Rock Hill Schools add school security officers to their elementary schools
CHARLOTTE, N.C. September 21 2019 You’ve heard of school resource officers, but have you heard of school security officers?
Rock Hill schools are now adding these new security officers to their elementary schools.
The school security officers aren’t replacing the school resource officers, they’re working with them.
The SSO’s will be on campus at each of the 17 elementary schools in the district. They can serve as a first responder to emergency situations, working with law enforcement. They can also help with traffic and pedestrian flow during school let outs and confront anyone who might be on campus that shouldn’t be.
With an SSO, each elementary school will have a dedicated security officer each school day – same expectations an SRO would, but with one difference.
“The difference being the school security officer can’t arrest anyone,” says Director of Communications Rock Hill Schools, Mychal Frost. “So there is that partnership there that if something comes into play and additional support is needed, the responding school resource officer is there to provide that assistance.”
Before this partnership, elementary schools had to share an SRO one or two days of the week – using the closest SRO at a middle or high school.
The district partnered with Allied Universal Security to get these new officers. The current school security budget for the district already allotted funds to add these new officers.
You can expect to start seeing these new SSO’s in all of the elementary schools in the district by the end of September.
WBTV
