PERRYSBURG, Ohio — As many school districts trickle back to school this week, school safety is a top priority for teachers, parents and local law enforcement.
In Perrysburg, a School Resource Officer is being added to Hull Prairie Intermediate as another way to keep students and staff safe.
"We felt it was a good time to make this change and add that extra school resource officer," said Perrysburg Police Chief Patrick Jones.
The move was approved by the Perrysburg Board of education late Monday night and immediately went into effect. With this change, there is now school resource officers at three schools in Perrysburg, including the high school, who will be there Monday through Friday for the entire school day. The change was made possible because the Perrysburg school district agreed to take on the responsibility of hiring crossing guards, something the police department was assisting with.
On top of that, Perrysburg police and fire are set to meet with the school district once a month this school year.
"We've made arrangements so we can get into the school if we need to. So even if the school is on lockdown, the officers do have a way to access that school. We train regularly for active shooter type situations. Several years ago the rescue task force concept was introduced. Firefighters and medics actually go into an active shooter scene with officers in order to start treating the wounded," he said.
Chief Jones reinforced that the department trains monthly for active shooter situations and strongly believes having a presence at all schools, every day, is important.