Texas shooting prompts look at local security resources and the role of school resource officers

GRUNDY – At Morris High School, Scott Evans’ duties vary daily depending on the need: he teaches driver’s education classes, health education and is a wrestling coach.

Evans, a Morris police officer, is also the first line of defense in any potentially dangerous situation. As the school resource officer, he works everyday to prevent one, he said.

“At the end of the day, my first priority is to make sure the students and faculty in this building are safe and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that happens,” he said.

Following the deadly May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in which an armed gunman entered the school and killed 19 children and two teachers, many parents and school officials across the country have looked at their own buildings and the role school resource officers play in security.

Evans said he does not view his role as a school disciplinarian. Rather, he said he believes “building relationships from the start” is a vital part of his role to ensure the safety of the student and staff at school.

“The greatest impact that I can have is to build relationships to help get the kids through everything. I see them everyday, so I can tell when someone is having an off-day,” Evans said. “Building that relationship is an opportunity to lead them in a different direction, if it gets there or direct them to a counselor if that is what they need.”

Morris Police Chief Alicia Steffes said her department has been inundated with calls and emails from concerned parents wanting to ensure that if an event were to happen in Morris, the city has a plan in place. An integral part of that are SROs, Steffes said.

“An SRO’s primary role is student safety. They are not there to arrest students or to enforce the law, their goal is to build relationships with students and be accessible if a student needs them. Our goal is to have an SRO in every school,” Steffes said.

SROs go through training including ALICE, which is an active shooter training program that helps law enforcement and others create and establish a plan.

“There are different aspects of training to prepare for an active shooter situation. SROs are trained in ALICE and are able to come back to school and implement the strategies they have learned,” Steffes said. “Currently, whoever is on the scene first, in most cases this would be the SRO, is to go in immediately and address the threat.”

Currently, every public school in Morris has an SRO, with the exception of Saratoga Elementary School. The city of Morris included two additional SROs in the May budget and offered to have an SRO at the school.

The Saratoga Board of Education declined before it was brought to a vote, citing that the school could better use the funds towards Social-Emotional Learning or SEL, a process that helps develop students interpersonal skills to prepare them for the future.

“There was a discussion at the board level and the board decided that hiring a SRO was not a good use of funds and that we would much rather use those funds on positions that directly impact students’ SEL needs,” school board President Ann McDonnell said.

McDonnell cited the lack of high or violent crimes at Saratoga as another reason the “funds would be better spent on staff that are comprehensively trained and certified to work with young children.”

Each school with an SRO pays an hourly fee for the hours the officers are at the school. The officers’ training, benefits, car and laptop are all paid for by the city.

Grundy County has covered seven schools with one SRO responsible for Nettle Creek, two schools in Mazon, two in Gardner, one in Braceville and one in South Wilmington.

“One police officer for seven schools is not ideal, but it was the best I could do with our resources,” Grundy County Sheriff Ken Briley said.