JHS School Resource Officer Jeremy Maggio learns how to create a candle holder from clay with art students, Letizia Nardella and Helene Gruhn, during Studio in Crafts class. Submitted photo

Shortly after the Columbine High School shooting in 1999, Deputy Wes Johnson became a full-time school resource officer for the Bemus Point Central School District.

But after five years he left the district. Today, he works for the Silver Creek Central School District and Bemus Point no longer has an SRO.

And Bemus isn’t alone.

Out of the 18 school districts in Chautauqua County, nine do not have any school resource officers. Along with Bemus Point, other county school districts without an SRO include Cassadaga Valley, Chautauqua Lake, Clymer, Frewsburg, Panama, Pine Valley, Ripley, and Sherman.

Randolph and Gowanda school districts in Cattaraugus County both have school resource officers from their Sheriff’s Department.

Following the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, The Post-Journal/OBSERVER reached out to all 20 schools to ask if they have a school resource officer, who they’re with, and if they don’t, do they have any plans to add an officer in the next school year. Of the nine school districts without an officer, only Chautauqua Lake and Frewsburg said they were “exploring options” but neither have a contract in place. The other seven schools either do not have any plans to bring one on in the fall or declined to answer the question.

Along with Silver Creek, Brocton and Forestville have school resource officers through the Sheriff’s Office. Dunkirk has its SRO through the Dunkirk Police Department. The Ellicott Police Department staffs SROs for both Falconer and Southwestern school districts. The Westfield Police Department provides the SRO for the Westfield Academy and Central School District.

Jamestown Public Schools currently has one school resource officer through its city police department and plans to add another.

“We are adding an additional SRO for next year who will focus on the younger grades in a ‘DARE-type’ educational role,” said School Superintendent Kevin Whitaker, referring to the national Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

Fredonia is the only school district that does not utilize its local police force for its officer. Instead, they have their own staff member serve that role.

“We have a school safety advisor which is a civil service title,” Superintendent Brad Zilliox said in an email. “Tim Kachelmeyer currently serves in this role and has done an outstanding job for our district over the past three years. He brings both military and NYS Trooper background and experience to our safety plans, protocols, and procedures.”

ROLE OF SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS

Sheriff James Quattrone supports having officers in schools. Along with Brocton, Forestville and Silver Creek, the Sheriff’s Office also provides a deputy at the BOCES alternative education campus in Cassadaga, and another who splits time between Fredonia and Ashville. Even though the individuals are employed by the Sheriff’s Office, they’re paid by the school districts through established contracts.

First and foremost, Quattrone believes having a deputy in schools can help foster relationships between students and police in general. “I think the relationships are important to give the student a comfort in contacting law enforcement when needed. They can look at it as a partnership versus animosity you see sometimes with the public regarding law enforcement,” he said.

Quattrone also believes just having an officer on campus can be a deterrent for crimes and violence. “If the deterrence doesn’t work, then at least we have somebody that’s trained there that can more effectively respond to stop the threat,” he added.

SROs, Quattrone said, work with all students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. At Forestville, students there are in multiple buildings, so the SRO stops in all student buildings.

According to Zilliox, their safety officer in Fredonia helps run a number of programs in the school. “He works with our teachers to deliver information to our students about bike safety, car seat checks, social media safety, bullying, cyber bullying, and substance abuse. Tim is a visible presence throughout the district and is the point person for all our safety drills,” he said.

Quattrone said that’s true at their districts as well. “The schools have them sometimes share instructional time as needed on safety and different topics that the schools determine that maybe the officer could have some special knowledge,” he said.

Other times the officers are put to use for the school includes extracurricular activities like sporting events or dances. “It’s not only to provide a security aspect to it, but to give the opportunity to build a relationship outside of the classroom,” Quattrone said.

LOVE OF STUDENTS

Deputy Johnson has been with the Silver Creek School District since late 2016, a job he continues to love.

For the youngest children, he spends his time teaching them about 911, bicycle safety, and how to recite their address from memory. “With little kids we want to build what they’re going to use when they get older. … We do a lot about not touching something if we don’t know what it is, especially with the legalization of marijuana,” he said.

For older teenagers, he’ll discuss with them about their feelings toward police after getting a speeding ticket, or how to handle their emotions when their parents are getting a divorce. “A lot of times we wear the counseling hat when we’re in the high school,” he said.

When Johnson first began working at Bemus Point, the idea of a school resource officer wasn’t really well known and there were a lot of misconceptions. “A lot of people looked at my role there was to arrest kids when really that’s the last thing we want to do. Our job is to protect kids, not arrest them,” he said.

Today, he said, the public has a much better understanding of what a school resource officer does.

Johnson loves going into classes and seeing students and re-connecting with them after graduation.

Johnson’s wife is the school nurse at Silver Creek, so the two of them are well known to the student body. “(Superintendent) Todd Crandall calls us the dynamic duo in the building. If there’s ever an issue then they call one of us and it gets solved one way or the other,” he said.

In fact Johnson had plans to retire in August, but those plans have been shelved, as the district has extended its contract with the sheriiff’s office for another two years. “This community fosters the SRO program so well. It makes me thankful that I get to go to work every day. I hop out of bed in the morning and I’m ready to go. You get to come in, you get to talk to kids, you get to watch kids, you get to watch them smile when they see you walking down the hall. It’s a great thing,” he said.

That doesn’t mean the program doesn’t have its challenges. Johnson notes how the opioid crisis has really affected students today. “We’re seeing kids come into the school system now that maybe were born to parents that were using or were addicted to opioids. We’re seeing a whole different type of problems with learning, problems with kids not believing that they have to follow anybody’s direction,” he said.

Technology, too, has its own challenges. With social media, Johnson said it’s easy to get the word out to the student body, however, when something bad happens, like a fight, everyone is recording and sharing it. “Social media can be quite a blessing and quite a hindrance at the same time,” he said.

FUNDING OFFICERS

Local schools are responsible for paying the salary and benefits of a school resource officer. In the latest approved contract with the Sheriff’s Office, each school will spend $100,847 to pay for their officer. Quattrone notes that can be a hindrance for school districts. When COVID hit, he said the SRO was often among the programs on the chopping block.

He added that Rep. Chris Jacobs, R-Orchard Park, introduced federal legislation in February to help fund SROs.

According to Jacob’s website, the School Resource Officer Act notably has the following provisions:

¯ Authorization of Appropriations: Authorizes the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program in the Department of Justice at $500,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2026.

¯ Reserves Funding Specifically for School Resource Officers: Not less than 30% of funding for hiring programs within the COPS program will be used to pay the salaries and benefits of school resource officers.

¯ Awarded Grant Terms: Federal funds may provide up to 75% of salary and benefits of full-time officers with a 25% minimum local cash match requirement. Maximum federal share cap is increased to $125,000 per officer position.

The proposed legislation has not been enacted.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the state Assembly following the Uvalde shooting where 19 children and two teachers were killed May 24.