Safety Panel Recommends Every NC School Have Armed Officer

RALEIGH, NC — Every North Carolina school should have an armed school resource officer, a Governor-appointed school safety panel said in a report Thursday.

The recommendation that would drastically increase the number of armed school resource officers (SRO) in North Carolina schools was put forward by the Governor’s Crime Commission Special Committee on School Shootings, a committee that includes law enforcement, school, juvenile justice, court and state agencies. Gov. Roy Cooper formed the committee last year in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.

In addition to recommending the SROs in every school, the committee urged permanent funding for the positions. Currently, it said, the positions are funded through grants.

According to the News & Observer, there are currently more than 1,000 officers assigned to the more than 2,400 public schools in the state.

“Waiting for a violent event at a North Carolina school to prompt such thinking is not being intentional about prevention, so this recommendation reflects a desire to be proactive and preventive rather than reactionary,” the committee said.

“If not willing to pursue an SRO in every school, recommend the state push the issue of SROs in elementary schools, even if it is one SRO per three or four elementary schools,” the committee said. “This would improve security and allow for the elementary schools to have a resource to call on instead of always relying on middle and high school SROs and taking them away from their respective schools.”

Other recommendations include:

• Implementing tip lines
• Incorporating student voices into the development of school safety policies
• Requiring vulnerability assessments of school facilities
• Enhancing active shooter drills in coordination with school officials and local law enforcement agencies
• Improving school violence incident data collection and data sharing

“While there is no 100% guarantee of school safety, being intentional about it and putting into place efforts that target ‘causes’ with resources to support the efforts will keep most schools in the safe category and put others into it,” the report said.

You can read more about the committee’s recommendations here.

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