OAKWOOD — While Hall County teachers spent the day Monday preparing for students to return to class after a winter break, school administrators were in a day-long meeting learning the ins-and-outs of the school resource officer program.
The seminar, which was held at The Oaks At Lanier Charter Career Academy, was the first of its kind, according to Hall County Sheriff's Capt. Joe Carter. The SROs, as they are commonly known, and the school administrators got the first look at a new training curriculum for the officers.
"We hope with the input from our principals here that we can put this forth as a model, particularly for agencies that are just beginning an SRO program or their SRO program is fairly new," said Carter.
The Hall County School System has one of the premiere SRO programs in the country, winning the 2013 Safe School Leadership Award from the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO). But NASRO Executive Director Mo Canady said there's always room for improvement; thus, the day-long meeting for principals and officers.
He said one of the main issues all SRO programs - not just Hall County - need to address is crime prevention.
"You know, most schools are never going to deal with an act of terrorism or deal with an active shooter, but all schools on a regular basis are going to deal with other things where the SRO can be very engaged and helpful - trespassing, theft, those kind of things we need to keep our attention on," said Canady.
To that end, the school resource officer has to become a trusted member of the school community. Canady said job one for an SRO is developing relationships with the student at his or her school.
"Our number one goal is to bridge the gap between law enforcement and youth," said Canady. "This is a community-based policing project and we want to increase positive attitudes toward law enforcement in communities, certainly, by doing this the right way. When that happens and people are more engaged with their law enforcement and public safety overall in their community, it's going to make it a safer community."
Chestatee High School Principal Suzanne Jarrard was one of 20 who participated in the training session. She said she has seen first-hand the impact of the school resource officer program at CHS.
"Students often will confide in him [the SRO] before they'll confide in a staff member or an administrator or a teacher. They'll go to him with issues, which he then in turn works with us," said Jarrard.
In addition to discussing juvenile crime statistics and new policing practices, the attendees also had a chance to role-play some real-life scenarios that have taken place in other school systems.
The training meeting was conducted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
