Collegedale police are placing the department’s first school resource officer at Collegedale Academy, the city said Tuesday.
The position will be paid jointly by the school and city, after the Collegedale City Commission and the academy’s board both voted to fund it, according to a news release from the city.
“The school pays the city of Collegedale 10 months of the officer’s salary, which covers the months that school is in session,” Collegedale Assistant Chief Jamie Heath said in an email. “The city solely funds the position during the summer months that school is not in session.”
The new role comes after a March shooting at Nashville’s private Covenant School left six people and the shooter dead.
Officer Cordario Eatmon was hired to fill the position, a first for the private Christian school, around two months ago, according to the department. Eatmon previously worked at the Murfreesboro Police Department and the Tennessee Department of Correction, the release said.
“If I get to change the mindset of students for the positive, then I think I’m doing a good job,” Eatmon said in Tuesday’s release. “I pursued this SRO position because I wanted to have a positive impact on the lives of young people.”
Collegedale Police Department / School Resource Officer Cordario Eatmon and Collegedale Academy Head of School Brent Baldwin speak at a school assembly on Tuesday.Eatmon has a degree in criminal justice from the University of Alabama and hopes to start earning a master’s degree within the year, according to the release.
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His salary will start at $51,131 plus benefits and a take-home car, according to Heath and a job posting.
Hamilton County in August announced its public schools are fully staffed with school resource officers from the Sheriff’s Office for the first time in years, thanks to state funding pushed by Gov. Bill Lee in the wake of the Covenant shooting.
That funding also included money for officers in charter schools and security measures like cameras for private schools but did not include officers for private schools.
“After the shooting in Nashville, a large percentage of our families began to ask the question about a full-time SRO,” Collegedale Academy Head of School Brent Baldwin said in a previous release. “As for the future, I believe it would be vital to have a representative group of private school administrators meet with Gov. Lee to discuss common areas of interest.”
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.