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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This is great news Joyce. Keep up the good work for Glendale.
I am so happy to hear this decision. School Resource Officers are trained in how to use a gun, as well as when to use a gun. Arming teachers like so many districts are talking about would be a big mistake. Teachers would have a liability for not only marksmanship, but judgement as well. I’m not saying they wouldn’t be able to do this, but that is not why our teachers are so valuable to our community and it would be an unfair burden to tax onto their duties. So glad to know that Glendale is going forward with this.
So proud of Glendale and our Police Department! They’ve had officers in several high schools, serving in many pro-active ways for some years. Now more high schools can be so fortunate. Here a sensible way to confront a mounting societal nightmare.
And Glendale’s PD is already in the vanguard.
I do indeed have an opinion about this!
As Joyce says in her Disclaimer, the comments in this reply are my personal opinion.
I have been following the high school shootings and the “March for our Lives Rally” stories since it all began back on February 14th.
While placing SROs in schools here in Glendale (as well as throughout the country) may be a deterrent to on campus gun violence, there is another issue that I consider just as important, if not more so, but it seems to be overlooked and overshadowed by the current movement for greater gun control.
Here is an article from the CDC regarding teen deaths:
https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/teen_drivers/teendrivers_factsheet.html
So, if you are to believe the statistics as stated in the article, it would mean that our teenagers are safer once they arrive on campus than they are in a car while driving to and from school (or any other time they are in a vehicle, for that matter).
But the media has latched on to this gun control “cause”, and they are using impressionable teens to further it.
Where is the “Movement” and the “March” to educate our children between 15-19 to drive safer?
How many of these teens who are speaking out publicly and marching today don’t give a second thought to the danger they are putting themselves, and others, in when they talk and/or text message while behind the wheel of a car?
In my very humble opinion, too much emphasis is being placed on this current issue of gun control, and not nearly enough on the issue of teenage deaths from auto accident.
Thousands – not hundreds! – are dying every year due to unsafe driving habits!
Again, this is my personal opinion, but one I am quite passionate about.
Thank you for allowing me to express my feelings on the matter.