by John K. Wiley, Associated Press
SPOKANE (AP) - Officers are going back to school after the Spokane Police Department received a $750,000 federal grant to reassign resource officers to six middle schools.
The officers were pulled from the schools last spring because of budget cuts. The School Resource Officer program was developed several years earlier when the D.A.R.E. drug education program was scrapped.
The school resource program will restart in January, Spokane Police Chief Roger Bragdon said at a news conference outside Glover Middle School on the city’s northwest side.
“This will allow us to return six of our experienced officers to District 81 schools as mentors, role models and a uniformed presence on campus,” the chief said. “This is a valuable program for the students, faculty and staff at the schools, and for our officers who formed associations with the students.”
The grant, obtained through the efforts of Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is for three years. A $30,000-a-year match requirement will be met, Spokane Mayor John Powers said.
The resource officers will complement district safety officers and vice principals whose job is to carry out district policies banning bullying and assaults, Glover Principal Roberta Clark said.
“We miss them desperately right now,” she said of the police officers.
Spokane Schools Superintendent Brian Benzel said having police on campus “creates a safe and secure learning environment” for the sixth, seventh and eighth graders in middle schools.
The resource officers were assigned after the Columbine high school attack in Colorado, but their focus has changed, Bragdon said.
“We’ve recovered from Columbine,” he said. “But that has been replaced by another issue called terrorism.”
Through their interactions with students, the resource officers can spot trouble that is off campus, Bragdon said.
“A lot of times, problems start in the neighborhood and come to school,” he said, adding the program was “a tremendous success” before it fell victim to budget restraints.
“It broke our hearts to give up the SRO program,” Bragdon said. “We went to work immediately to find another source of revenue.”