The Summers County Commission met on Wednesday, June 16 at the Summers County Courthouse. The primary topic on the agenda was a presentation by Sheriff Justin Faris regarding school resource officers. Also present at the meeting for this presentation was Summers County Schools Superintendent David Warvel.
A school resource officer is a trained law enforcement officer who works within a school. The U.S Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) defines a school resource officer as a law enforcement professional who is “responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools.” According to the National Association of School Resource officers, the federal definition is “a career law enforcement officer with sworn authority who is deployed by an employing police department or agency in a community-oriented policing assignment to work in collaboration with one or more schools.”
According to Sheriff Faris, Summers County will have two school resource officers. One will be posted at the high school full-time during school hours and the other will serve all three of the elementary schools based on current needs.
After reading the necessary documents regarding implementing the school resource officers, County Commission President Charles Saunders asked for a vote. The decision was unanimously favorable. With the new implementation, the commission and Superintendent Warvel signed the documents, making them official. During this time, Warvel publicly thanked the board of education for everything they have done, including taking him on as the superintendent.
Implementing a school resource officer has been a goal for Sheriff Faris from the beginning. He said, “We have been working on this since I took office in January, I’ve worked with the superintendent of the board of education, Stan Duncan and the entire board of education, I’ve met with multiple times trying to get it done.”
Faris went on to say, “This is a great thing for the county, we’re going to have one school resource office at the high school campus every day during school and one that rotates between all three elementary schools.” Faris also said that the two individuals acting as school resource officers will start with the Sheriff’s Department this summer. The department will ensure they get the training they need for the job so that they will be ready when the new school year begins. “We hope to have them in the schools by then.”
The Sheriff also made a presentation regarding the need for specific new equipment for the department. This issue was not yet voted on, but the commission took the information provided under advisement.
