Proposal: Put armed school resource officers on all Lee County campuses

LEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – With the debate and discussion ramping up about how to prevent school shootings, a local sheriff and superintendent of education have joined forces to help ensure student safety.

The proposal would place armed school resource officers at the six campuses currently without a law enforcement presence.   Sheriff Jim Johnson says it would be a strong deterrent.

“You don’t know how many kids lives and teachers lives have been saved, just by the presence of that officer and somebody saying, ‘ there’s an officer there, I better not try this today,” Sheriff Johnson said.

Lee County School Superintendent Jimmy Weeks has agreed for the district to split the cost , covering three of the six deputies.   The first year would cost the county and the school district about $190,000 each. The first year is also more expensive, because of additional training involved.  Weeks believes it is a necessary investment.

“We have teachers in our school district and we’ve done a lot of training and I have no doubt in my mind that if something were to happen our teachers would step up and do the best they could do, but we’re school teachers, we haven’t been trained in how to approach someone or deal with a situation of that magnitude and that gravity,” Superintendent Weeks said.

Supervisors appeared to be in favor of paying their share , but they want to be sure they have the revenue stream to do so.   Board President Mike Smith says it could mean a small tax increase to fund the officers, but he believes taxpayers are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure students are safe.

“The safety of our kids should be of utmost importance, should be the top thing on my priority list in my opinion, and anything we can do to help take care of them, our own safety included, but especially our kids, they are not big enough to take care of themselves and it’s our responsibility,” Board President Smith said.

Supervisors will look at the numbers with the county administrator.  They could give the go ahead in a couple of weeks.

There are armed, school resource officers, or other law enforcement officers, on eight Lee County school campuses .