Loudoun County’s sheriff is renewing a push to add school resource officers to its 62 elementary schools.
The call from Sheriff Mike Chapman (R) came in response to Loudoun County Public Schools releasing 11 safety recommendations from a months-long “Blue Ribbon Panel” on school security. Adding security personnel to elementary schools was among the ideas.
“It is time for Loudoun County to develop a multi-year plan and identify the necessary funding to ensure the presence of a School Resource Officer (SRO) in LCPS elementary schools, as we have for every middle and high school,” Chapman said in a news release. “The Blue-Ribbon Panel’s recommendations are a helpful starting point for these important discussions.”
Loudoun schools spokesman Dan Adams said the district is in a feedback phase on the recommendations. He said the district is eager to hear more from the community before taking any steps.
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“This is a conversation starter,” Adams said.
The Blue Ribbon Panel met from early December to the beginning of May to assess the school district’s safety protocols. The panel found that the district is “a state and national leader” for school security but offered recommendations for continued improvement, including increasing security personnel at after-school events, improving the WiFi connection in school buildings, and creating an alternative site with increased security for high-risk students.
Schools have long deployed law enforcement personnel in their buildings. According to data from the U.S. Education Department, 45 percent of schools reported hosting school resource officers in their buildings at least once a week in the 2017-2018 school year. That rose to 49 percent in 2019-2020. In 2021-2022, it fell back to 44 percent.
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About 18 percent of elementary schools around the country had at least one full-time resource officer on campus during the 2021-2022 school year, compared with 45 percent of middle schools and 52 percent of high schools. That was up from about 14 percent of elementary schools in 2017-2018.
Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, said the organization saw an uptick in training for officers headed to elementary schools after the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012. Since then, he said, it’s remained more common to see police working with the youngest grades — something that Canady said he supports.
“It’s an opportunity to not only be there to protect the students and staff, but also build relationships,” he said.
Loudoun’s formal school resource officer program was implemented in 1999 after the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado. Since then, it has grown — as has the school district — adding officers in all 36 of Loudoun’s middle and high schools.
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The sheriff’s office proposed expanding the SRO program to elementary schools in 2019. At the time, estimates showed it could cost about $13 million to add resource officers to the 52 elementary schools open in the district at the time.
In early 2020, the Loudoun County School Board rejected the proposal, opting to keep the SRO program limited to middle and high schools. In a memo, board members cited concerns about disproportionate discipline enforcement, opposition from advisory groups and community organizations, and the “inconclusively of the research on SROs.”
Across the nation, some civil rights activists have long worked to remove police from schools, arguing that they pose risks to students of color. Following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police in 2020, several major school systems canceled contracts with police, including in nearby Alexandria and Arlington.
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Alexandria, like many other school districts, later reversed that decision and reinstated its school resource officer program. But Arlington Public Schools remains without the officers in its schools.
Adams, the Loudoun schools spokesman, said that school resource officers are just one type of security presence that could be added to satisfy the recommendation from the Blue Ribbon Panel. He said the district looks forward to collaborating with the community to see what will work best for the district.
Chapman said in the news release that the Blue Ribbon Panel’s recommendations offered another chance for the sheriff’s office, the School Board and the county’s Board of Supervisors to work on the issue of school security.
“We are already doing more to keep our middle and high schools safe,” Chapman said. “And doing more for our elementary school students, teachers, and families is the next step.”
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