Fauquier County VA July 19 2018 A total of 109 people have so far applied for 15 new school-security positions planned to ensure all of Fauquier County’s 20 schools are equipped with armed guards when the new school year begins in August.

That’s according to Fauquier County Sheriff Bob Mosier, who gave the Fauquier County School Board an update July 9 on the hiring process for new school security personnel.

Of the 109 applicants, 13 were found to be qualified for the new positions, which must be filled by current or former law-enforcement officers who have left their departments within the last 10 years.

Two of the 13 were disqualified for issues of “moral turpitude,” Mosier told the board, explaining the applicants did not pass the sheriff’s department’s background checks for the new hires.

Still, the sheriff’s office will soon fill eight of the open positions and hopes to have all 15 positions filled, and their new occupants trained, by the time school starts Aug. 15, Mosier said.

“I realize that’s ambitious, but by the start of the school year, these [school security officers] will be handed over to you,” Mosier said.

The sheriff’s department is still working to hire one school-resource officer and 10 additional school-security officers, Mosier said.

The county’s goal is to have school resource officers in every middle and high school as well as at Southeastern Alternative School and Claude Thompson and Mary Walter elementary schools.

The two elementary schools were chosen because they are farthest from the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Warrenton. Claude Thompson is in Marshall, while Mary Walter is in Bealeton.

School resource officers, sometimes called SROs, are sworn law-enforcement officers who are employed by law-enforcement agencies but work in schools. The officers are permitted to carry guns. They typically perform routine security duties as well as other tasks, including teaching occasional classes and interacting with students. Part of the goal for SROs is to familiarize the students with law-enforcement officials.

The Fauquier County Board of Supervisors decided last May to augment the sworn officers with “school security officers” at each of the three high schools and at nine of the elementary schools that will not have SROs. The county dedicated more than $776,000 to the new positions last spring.

By state law, the school security officers must also be former law-enforcement officers who left their departments in good standing, either because of retirement or some other reason. They must also have specialized state Department of Criminal Justice Services training in firearms, active-shooter situations and school security issues.

The Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office is taking the lead on recruiting, screening and hiring the new officers. Once they are trained, they will become school division employees, Mosier said.

But before the non-sworn officers are permitted to carry guns in school, Mosier must sign a document saying they are qualified to do so.

“The hitch in the get-along from the very beginning was that I had to sign a document, by law, to allow that former or retired officer to carry a gun in school,” Mosier said. “And I didn’t feel comfortable doing that unless I could do a full background check.”

At the end of the process, the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office should have 11 SROs working in county schools, and the school division will have 12 SSOs.

Last school year, the school division had eight SRO, which were placed at each middle and high school, as well as two unarmed school security guards working at two of the three high schools.

The Fauquier County Board of Supervisors voted in May to authorize the additional positions to address concerns about school safety in the wake of a rash of school shootings last year, including the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 students and teachers and left another 17 injured.

fauquier.com

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