Peters Township School District hires more school resource officers
Peters Township School District will have a school resource officer at each of the district’s five buildings for the 2022-23 year.
School directors approved an agreement at Monday’s board meeting that would increase the number of school resource officers in the district from two to five. The motion was unanimously approved.
“There will be one per school full time,” said Superintendent Dr. Jeaninne French, adding that details are still being worked out.
The announcement was met with applause by audience members at Monday’s meeting.
A group of parents went to a board meeting in June to request that the district have a school resource officer in not just the high school and the middle school, but also at McMurray, Bower Hill and Pleasant Valley elementary schools.
Their request came about a month after the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which 21 people were killed and 17 injured.
“We’ve always had a presence from the Peters Township Police in all of the buildings throughout the day,” said Shelly Belcher, district communications coordinator. “The only change is that somebody will now be stationed at each building.”
Business Manager Brad Rau said the estimated additional cost of $318,000 for the new officers will be offset by the State School Safety and Security Program funding of $156,963.
The township would cover costs of officers over the summer months if they are year-round employees.
The police department will hire the officers assigned to each school building.
French said the district does not like to discuss the safety of the students in a public forum and suggested anyone with questions call or attend any of the district’s parent nights.
“We want to keep it within our parent community,” she said. “Anytime we put on Facebook, or public forums, our security approach we really weaken our ability to protect our children.”
French said after the meeting that the district constantly works with the township and its police department on student safety and have addressed directives set forth by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
“Each year, we’ve added additional building hardening by advanced locking systems and all of those things,” she said. “We’re at the point now where the SROs make sense at all the buildings and the funding was available.”
Alex O’Neill, who has three children in the district, was grateful the move was made to put the officers in each building.
“It makes sense to have one in every building to keep the students safe, keep the faculty safe and the administrators safe as well,” he said after the meeting, adding that similar concerns have been raised in the past. “It’s nice to see it’s finally complete with school resource officers in each building. Having elementary school kids, I’d like to see them safe as well.”
O’Neill said he told his daughter earlier in the day that there may be a police officer in her school all day.
“She said, ‘To keep the bad guys away,’ and I said, ‘Yes,'” he said. “Even a second-grader was thrilled.”