file photo by Boyd Loving
April 11,2018
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, in his recent news letter Councilmen Hache said , “Without question, tragic events like the one in Parkland FL, compel us to reevaluate the safety of our children. Many states have even begun to shift education funds to school safety. Councilmen Hache says that he has always been in favor of having a School Resource Officer in our schools. SROs are commissioned law enforcement officers assigned to schools. In addition to responding to incidents on school grounds, they also work closely with faculty and staff to prevent crime, bullying and violence. SROs receive special training and can be a vital component in community building by building trust and opening lines of communication with students. We need SROs in our schools. ”
It is nice to see that at lest the Village Council takes school security seriously and is willing to put forward some concrete steps in stead of organizing “student led ” protests and other feel good measures that have little to no impact on the treats the schools could be faced with.
Hache is the Council liaison to the Board of Education and stated,”I continue to implore the Board to partner with the Village to bring SROs to our schools. The Village has offered to pay for half of the cost but allocate 70% of the SRO’s time to the Board of Education. When school is not in session (30% of the work year), the SRO will be on regular duty for the Village. I hope the Board will accept our generous offer.”
In the meantime, we have police officers rotating through our schools while we are working to install a full-time dedicated SRO.