New school safety law raises questions about JCPS security plan - WAVE 3
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A bill requiring the assignment of school resource officers within all public K-12 schools in the commonwealth was signed into law Friday.
The bill would require school districts to assign SROs to each school by Aug 1, 2022. Districts who are unable to meet funding or staffing requirements for the bill would work with the state school security marshal to hire officers on a per campus basis until each school has an SRO assigned to it.
Jefferson County Public Schools does not have armed security inside buildings. The Jefferson County Public Schools Board of Education approved a new school security plan in January.
The plan includes 66 unarmed safety administrators, who will act as relationship builders, fostering positive school culture and developing relationships with students. School security officers will be armed, sworn law enforcement officers, similar to school resource officers.
The main difference between an SSO and an SRO is that JCPS SSOs will work from outside schools unless there is a threat, and those officers will cover multiple schools in a given area. JCPS intends to hire 15.
Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio addressed the issue on his weekly interview for NewsRadio 840 WHAS.
Pollio’s first concern with the new law is that it does not offer funding for school resource officers.
He also said the district will struggle to find enough officers.
“Are we gonna have 155 police officers ever in schools in JCPS? I don’t see that happening just looking at how many applications we’re getting and how short they are on LMPD,” he said on the radio show.
A representative said they only have 44 qualified applicants for the SSO positions and a total of 315 candidates for the School Safety Administrators positions.
Alex Payne is the former commissioner of the Department of Criminal Justice Training. He helped pave the way for the current school safety laws including locks on doors, entry procedures and mental health counselors.
He knows filling the positions for SROs will be hard in Jefferson County, but not impossible.
“I would not just up and discount the process by saying never- we’re never going to get there,” Payne said. “Let’s get the process rolling and see where we go with it and evaluate it as we go. There’s going to be a point in time where compliance is going to be required at some point. Or they’ll at least going to have to show that they’re heading in that direction.”
Dr. Pollio said the district will work with the state school security marshal to comply with the law.
JCPS’s current plan will be implemented by August, the same time the bill will require SRO’s in each school.
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source: https://www.wave3.com/2022/04/12/new-school-safety-law-raises-questions-about-jcps-security-plan/
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