In the wake of the Dec. 14 tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, State Representative Bakari Sellers (District 90) called on local and state officials to work together in order to ensure our students' safety by assigning a trained school resource officer to every school.
"Although I am adamantly opposed to the proposed idea of arming our teachers," Rep. Sellers wrote in a letter to school superintendents throughout District 90 (which includes part of Barnwell County), "it is my hope that we can increase the presence of trained law enforcement in our schools to ensure the safety of our community's greatest assets."
In Barnwell County, five school resource officers patrol the halls of area schools, though some are shared among several schools. Barnwell District 45 has two, Barnwell District 19 has one, Williston District 29 has one, and there is one at the Barnwell County Career Center.
Though school resource officers are widely recognized as critical to both preventing and responding to school violence, the cost associated with assigning these officers to every school has proven to be a challenge for many districts across South Carolina, and Rep. Sellers believes the state legislature should help local districts overcome that obstacle.
"We ought to be focused on the best way to protect our children, not the cheapest," he says. "Anything less is unacceptable."
For more information, contact Rep. Sellers at (803) 734-3003.