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Mom asking for more cops in schools
By MARY EVA CASSADA
Special to The News & Record
A local mother is leading a campaign for more resource officers in
public schools.
Resource officers are typically fully vested law-enforcement agents who
spend their workday keeping the peace in and being a positive presence
in a school.
Sandra Swift believes that a uniformed cop not only would cut down on
bomb threats and pranks (such as plagued the high school earlier this
month) but would be a disincentive to run-of-the-mill, punch-packing
bullies.
Currently, Halifax County (through the Sheriff's office) has one
resource officer, at the high school. But Swiftí' canvass of
surrounding counties shows that all have more officers on campuses,
including counties of similar size, like Mecklenburg, with four. Tiny
Appomattox County has two officers; Bedford, eight; Campbell, eight;
Charlotte, two; Danville City, four; Pittsylvania, four.
We can afford this, said Swift, pointing to Halifax's real estate and
personal property tax rates. Safety is never a luxury; it' s a
necessity.
Of a like mind is brand-new Sheriff Stanley Noblin, who said he has
already been working with South Boston Police Chief Jim Binner to find
a way to supply someone for the middle school ñ a grant is one
possibility, state money is another.
Noblin's motivation is slightly different, citing continuing
cases all
over the country, he said, of horrific student violence, although
tamping down old-fashioned mischief is a factor as well.
Some schools may pay their own security position, he said, or contract
with private firms, but, ìI still believe you need sworn personnel in
schools.
Mecklenburg Countyís Carole Nelson, assistant school superintendent for
personnel and administration, said resource officers were ìwonderful.
Just having the car out front is a deterrentî to mischief.
The officers ñ†stationed at Mecklenburgís two middle and two high
schools ñ talk with students, help them resolve problems, incur lasting
goodwill with the civilian population and pick up tips on crime, she
said.
As a principal, I always felt more at ease with them there, Nelson
said of a past job.
Although it varies by locality, Mecklenburg' s are paid for in the
Sheriff''s budget and so answer to the man in brown, not the school
administration, Nelson added.
Principal Gail Bosiger said her Halifax County Middle School has had a
resource officer before, and she would welcome another, especially if
the officer were to be an active, high-profile presence.
Bosiger said the school has been without a cop for about four years;
previously, the South Boston Police had gotten grant funding for the
position.
Swift, who works in financial administration at Halifax Regional
Hospital and lives in the northern part of the county, comes to her
campaign after her child stood up to locker-room bullies.
Her neighbor, Jackie Dawson, is also in favor of a police presence. Her
child has had similar experiences.
We need them in there just to scare the kids,said Dawson, a U.S.
Mail carrier.
Cops may scare kids, but Bosiger said they don't intimidate
parents
the way they may once have. Now theyre simply part and parcel of the
21st century American school scene.
Nelson concurred.
The sight of an officer strolling through a cafeteria of
middle-schoolers may once have been ìstartling, said Nelson,
but not
now.
According to a 2004 poll by the National Association of School Resource
Officers:
More than 78 percent of school-based police officers reported they
had taken a weapon from a student on school property in the past year.
ï More than 37 percent of the officers stated that gang activity in
their school/district had increased during the past year.
ï More than 35 percent of officers indicated that violent incidents on
school buses had increased in their districts during the past two
years.
ï More than 41 percent of the officers stated that they had dealt with
cases of students using cell phones for improper reasons (cheating on
exams, taking photos in restrooms and/or locker areas) during the past
year.