School Board Rejects Grant for an Armed Police Officer in Piedmont Secondary Schools…BUT…
On February 27, 2019, the Piedmont School Board voted 4 – 1 to reject a grant to place a School Resource Officer – SRO – (Armed Police Officer) in Piedmont’s secondary schools. School Board President Amal Smith supported the SRO grant.
Hearing SRO opposition statements by numerous students, teachers, parents and community members, the Board made the decision to reject the SRO grant devised by Police Chief Jeremy Bowers and Superintendent Randall Booker. The grant had been applied for prior to consultation with and acceptance by the Piedmont School Board and Piedmont City Council. To accept grant funding for the SRO, Board and Council approval is required.
There was a complaint concerning lack of notice prior to Board consideration and insufficient community involvement regarding the SRO proposal.
After rejecting the grant, the Board undertook an off-agenda discussion regarding redirecting efforts to reach school goals.
Interest in obtaining a full time Piedmont police officer assigned to the Piedmont schools was brought up by Board member Andrea Swenson.
Superintendent Booker appeared unwilling to give up the concept of an SRO; however, upon hearing the emphasis on additional professional opinions and greater community involvement to solve identified problems, he informed the Board the upcoming grant deadline meant grant amendments would be difficult to obtain.
It was unclear if Superintendent Booker would or would not be coming back to the Board with a new approach to gain grant funding through a revised proposal.
Imagine that you could take a poll of all the parents and families of the hundreds of school children and their teachers who were attacked in their schools, asking them if there was a chance their child or parent could have been saved by a trained, armed police professional on campus. Would they vote for an armed officer or not?