The role of SROs in Our Schools

The safety of students while at school is a top priority of the School District of Oconee County.  “I want to thank all of our law enforcement officials, the Sheriff’s Department and also the city officials.  It is a partnership between the School District and also these law enforcement agencies as far as we can to protect the children in Oconee County and I am just so thankful for their expertise.” Oconee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mike Lucas continued by discussing a recent meeting between school officials and local law enforcement agencies. “We actually had a meeting with our School Resource Officers, the Sheriff and other officials and the goal was to continue that communication and make sure that we consider every aspect of safety that we can in our schools.” Assistant Superintendent Dr. Michael Thorsland conducted the meeting and shares some of the topics covered. “One thing we did was gather the high school principals, middle school principals, as well as the SROs in all of our schools and some other law enforcement officials to talk about what the role of the SRO is.  We tried to get everybody on the same page as far as their duties and what their responsibilities are.  I think many people misunderstand the role of the SRO.  They might think that it is a police officer there in the school; their purpose is to take care of crimes that are committed in schools and that is not really why SROs were originally put into place.  They were put into place to form positive relationships with students, try to make students see police officers as allies rather than somebody who is out to get them.  The second main purpose of the SRO program is to just create a law enforcement presence in schools to prevent criminal activity whether it be from students in the school or from outsiders coming into the school, so I think that is a misunderstanding.  But we are very thankful for the support we have from local law enforcement and we did have a very positive meeting and look to continue with great relationship that we have with our law enforcement partners.”  School Resource Officers are stationed at each middle and high school in the School District of Oconee County.  They work during the normal school day and attend all after school functions as well.