Group Wants More School Resource Officers

Trustee Ben Trotter knows there's no easy answer about increasing school security in the wake of the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“We've got to do something, we can't sit back and wait and say, 'If only,'” Trotter said. “This is our 'If only' moment.”

Trotter asked for a workshop to be held between district leaders, law enforcement members, city and county officials and others to discuss school safety,. That workshop was held Monday with a group of about 30 people attending.

“We appreciate you being here, representing your different areas and giving us input,” said Superintendent Dr. Kelly Pew.

The group discussed placing school resource officers at each of the district's elementary schools.

“There's been a lot of concerns about security after the Connecticut massacre,” Trotter said. “We have 16 elementary schools in the district. We've got to have resource officers of some kind in those schools. But in order to get 16 good, dependable resource officers, we're looking at $720,000 a year.

That's a heavy financial burden for the school district.

“We're going to need some help with this,” Trotter said. “$720,000 is a lot of money out of education, when this ought to be a joint effort with the counties, because we have schools in the county. If we all pull together, we can accomplish this goal or protecting the children, as well as the teachers and the staff.”

Trotter said he hoped the state would provide the necessary funding for the additional SROs, but while the economy is recovering, he's heard legislators would like to devote extra revenue to infrastructure needs and rising state insurance and retirement costs.

“There is a bill down there right now which states they'll provide $50 million for training officers,” Trotter said. “But $50 million divided by however many school districts we have isn't much.”

He said the district may not have control of state funds provided for SROs, and said hypothetically layoffs in other areas could be required to place the SROs.

Pew said the district was written a letter to the legislative delegation asking for their support in providing SROs in the elementary schools.

Sheriff Clark said a bill, Senate 249, has been filled that would furnish school resource officers statewide.

“It says if the state provides the school district with the money for a school resource officer, the city or county has to provide that for them,” Clark said. “We'll see where that goes.”

Major Tim Tollison with the Easley Police Department said that even if the state or the district pays the $45,000 in estimated salaries for each officer, cities would have to provide funds for equipment, patrol cars and fringe benefits.

Sheriff Clark and Clemson Police Chief Jimmy Dixon agreed, each estimating that a new school resource officer would cost about a total of $80,000.

Tollison said some of those costs, but not all, would be reoccurring annually.

Weldon Clark asked why the officers couldn't come to work in their personal vehicles, since they would only be working in one location.

But group members agreed that the presence of a patrol car is important, and can be a deterrent.

“I look to see if the school resource car is out there,” he said. “The car, a lot of times, deters.”

One option was hiring retired police officers and deputies to serve as school resource officers.

“These would have to be Class 1 officers,” Clark said. “I don't know if we're going to send (age 50 or above) person back to the academy for 12 weeks to do this.”

State law requires that retired officers make only $10,000 a year, which may restrict the use of retired officers as school resource officers, Dixon said.

“You'd lose your retirement,” he said. “That throws a lot of people that are retired who would take these jobs out of doing it.”

Board Chairman Judy Edwards asked if retired officers could just work the 180-day school year in order to keep costs down and not violate state law.

“According to state law, they would have to a full-time officer to have Class 1 status,” Clark said.

Trustee Alex Saitta thank law enforcement for the steps they've taken since the Newtown murders.

“I walk to the school and see police officers there, where in the past I hadn't,” Saitta said. “You're doing that on your own and we thank you for taking that initiative.”

He suggested combining SROs at schools that are near or adjacent to each other.

“We've got to economize there,” Saitta said. “Some of the schools, it's going to be more difficult because they're farther apart. It's great to request ask for 16-17 officers, but in reality, you could probably get by on less.”

Clark said the Sheriff's Office should team with the school district to audit every school.

“To see if we haven't missed that one little thing that's going to make it easier to access,” Clark said.

He also wants to create action plans for each school.

“Right now, we have the school with their plan, and law enforcement with our plan, but we don't know how well we work together,” Clark said. “We've got to practice along with these school plans, so they work in harmony and not against each other.”

He suggested a tabletop emergency planning exercise that would lead to full-scale emergency exercises.

Arming ROTC instructors was also discussed, an idea also mentioned at a meeting between school officials and the Pickens County Legislative Delegation.

Trustee Jimmy Gillespie said arming ROTC instructors could free high school school resource officers to be moved to other schools.

“They are retired military,” Pew said.

Don Lundquist said retired military would not be allowed to be armed in schools.

“Even though they're retired, they're still under the Department of Defense,” Lundquist said. “Because of that, they're still federal troops and you can't use federal troops in situations like that.”

Clark asked that advanced training be held, whatever the school district decides.

“There's arming somebody and then there's arming somebody that's not going to get other people hurt,” Clark said. “I think we're going to have to go way beyond the basic CWP instructor. It's one thing to shoot a paper target at 50 feet, and there's another, shooting down a hallway with 50 kids.”

Tollison said the issue was in the news and “emotional.”

“When that wears off, after all the emotions die down, what's going to happen?” Tollison said. “When you have to cut your budget again, is it going to be a teacher or a police officer who loses their job?”

Trotter asked those in attendance to report back to their councils about the district's request for funding assistance.

“We don't expect you to pay for it all,” he said.

Edwards asked those in attendance to contact Pew with any suggestions. Another workshop may be held, if needed.