Safety And Oro Valley's Schools

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How safe are Oro Valley's schools? That's a question on the minds of many of our families here in Oro Valley, after the horrific elementary school massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown Ct. on Friday.

Could Oro Valley's schools be safer because of Oro Valley's (SRO) program?  We've posted about the SRP program several times in the past two weeks.  Read these articles to familiarize yourself with the program.

Oro Valley's SRO program puts officers as resident in the five Amphi School District schools. These officers have liaison relationship with the other schools, such as Pucsh Ridge Academy.

SRO's are involved in the security of our schools.  This places a police car in front of the school makes our children safer.  At the high school level, these insane crimes are committed by students.  Hopefully, the simple knowledge that our cops are in the school deters the crazies.

If something does happen, our teacher's and our administrators have been prepared by our officers on what to do.  They have learned to save lives by:

• LOCKing the classroom
• PULLing the shades
• HIDE in the corners or elsewhere

That is the school lockdown process. It was derived from the "Run-Hide-Fight" methodology.

"Generally, a shooter who encounters a locked door, goes to the next door. The lockdown process makes it harder on the shooter," noted Lt. Curtiss Hicks of the Oro Valley Police Department.  "In a High School setting, the shooter is generally a student. "  Having them encounter an unfamiliar, more difficult situation throws the off their game-plan, hopefully saving lives.

Because officers are resident in the schools, response time is virtually immediate.  Response time is critical in responding to these insane situations.  "Our children are citizens," noted Lt. Kara Riley of the Oro Valley Police Department.  "They are entitled to public safety.  For us to assign an SRO to a school is like us sending a patrolman on a call."

Council Member Joe Hornat believes that the the presence of an officer in the school serves as a deterrent:  "The SRO gets to know who the students are.  Students feel comfortable with people who don't have a direct effect on their daily lives.  The SRO meets with students; provides intervention."

This "intervention" aspect of the SRO program is critical because, according to Lt. Hicks, it is not possible to completely secure a school.  "There isn't a school that can be completely locked. There are people coming and going all day."  It is the physical size and layout of the campus  of our larger schools make complete physical security impossible.  Unfortunately, if someone is absolutely bent on creating havoc they will simple blast their way in.

Each quarter, the schools run quarterly lockdown drills.  Annually, the SRO's review and evaluate school emergency procedures, with the goal of recommending improvements.

The safety of our school children is paramount to everyone with whom we spoke.   For some, however, the question is not whether or not the SRO program is an effective deterrent or effective response.  Rather, it is about:

• Who should fund the program: At present, Oro Valley pays $700,000 annually for this program.  Amphi reimburses Oro Valley for one SRO.  They argue that the Amphi School District is responsible for safety of our children and that the school district should pay for the program.
• The funding method of this program:  It is funded by an Oro Valley utility tax.  How does a utility tax relate, any way, to police services? and
• The fact that SRO's do not have a specific job description and a documented training program.

All of these are topics for future discussion.

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