THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 27, 1995 TAG: 9504270349
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Local school systems throughout the state need additional help and training for police officers who patrol public schools, a group of eastern North Carolina school officials said Wednesday.
Educators from Pasquotank, Carteret and Hyde counties were among a group of about 40 school officials, law enforcement officers and university researchers who were in Raleigh this week to promote a bill for more funding to help local school systems curb violence - and to promote a package of minimum standards for law enforcement officers who patrol.
``Crime doesn't stop just because the school day begins,'' said Sgt. Kenneth Williams, a Cumberland County school resource officer.
Williams was joined by members of the North Carolina Association of Community Alternatives for Youth and the North Carolina Association of School Resource Officers. The group wants a plan that would require police and other law enforcement officers who patrol schools to have two years of experience and to receive formal training to work in the schools.
``We feel that these resource officers are a valuable asset,'' said Judith Wilson of Project Uplift, a program for Pasquotank County middle school students. ``It's helpful to have these resource officers there in the schools.''
Sen. Charlie Albertson, a Duplin County Democrat, said the group's recommendations could probably be accommodated in an appropriations bill that he sponsored with Sen. Ed N. Warren, D-Pitt. The bill would provide more money for more officers statewide.
``I think we can make these proposals part of the whole bill,'' Albertson said.
Albertson and Warren filed legislation earlier this year in the state Senate to establish grants for local school systems that need help paying for police officers. The bill would provide $10 million for each of the next two school years. Money would be appropriated in grants, which would be allocated by the state Board of Education.
``A major priority in North Carolina is to make sure that we have safe schools,'' Warren said. ``I believe this bill is a vehicle for doing this.''
Over 6,000 acts of violence occurred in North Carolina schools in the 1993-94 school year, leading to 2,000 arrests, the lawmakers said.
Citing an increase in school violence, Albertson said that having police officers in the hallways, classrooms and elsewhere on school grounds can be a ``tremendous resource in our efforts to improve school safety.''
Three years ago, Washington City educators were the first in the northeast to bring a police officer into the schools. Through an agreement between the city school board and local police department, a police officer was assigned to patrol the local high school routinely during the school year and coordinate law enforcement needs in other city schools.
Since then, police officers have become regular features in many eastern counties - including Pitt, Onslow and Dare. Several other area schools systems, including Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County schools, contract with security guards.
School resource officers patrol school buildings in 34 of North Carolina's 100 counties, according to the North Caolina Center for the Prevention of School Violence.
Albertson said the legislation would especially help the state's poor and small school systems that could not afford to pay for police or security guard patrols.
The bill has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee. by CNB