Lawrenceburg Schools Will Put An Armed Police Officer In Each Building

Improving school security became a priority following the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

The Greendale Redevelopment Commission met on Tuesday, April 17 and approved funding to help Lawrenceburg Community Schools hire three additional school resource officers. Photo provided.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - Lawrenceburg Community Schools may be the first in southeastern Indiana to put a school resource officer in each school building.

The Greendale Redevelopment Commission voted to approve $110,000 in funding to help the school district hire three new, armed school resource officers for the 2018-2019 school year.

Superintendent Karl Galey says improving school security became a priority following the Valentine’s Day shooting in Parkland, Florida.

“If you have active or an armed intruder in the building, the number one thing that we need is someone there to be able to mitigate or be able to stop that right away. Having an armed security guard that’s trained in police tactics and those resources is what we need in the buildings,” says Galey.

Like most other area school districts, Lawrenceburg currently has just one resource officer to serve its four schools.

Starting next school year, the four SROs will be in classrooms and circulating through the buildings. Administrators will soon be meeting with the Lawrenceburg Police Department to craft a more specific set of responsibilities and requirements.  

Galey adds that the school district plans to use the Greendale Redevelopment Commission’s investment to help capture up to $50,000 more from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security’s Indiana Secured School Safety Grant program. Due to a large number of requests from Indiana school districts for a share of the $10 million available each year, the program is likely to receive an additional $5 million in funding when Indiana lawmakers return for a special session in May.

The Greendale Redevelopment Commission’s investment for Lawrenceburg Community Schools includes another $90,000 toward a project to replace the roofs on each school this summer, according to Galey.