability to approve which officers work in each school building. If both sides had been made aware of the disputes between the officer and the principal, couldn’t the officer have simply been reassigned to another school building?

We know it takes a big person to publicly accept responsibility for a mistake, and Chiaro has now done that. In a public statement he released Friday, Chiaro acknowledged the error and said he now believes the situation could have been better handled by utilizing the chain of command. We take that to mean communicating with the school resource officer’s supervisors. Good.

It is critical that Warren police and Warren City School District maintain a strong working relationship. We are hopeful that the open dialogue that occurred during subsequent meetings between Warren City School officials and the city’s patrolmen’s union and city officials will resolve any hard feelings.

At the end of the day, open communication and dialogue is always key to resolving any dispute.

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