COLUMBUS, Ohio — A decision made by the school board, Columbus City schools will not have school resource officers for the 2021-2022 school year.
With record numbers of violence in the city, some of them being among teens, what protection will CCS students and staff have?
“We still have a lot of security measures in place,” said Chris Ward, the director of safety and security at Columbus City Schools.
Ward has worked with the district for more than a decade, and he said they have hired 20 more school security officers.
That brings their total staff to 104.
Ward said those security officers will spend their time walking the halls protecting and connecting with students at all of the district's high schools, middle schools and some elementary schools.
He also said they will carry only a positive attitude.
“We don’t carry a tool belt with different tools on them,” Ward said. “Our tools rest in our hearts because their main focus is to build relationships with our students.”
CCS also has approximately 6,000 cameras at their disposal to keep an eye on schools and administrative buildings in the district 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“If our security staff sees something that’s going on, that could affect the safety of staff or students, we have the ability to call out to the schools to report what’s going on… but also call out to emergency personnel as well,” Ward said.
“This is another layer of protection that we have for our school our staff our students.”
With a lot of this year’s violence involving high school-aged teens, are these layers enough of a cover?
Ward said that combatting that violence is not only their responsibility but that of CCS parents.
“Every parent should be concerned because violence affects all of us,” he said.
“It really takes a village to raise a child. We want you to get involved, we want you to know what’s going on in your local schools so we can all work together to keep our students safe.”