School resource officers to come to North Augusta schools
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - School safety concerns are at an all-time high for faculty, staff, and parents.
Back in 2019, South Carolina lawmakers approved funding with the goal to get a resource officer in every single school.
New this year for the first time, all North Augusta Schools will have a school resource officer on campus. But a law enforcement shortage is making it hard to fill every slot elsewhere in the county.
Parents like Chasity Williams say school safety is top of mind lately.
“Back then we didn’t have half of what we have now. It was really unknown even for a lot of schools to even have cameras or have extra people,” said Williams.
Unfortunately, they’re necessary steps to keep kids safe.
Director of Security and Emergency Management with Aiken County Public Schools, Vicky Gaskins, said: “After 911, the precautions to get on the plane, all of the steps to get to the plane have changed. And the same thing happened with school security.”
Post-pandemic, our I-Team found gun violence in schools has risen.
The Center for Homeland Defense and Security shows 151 shooting incidents last year, across the country. That’s anything from an active shooter to a gun pulled out in class.
“Everyone has that fear. Even when your children are away from you. Like, oh my goodness, what does my child do,” said Williams.
Gaskins says school resource officers help with the fear.
“Having an SRO in a school is a deterrent. So when we talk about school security, we talk about delaying threats, deterring threats, and that’s what an SRO presence in a school is going to be,” she said.
This year North Augusta Schools will have one officer on site in every school.
“We have five law enforcement agencies that we partner with for SROs in our school district. This year North Augusta committed to applying for the funding for an SRO in every school district in their district,” said Gaskins.
It brings comfort to parents.
Williams said: “Sending your children off, you don’t want to always be that parent, that’s like I’m going to just follow you the whole time. You do want to give that responsibility to the children. But to be able to know that those measures are in place, makes me feel better.”
The district is working towards the goal to have an SRO on every school campus in Aiken County.
“Law enforcement in general, is short right now. Just manpower is short. So that’s one of the dilemmas that we are facing is trying to get an SRO in every school, but that is the ultimate goal,” said Gaskins.
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