Students’already shaky confidence in school safety is likely to fall as Montgomery County cuts its police officer program in the schools, a school board member said. Michael Durso pointed to last year’s 27 “school resource officers” allocated to Montgomery’s 64 high schools and middle schools. But because of budget cuts, the schools have nine officers this year, and Durso expects there to be none by the fall. “A lot of us feel that the presence of a security guard is a deterrent of things,” he said. “I think it’s foolish that we don’t expect an impact from the proposed cuts.”
Montgomery County is operating under a $4.3 billion budget after closing a $1 billion shortfall and is facing a more than $300 million shortfall.
“All around us, school systems have police officers involved. I know Anne Arundel is actually increasing its officer assignments in schools,” Durso said.
Fairfax County has kept a police officer at every public high school and middle school, but the program has been on the list of possible cuts the last two years. Fairfax is working with $3.24 billion in general fund revenue, a 2.48 percent drop from fiscal 2010.
Jim McLain, security coordinator for the schools, called the police officers “our best protection.”
“The community stood up and said find other ways, we’re not cutting the school resource officers.”
