Cherry Hill district to arm campus officers, hire more
CHERRY HILL NJ April 21 2018 – The school district is arming its campus police officers as “the next step in our enhanced security,” Superintendent Joseph Meloche said Friday.
Four campus officers “will be armed beginning on Monday” at the district’s East and West high schools, Meloche said in a letter to parents. Two officers will be stationed at each school.
The district plans to hire five more campus officers for the 2018-19 school year, he added.
“These new officers will be assigned to the middle schools and elementary schools,” Meloche said.
Township police officers, armed and in uniform, have been assigned to Cherry Hill schools since March 5 in response to a school shooting that took 17 lives in Parkland, Fla. The officers were to remain through the end of the school year.
With the change, township police officers will no longer be assigned to the district’s high schools, although they “will still conduct occasional walk-throughs,” said Meloche.
He said three township officers will remain at the middle schools and four will stay at the elementary schools.
The district has 19 schools.
Meloche added the district’s director of security has been armed since March 28, one day after the school board approved the new policy.
He said the campus officers are “fully credentialed” by the state Police Training Commission “and have all worked for police departments outside the school district.”
Meloche noted the district has implemented “a number of enhanced security protocols” in recent weeks.
Among the changes, students’ guardians, parents and family members now are required to present photo ID and a student’s identification number before being admitted to a school building.
In addition, staffers will be required to sign in each day and wear ID badges.
The superintendent and the board faced large crowds demanding tougher security measures at sometimes-angry meetings in the wake of the Parkland shootings.
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