Sunday, August 9, 2015
SROs Now In Every County School
Sheriff Department Press Release
As students start back to school this year, for the first time ever in Lawrence County, each county school will be protected by a school resource officer (SRO). This achievement marks the conclusion of a long three year process that involved planning, the allocation of funding, hiring and training of ten additional school resource officers. Just two years ago, only the county's three high schools had SROs full-time.
The proposition of adding additional SROs to county schools started shortly after the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, where 20 children and 6 teachers were killed by a gunman.
"I think everyone was shaken by the events in Newtown and realized that it could happen any day right here in Lawrence County," said Commissioner Chris Jackson who chairs the School Board Liaison Committee. "That is when we began to hold joint meetings between the school system, county commission and Sheriff's Department to discuss how we could best protect our children and teachers," Jackson added.
Shortly thereafter, the county commission voted to fund three additional SRO positions to be placed in schools that were in unincorporated parts of the county. The schools were Leoma Elementary, Ethridge Elementary and Summertown Elementary.
The county put priority on those schools because unlike schools that are located within the boundaries of a city, there is no full time police presence in unincorporated areas which means response times would be greater if an incident occurred at those locations.
In September of 2014, the next step was taken when the county commission and school board partnered to fund seven more SRO positions, which would put an officer in every county school. In total, the cost to hire, train and equip the officers was around $700,000, but county officials say the benefits outweigh the costs.
"If an SRO never has to draw his gun at any of our schools, the investment was well worth the cost," said County Executive TR Williams. "While nothing we can ever do will be 100% fail-proof, these officers' presence is our schools is a strong deterrent that we did not have just 12 months ago," he added.
"SROs are not just in our schools to react to events, we are there to be a proactive force to encounter and stop malicious events from happening", said Chad Dorning who is the Sergeant over the School Resource Officers in the county.
Dorning explains the SRO program is a form of community policing that is effective because it allows officers to form relationships with faculty, staff and students that often heads off incidents that might occur otherwise. "Survival favors those who are prepared and we strive daily to be prepared to protect our students," he added.
Director of Schools Bill Heath agreed, "There is so much that these officers do in our schools that does not make the headlines. Our teachers and students love having the SROs in their schools on a daily basis and I feel our entire system is stronger and safer with them there," Heath added.
Sheriff Jimmy Brown said he was excited that the process was finally over and that all schools were now being protected. "It is satisfying to know that no matter what school a parents sends their kids to each morning, they are now being protected," he said. "There is no price tag on the peace of mind of a parent."
