Q. What have you done to prepare schools in St. Clair County for active shooters or violent intruders?

We have officers in each one of the schools more than once a year in response to active shooter training. There are things a person can do to take preventive steps to keep these things from ever bringing themselves to light so we try to focus on that. Ever since I’ve been in office I’ve been fighting to have a school resource officer in place. My long-term goal is to have one stationed at every school. Unfortunately the funding for that kind of staffing is hard to come by. Without the school’s being able to help with the funds that hasn’t come to be yet. At this point I have one and a half officers who concentrate a lot of their time and energy on being visible at the schools and keeping in constant contact with the staff at the schools to find out what is going on, what concerns are present and head things off before they get serious.

Q. This training you do is it like A.L.I.C.E. training that Chief Schiereck puts on at the schools?

Yes, we primarily teach it or a version of it. That’s one of the central active trainings available at the moment.

Q. Do you train the older students as well as the teachers?

The training is primarily for the staff, but we allow the schools themselves to make that determination.

Q. Have you had any incidents in St. Clair County Schools?

We’ve had some incidents that raised some concerns. The difference between the initial reports and what did happen… we’ve been very fortunate, let me put it that way.  For anybody in law enforcement right now, you can never tell what is going to happen, when it’s gong to happen or where it is going to happen. The best you can do is try to prepare for all possible scenarios that you can come up with a try to prevent any of those from actually transpiring.

Q. What do you think about arming school staff?

I am all for anybody who is comfortable with a firearm having a firearm. I am a strong supporter for the 2nd amendment. I do not believe that guns are responsible for bad acts. It’s the person who commits the crime. Look at the situation after the incident in Florida. Several people were injured at a school, but it was with a knife.

Q. I was going to ask if you have had knife incidents in St. Clair County?

We have not had any violent acts at the schools outside of the ones that you and I experienced growing up of people getting into a skirmish. Boys are going to  be boys and kids are going to be kids. We’ve been very lucky.

Q. What kind of additional training do you think school staff should have to carry guns and which school staff members do you think should carry guns?

I would leave that up to the individual schools to decide what they think is best for them.

He said he would support teachers being armed in the classroom if that person wants to carry a gun and is trained on how to not only be proficient, but how to react to situations.

He said, “In law enforcement we are trained in how to be proficient. We are trained in tactics and things that are above and beyond what the normal civilian would need. But once you put yourself into that type of a situation you are going to be the armed person in a setting that you are going to have to act with everybody around you. That training is going to be pretty extensive. It should be done regularly.

Q. I’ve heard 170 hours mentioned.

Oh, yeah. That is probably minimum.

There are so many variables that you have to try to account for and you train to be able to recognize. My biggest concern I guess would be that to be a teacher, you are a nurturer by nature. Law enforcement is very much that same way but we take an extra step knowing that some day we may be faced with a situation where we have to take someone’s life.

You sit down one day and have lunch across from a student and the next day you are staring down the end of a barrel at him and have to decide if you are going to stop him before he does something worse than he has already done. That’s a lot for someone to live with. It’s a lot for a trained officer who has gone through the mental steps and the training.

I would definitely be on board with anybody who wanted to do that at a school if the school is on board with it. And be sure they get as much training as possible.

But I would still love to see the school be able to help me help them and allow me to get an officer stationed at the school from the time the kids get off the bus until the time the teachers leave in the evening. Somebody there who is already trained. Who is doing the steps that they need to do from the perspective that law enforcement takes.

Q. You’ve got quite a bit of distance between you schools. What do you have?

Osceola, Roscoe, Appleton City and Lakeland.

Q. That’s all over the county.

Q. And one resource officer?

I have one fulltime and one basically part-time.

Q. The schools will just have to decide if they want a school resource officer.

I told the schools I would meet them half way. I will do everything on my side to help the public see that this is a worthwhile cause and the expense is justified. The last thing we want to do is be in the reaction mode instead of the proactive mode when it comes to the safety of our kids.

Q. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And if you can spot these potential problem people early…

Ever since we put the program into place with one school resource officer (SRO), he has been outstanding at being able to assist the schools with children who are kind of starting to slip through the cracks and getting them aimed in the right direction. There are several success stories. I can’t give you any of the details.

Q. I don’t want you to.

It’s the difference of having that officer present there is paying for himself well over ten fold, in my mind anyway.

Q. Can you say which school he is active in?

Really. He’s active in all the schools.

Q. Is it mostly high school students who are potential problems?

That is hard to answer. Some of the behavioral issues  are easily recognized by staff as early as third and fourth grade. You see where the path could lead. The faster we can get in there and start being proactive at getting those things corrected  to where the path should be, we are avoiding future problems.

Q. Like in Florida where they reported somebody and nobody paid any attention.

Exactly, we need to make sure the information is flowing both directions – from the schools to us and from us to the schools. It’s not perfect by any means but it definitely far above where it was a few years back.

My belief in the whole SRO program is not what it delivers this year or next year but fruit it will deliver 10 years from now. I was fortunate enough that I grew up in a law enforcement family. My father was a police officer. I never had any fear or apprehension of going up and speaking with an officer. A lot of these students the only contact they have had with  law enforcement office is perceived as negative. So having an officer who is just there, that they see every day, that they basically consider to be a friend or at least another guiding person like a teacher or a counselor can actually pay benefits for years and years and years to come just because they don’t have that fear of walking up to an officer. It opens up that communication. That person is there because they care. They are there to help. That’s just going to benefit everybody in the community.

Q. I was afraid to get into trouble at school because I would have been in more trouble at home. Do you think that changes in society have contributed to discipline problems?

I wouldn’t necessarily put on the parents directly. I think that ever since we have gotten away from being able to have one working parent and both parents having to work, kids spend a lot of time not getting the supervision that they need, not getting the direct care and nurturing that a parent or loved one gives. I think that is one of the things that has kind of gone awry in our country.

He said he thought that social media contributes to problems. “When I was a kid, if you got bullied on the playground, you went home and it was over. Now hundreds of people can get involved over the internet from other areas of the country.”

Q. Anything else you want to tell people?

I think this is a great country. I think that guns are absolutely instrumental in the safety and security of every person that’s out there.

Q. Everything we put a high value on we protect with guns.

Exactly, except for… our kids. I’m a deep believer in gun free zones are prime target zones for those wanting to cause carnage. I don’t think it is proper for every student, every teacher and every staff member to be armed. I think we can take steps before we get anywhere close to that point. Anything can be a good tool or a weapon of destruction. It’s all up to the person who is controlling it.

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