[HenleyMatters] School Resource Officers

[Hashisaki]

Dear parents,

As co-PATSO President, I have been informed of a very disturbing  
decision being seriously considered by the Albemarle County Police  
Department.  As quoted in the article from the NBC29 website (http:// 
www.nbc29.com/Global/story.asp?S=6513504&nav=menu496_2_5), Chief  
Miller is looking to remove 4 School Resource Officers (SRO’s) to  
help with our shortage of police officers.  These four officers would  
be those assigned to the county middle schools, keeping 3 SRO’s for  
the 4 county high schools.  According to a January 28, 2007 Daily  
Progress article, “For the past several years the ACPD has been  
facing a shortage of officers.  County government uses a formula to  
determine ideal police staffing: 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents.  
Using 2005 U.S. Census numbers - the most recent available - the  
formula indicates that Albemarle needs 135 police officers.  There  
are only 110. That number includes two officers still in field  
training, two in the police academy and six who graduated from  
training Jan. 3.  Police say finances aren’t the problem; funding  
exists to fill an additional eight spots. It’s just harder than ever  
to get qualified candidates in the door.”

This shortage is serious, but should we sacrifice our middle school  
SRO’s?  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the duties of the  
SRO here is the description from the ACPD 2006 Annual Report:
The Albemarle County School Resource Officer (SRO) Program consists  
of six officers and one supervisor assigned to 4 High Schools, 5  
middle Schools and 2 Specialty Schools.  The program endeavors to  
protect the students and staff to make sure a safe learning  
environment exists and assist the administration and teachers in the  
education of the students.  Our School Resource Officer Program has  
been praised as “one of the best run programs” in the state by the  
Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.  There are over  
13,000 students in 26 schools in the county system.  Some of the  
various classes that SRO’s teach are drug education, class action,  
bullying, DNA for science classes and constitutional law for the 8th  
grade to prepare for the SOL tests.  SRO’s went on numerous field  
trips, worked countless after school and special events, and are  
involved in ACPD’s Police Explorer and Bike Patrol programs.  One of  
the most important aspects of the SRO is that of being a mentor and  
role model for young people.  Working closely with students has paid  
off in better police-youth relations and reduced crime in our schools.

Many Henley parents are very familiar with seeing Office John  
Gebhardt at the school.  Officer Gebhardt, like all SRO’s, has been  
through special training to make him more effective when dealing with  
young people and the fact that he knows our students makes him much  
more effective when dealing with problem situations.  If this  
decision goes through, when Henley has a problem, they will have to  
call 911 and wait until a police officer can get to them – a police  
officer who is not trained to deal with students and who doesn’t know  
the students involved.  We will also lose an individual who  
contributes to our school in other countless ways.

Please contact our School Board, our Board of Supervisors, Chief  
Miller and the local media and let them know your thoughts about this  
situation.

Phone and E-mail addresses:
Board of Supervisors:  mailto:bos at albemarle.org
ACPD: (434) 296-5807
School Board:  mailto:schoolboard at k12albemarle.org
Daily Progress, Managing Editor, McGregor McCance:  (434) 978-7283 or  
mailto:cmccance at dailyprogress.com
WINA Program Director,  Jay James:  mailto:j at wina.com

Thank you!

Janet Webster
  
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