Beaufort Co. elementary schools are getting armed private security guards
Beaufort County SC Sept 28 2021 Beaufort County School District is hiring an armed private security guard for each of its elementary schools, nearly two years after the idea was originally pitched.
At Tuesday night’s school board meeting, the board approved a contract with S & S Management Group LLC, doing business as GuardOne Security, to provide security guard services for the district.
The 10-0-1 vote came one week after a Beaufort Elementary School student brought a handgun and loaded magazine to school in his backpack. William Smith abstained, saying he had missed part of the closed-session discussion and that he had concerns about the arresting powers of the contractors.
According to district spokesperson Candace Bruder, the district will hire 18 security guards, “ensuring each elementary school has one, to include the early childhood centers,” and a supervisor through the contract.
The contract itself which will include details on cost and the responsibilities of the guards, including whether or not they have the power to make arrests — won’t be made public until the “protest period” for both parties ends on Oct. 1.
“Once the protest period ends, a company representative will be touring all of these schools with district Director of Protective Services, Dave Grissom,” Bruder said. “After these site visits are complete, qualification and hiring processes will commence.”
Bruder said the district is “still in negotiations” for the price of the contract but noted that the annual budget for security is $905,000.
Each district middle and high school has its own school resource officer assigned from Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office or a town police department. In 2019, the budget for those officers was around $1 million.
The district’s elementary schools have been sharing five community resource officers who also police the county’s private schools. In total, the five officers patrol more than 30 schools, which has led to infrequent campus visits in past years. The exceptions to that rule are Red Cedar and Port Royal Elementary School, which each got their own school resource officers during the 2019-20 school year.
The district’s $274 million annual budget for the 2021-22 year included a $1 million line item to hire 15 private security guards, and in 2019 Grissom estimated that hiring guards for each elementary school would cost around $900,000. If all of those private guards were replaced by school resource officers from local law enforcement agencies, it would cost an additional $900,000, he said at the time.
The request for security guards at each elementary school was originally made in 2019 by school board member Rachel Wisnefski.
According to the S.C. Department of Education’s annual report card, Beaufort County School District recorded one incident of possession of a firearm or explosive on campus during the 2020-21 school year.
That number is already on the rise — at least two students have brought firearms to district schools in the last month.
On Sept. 10, Robert Smalls International Academy principal Tarrance Bradley found an unloaded airsoft pistol in the backpack of a sixth grade student. According to a report from Beaufort County Sheriff’s office, the student told police “he had no intention of harming anyone and only wanted to impress a girl he liked along with his friends.”
The student, whose name is not public because he is a minor, was released to his grandmother and petitioned to Family Court for bringing the weapon to campus.
On Sept. 13, Beaufort Elementary School staff found found a magazine loaded with ammunition and a black handgun in a student’s backpack.
He allegedly told police he brought the weapon for “self-defense,” according to a report from the Beaufort Police Department. The student was released to his mother and petitioned to Family Court.
Island Packet
