Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

In the aftermath of the wave of recent school shootings the Glendale City Council and City Manager made the decision to insure that every high school in Glendale will be manned by a school resource officer. Today, Friday, March 23, 2018 the city held a press conference to announce the decision. Here is a video released by the city today:

https://vimeo.com/user69856880/review/261561505/fe30ffc0af

The latest school shooting occurred on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at Great Mills High School in Maryland. That school has a resource officer, Blaine Gaskill, who did what a resource officer is supposed to do. Gaskill, upon hearing the gunfire, ran toward the sound and came upon the shooter, Austin Rollins. Rollins and Gaskill fired simultaneously and it is unclear which fired the fatal shot as of this post.

This is in sharp contrast to school resource officer Scot Peterson in Parkland, Florida, who never entered the building after the initial shots were fired.

The Maryland event demonstrates how important school resource officers have become in protecting our children. Glendale’s leaders have made the first commitment in the state to make sure school resource officers are in every high school starting Monday morning, March 26th, as Spring Break ends and students return to their classes.

Currently, of the 9 high schools in Glendale, 4 have SROs. In those cases, the school district pays 25% and the city picks up the balance of 75%. The 5 remaining schools that have not been able to afford even the 25% tab are now covered by the city this fiscal year. All high schools in Glendale will have a school resource officer demonstrating this city’s commitment to keep our children safe.

Funding will come from a variety of existing resources within the city budget. We still have some further adjusting to do to meet the cost.

School Resource Officers are valuable and Glendale is proud to be the very first city in the state to make this important commitment to our children.

© Joyce Clark, 2018         

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