Onondaga (WSYR-TV) - They walk the halls, keeping an eye on our kids, giving them advice and sometimes even breaking up fights. Now, in many school districts, they're fighting shrinking budgets that would take them out of the schools.
Lafayette, Tully and Skaneateles, are just some of the districts that have already seen police pulled from the hallways. Next school year, Onondaga will also be without a resource officer.
The job required Deputy John Bloodgood to be a jack of all trades. He walked the halls to help the teachers and staff, but was there mostly on behalf of the students. He was the watchful eye over Onondaga Central High School, but no more. Budget cuts have taken him away from the halls he once helped to keep safe.
"It's more than just the safety of the school, a big part of the SRO program is also developing relationships with students," Deputy Bloodgood said. "[Students] need someone they can rely on and trust, separate from the school."
Struggling with budget issues, the decision to cut the 75,000 dollar per year resource officer position was a painful choice to make. "It's the loss of a team member," Superintendent Joe Rotella said. "Are we a safe school district? Yes, we certainly are. Are we safer with an SRO? Yes, so we'll need to devote as much energy and resources as we can to supplement the loss of a resource officer."
Like Onondaga Central, more schools are doing away with the resource officers that had come to be thought of as a necessity.
Central Square is one of the districts that has already done away with resource officers, and both the Mayor and Police Chief say that police calls to the high school are way up.
Central Square patrolman Matthew Jones, has found himself making more trips to the high school. He says it is a big disadvantage to not have a resource officer on campus. "When she was up there, she dealt with all the stuff herself. I was up there, maybe once to help her out," he said.
Since September, Central Square police have responded to 35 calls at the school for crimes like theft, drugs, and assaults. Previously, there were only a few such calls every year.
Chief Harland Fox says it takes a larger toll on the part-time police department than he or the Mayor anticipated. "When they're at the school, they're not on the road, sometimes they are there for a short time, other times for a considerable length of time," he said.
"When she was here, her impact on students, and teaching them respect for law enforcement and stopping them before they get out of hand, our crime rate for juveniles went down. It's changed," Mayor Millard Murphy said.
Now, they would like nothing more than to reverse the change, and restore their resource officer. Officers that have prevented typical teen drama from escalating into violence, now face the battle of shrinking budgets.
The Onondaga Central Schools Superintendent says they'll have meetings to figure out if there's any way to restore the position, plus additional safety measures will be in place.
When checking in with other school districts on the effects of losing their officers, superintendents had a variety of answers. Tully and Skaneateles say they found no significant changes. But they all agreed on one; they miss the positive influence the officers had on students.
