In the wake of not just the tragic Sandy Hook school shooting but others over the years, we’ve heard debate about so many potential solutions: gun control, improved mental health treatment, guns in the hands of teachers or administrators.
The right answer is not simple, but we think local schools are taking a step in the right direction by evaluating their safety procedures and, as in the case of Brewton City Schools, putting a police resource officer at each school. County schools share a resource officer among the campuses in each community’s school cluster and have just begun a partnership with local police departments that will involve random campus visits from those departments’ officers.
The officers in our schools will get to know the lay of the land and will get to know the teachers and students. At county schools, the random visits by police officers will make it harder for someone on the outside to know when an officer will be there.
But the threat of a school shooting is not the only problem schools face.
Perhaps most important, they can be another adult role model for students. The threat of school shootings is certainly not the only problem that students face, and perhaps the presence of officers can help ease other problems as well.
Police officers will be another good adult role model for students, and that, in turn, makes our communities safer.