SARATOGA SPRINGS — At their recent board meeting, the Saratoga Springs School District decided unanimously to staff a second security resource officer (SRO) to the school district.
According to the board minutes, the agreement to add one more SRO to the district is on a term through from Feb. 1, 2019, through June 30, 2019 and will be up for renewal at the conclusion of the term.
There was an ongoing debate between the school board and Saratoga Parents for Safer Schools (SPFSS) when the district first announced their decision to no longer authorize the school monitors to carry firearms.
“And in May, we will remember that these board members chose to put their personal politics ahead of the safety for our children,”
stated SPFSS.
The decision to vote on allowing grounds monitors to carry firearms while performing duties, occurred after it was brought to light that the existing armed monitors were not in compliance with state law. At that time, the Board of Education (BOE) voted no.
After months of active debates over the methods to ensure student safety, the BOE decided to take a vote as to how to proceed in a manner that both the administration and the taxpaying parents can agree on – staffing SRO’s.
Saratoga Parents for Safer Schools believe while this is an improvement, it does not quite suffice to their safety standards. “While this is a tiny step in the right direction, one more SRO in a district of 6000 students’ faculty and staff does very little to ensure the safety of the students,” stated the Saratoga Par-ents for Safer Schools.
The Saratoga Springs school district now has two SROs for their 6,000 students. The National Association of School Resource Officers advises that a school district utilizing SROs should have 1 per 1,000 students.
Many parents feel that the school board took personal politics into consideration, and did not represent, nor include the local community in a decision that directly affects them and their kids.
