Posted By RichC on January 28, 2013
Butler County Ohio’s high profile local Sheriff Richard Jones is addressing the recent hot button topic school security with a “two for one” idea by putting trained retired police officers in school buildings as substitute teachers.
Many of our local schools once had resource officers in the schools, but budget constraints due to the slow economy has forced cuts in spending. This creative solution could be a win-win solution to improving a school’s ability to respond if the circumstances should ever arise. It may not answer all the concerns of parents and teachers, but using trained retired veteran officers as substitutes is the best idea I’ve heard so far. This will no doubt be considered by school boards and districts across the country needing to stretch dollars and improve school security. Kudos to Sheriff Jones and Butler County.
Butler County school days may soon include armed substitute teachers watching over students under a proposal that is the first of its kind in Ohio.
Under the plan announced Thursday by Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, retired police officers could volunteer to be trained to work in schools as substitute teachers – teaching in any of the county’s 10 school districts or private schools.
The idea, which Jones said may be a first in the nation, would put armed, trained veteran police officers in school buildings throughout the county at no more cost than districts now pay – about $75 per day – for substitute teachers.
“I assume every school district in Ohio will be looking at this, if not the nation,” said Jones, who credited retired Mason Police Officer Scott Miller – who joined him at Thursday’s press conference – with the idea.
“It’s two for one, and it’s cost-effective,” Jones said.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said he expects many of Ohio’s 614 public school districts and hundreds of private schools to consider it.
“It’s a decision to be made by each local school district, but I think some will approach it,” DeWine said. “If I was on a school board I’d think of having someone in that school who was a trained person … who had access to a gun in the school.”
Lakota school parent Wendy Goldfinger likes the idea.
“I’ve heard enough stories in other states where a principal or somebody in a school with a gun stopped a shooting, so I would not be opposed to this,” she said.
Read full article at Cincinnati.com
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Tags: butler county, gun control, schools, security, sheriff
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