OC Sheriff hopes Grant will fund ASAP

It costs $95,000 initially to place a School Resource Officer in a school in the School District of Oconee County (SDOC). A new plan called the Armed School Alliance Program (ASAP) would lower that cost to $1,495 per employee. The plan aims to train 50 school employees to carry concealed weapons to deter violence in schools and respond to active shooter situations. Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw introduced the program Monday night to the Board of Trustees for the SDOC. He has applied for a grant to help cover some of those initial costs. “We’ve applied for a $97,000 grant that would fully fund the equipment portion of it. We added some things in the grant that are not absolutely necessary such as portable radios for communication with law enforcement in addition to maybe a Kevlar backpack that the school personnel could have for even further protection. I didn’t discuss that with the board because it is not absolute thing for us to have but for each that absolute necessary requirements that we have at the sheriff’s office equal an equipment cost of about $1,495 per employee. That covers the cost of the psychological evaluation, that initial concealed weapons permit class as well as the cost of the weapon, the holster and all equipment that would be needed to fully implement the program.” These school employees would receive the same training as first year deputies with the sheriff’s office. The sheriff will not know until the fall of 2018 if the program is selected to receive grant funding.