Most class A schools in or around our district have a School Resource Officer (SRO). An SRO is an officer who has the responsibility for preventing any sort of crime, and keeping students and staff safe. While most schools have an officer, Fremont continues to struggle finding someone to fill this position.
Unfortunately, due to past altercations and false rumors, there is no longer an SRO. Many students were spreading harmful things about him. One thing that they were doing was hanging posters on the walls with his face and damaging his reputation.
Why would an officer step into this position if they saw what happened to the last SRO?
Kevan Kavan, security director for FPS, explained reasons as to why we do not have an officer enrolled, and what happened to our previous SRO.
“The Fremont police officer that was assigned to our school district as a School Resource Officer had back surgery in August of 2023.” Kavan siad. “It was supposed to be a 4-6 month recovery period, however, during his recovery he encountered unexpected setbacks and is still not cleared to full duty status.
“In addition to the medical care, Kavan sheds light about the status of the police department. “The Fremont Police Department also experienced the departure of several officers and they are very short on manpower.” Kavan said. “They did not have the manpower available to backfill the SRO position while the officer is on injury leave.”
Without an SRO, students have noticed a big change in behavior ever since our previous one left. We asked a few students their opinion on if an SRO is necessary. Many students had agreed that we need one and gave reasons as to why.
“There is a big issue with smoking weed and vaping at school, and physical fights.” Zoey said.
With the recent fights and threats going on, Fremont would greatly benefit having an officer at the schools.
“It would be nice to have an SRO in the school” Aislinn said. “It would possibly feel safer.”
The ongoing problem of students smoking and fighting at schools is awful, this is why it would be helpful to have an SRO in the buildings at all times during the school day. Teachers do a lot, such as bathroom duty between classes, finding time to grade and plan for their next class. Most of them don’t have the time to teach, and try to prevent these bad things from happening at the same time.
The school has advertised not one, but two positions for an SRO. 2 advertisements have been sent because with how bad these schools are getting with fighting and vandalism, one might not be enough. These advertisements have been sent out to the whole district for over a year now. If hired, the SRO’s will work at the school for the school year and then return to the city during the summer break.
An SRO could keep the school protected from internal and external threats. The high school needs to prioritize hiring qualified security guards and an SRO to ensure that these schools stay safe. Fremont High School has been and will continue to be unsafe and at higher risk as long as we do not have a school resource officer.
