As schools across the country grapple with safety concerns, Catoosa County Superintendent Denia Reese hopes to bring more police officers to campuses.
Reese will meet with the Catoosa County Commission on Tuesday evening to discuss hiring school resource officers for their elementary schools. Currently, spokeswoman Marissa Brower said, seven school resource officers cover the county’s middle schools and high schools, as well as the Catoosa Performance Learning Center.
Reese wants to add officers to the district’s 10 elementary schools.
Politicians and public education officials have debated how best to secure campuses since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 students and teachers died on Feb. 14. Fears struck closer to North Georgia last week, when a Dalton High School teacher locked students out of his room and fired a shot out the window.
In Catoosa County, school officials adopted a strategic plan thee years ago that included hiring officers for their elementary schools. Still, Brower conceded that the recent shootings have weighed on officials’ minds.