City Council questioned about SRO removal

Clarion Top News

Tuesday, 21 November 2023 12:19

Dr. Gary Speers, Scottsboro Board of Education member, recently appeared at the Scottsboro City Council meeting to speak to council members regarding the School Resource Officer program. Speers began by thanking the Council for allowing him to speak. He then stated, “I would like to start by asking a question to the council. How many of you have children, grandchildren and family members that are involved in the Scottsboro City School System? I’m concerned about the slashing of the SRO programs in our school districts to provide savings to the City of Scottsboro’s budget to the tune of approximately $100,000 per year. At what price do we withdraw or sacrifice the safety of our children, schools, staff members to generate greater savings into the city’s coffers? An example might be asking Chief Latimer or the staff of the Scottsboro Police Department to adjourn for tonight and go home and remain until 7 o’clock in the morning before reporting for duty. We can agree, police presence is needed. In 2023, I got this report from Education Week, of school shootings this year. There have been 35 school shootings this year, that resulted in injuries and deaths according to this report. There have been 179 such shootings since 2018. There were 51 shootings with injuries or death last year, the most in any single year since Education Weekly began tracking this in 2018. There were 35 in 2021, 10 in 2020, 24 each for 2019 and 2018. The latest situation that has taken place has been a 15-year-old male student was shot in the parking lot in Indianapolis, Indiana. The closest shooting according to this analysis is in Tennessee and Georgia. They’re our neighbors.”

Council President Richard Bailey interrupted Speers and said, “Dr. Speers, do you mind me stepping in for just a second? Apparently, you’ve got some misinformation.”

Speers replied, “Okay, well I’m going to finish.”

Bailey responded, “Okay, and then I’ll tell you what your misinformation is.”

Speers stated, “Okay. I’m glad you said that, because I hope I do have misinformation.”

Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy interjected, “I’d like to know where this misinformation is coming from.”

Speers then stated, “I talked to all of the administrators today and it is imperative that we keep our school program, our SRO program at the schools. Yes, virtually impossible to do without it. Most definitely it’s needed. Absolutely needed, much like another teacher, another set of eyes, they have a good repour, they’re trusted. They’re valuable employees and cannot imagine doing the job without them. So, we may not have any shootings, but there are some threats, some intimidation, disorderly conduct, and there has been, as recently as last week, a third grader bringing knives to school. Some of these threats are pretty prominent in the fourth and fifth grade. And, as I prepare to close, Mr. Bailey, what is the status of the safety program and funding the SRO programs for Scottsboro City Schools? If I recall this is generally the time for budgets, this is the time that budgets are developed, and I don’t know if they’ve been approved yet. But cooperation, collaboration and communication are crucial during these times. Are the cost-cutting measures fiduciary and a requirement, are they personal, are they politically motivated and do they serve the interests of a few or the best interest of our city? I’m asking you to reconsider eliminating this very vital component of our school district’s safety plan. Thank you for your time.”

Bailey then began, “I appreciate your speech and like I said, I could have stopped you early. Whatever misinformation you’ve been given, this council, mayor and police chief are actually working on a program right now that will put SROs in your schools longer than they are right now. Yes, it will save the city money. That is our job, is to save the city money.”

Speers questioned, “Is that longer in the fact that they can remain longer but not be full time employees?”

Bailey replied, “There will be a different title. Yes, they can make more money than a regular retiree. So, we are going to look at a program that can actually keep them in our schools for a lot longer than they are now. So, your kids are covered more for less money.”

McCamy interjected, “I would be interested to know where you got this information?”

Speers replied, “These facts I brought to you today, on these reports right here, you can get them on the internet. And that’s why I said I was concerned because I was hearing we were eliminating our SRO program.”

Bailey responded, “No sir.”

Council member Donna Frederick could be heard stating, “No.”

Bailey than stated, “Dr. Speers, I believe you’ve been hoodooed into coming to this meeting.”

Speers stated, “Maybe misinformed.”

Bailey laughed and said, “We can put it that way if you’d like.”

Council member Ralph Dawe stated, “We have no intention of eliminating the program.”

Bailey also stated, “We are looking at trying to keep our kids more covered and save the city money at the same time. That’s a plus plus, wouldn’t you say?”

Speers agreed, “I would say plus plus. So, those individuals that are part time working six hours a day, will they be bumped up to eight hours a day?”

Bailey replied, “That will be something we will have to discuss with Mrs. Childress and your board.”

McCamy stated, “Mr. President if I could, they can only work 29½ hours a week now. This will increase that.”

Council member Nita Tolliver stated, “Dr. Speers, me working for the city, and I have a child in there, I would not ever turn a blind eye and not have an SRO officer in our schools. I know how important it is. I work eight hours a day and I want an SRO officer there.”

Bailey interjected, “I have a wife there. I don’t want to pull them out.”

Tolliver continued, “I mean we’d be going backwards in time if we did something like that. And I hate that you have been sitting here with information that was not correct.”

Council member Mike Ashburn stated, “In my first term, my first year, I was the one who made the motion to add the SRO program.”

Speers questioned, “So, am I hearing that we will have five SROs, full time or more?”

Ashburn responded, “It is according to what you designate full time. We are saying they’re going to have more hours.”

Bailey agreed, “We will have them in the schools more hours than what you do now.”

Speers then stated, “I’m not going to get specific on that, I’ll let the council and the board and Mrs. Childress and the Mayor work that out. But you’re saying they’ll have more hours.”

Bailey again responded, “There will be more hours available to be used. Now your board will have to make decisions because you’re financially responsible for three, where we are responsible for two. So, your board will have to make those decisions on how many hours you want them there.”

Speers questioned, “What about training? Who would be responsible for training? Would our board be responsible for training for these three?”

Bailey answered, “They’ll still be employees of the city. Your board would have no authorization to train an SRO to start with.”

Dawe stated that the officers would be trained through the police department.

Speers replied, “I guess the other misinformation that I had is that some of the officers were fully trained and receive training and others are not.”

Bailey answered, “Every officer is a retired police officer or a current police officer now. They all have training.”

Dawe stated, “They all have access to training.”

Ashburn stated, “The board of education is welcome, if they want to hire ten you can. We’ve got people that are already in line that would like to have that position now. That are retired police officers that are certified.”

Speers stated, “Alright, I’m going to take my seat now. I should have been here last week, but I was probably misinformed then, too.”

Dawe stated, “The state has allowed a retired officer to work more hours and still collect their retirement. We would use retired police officers to fill in the gaps that we have now.”

Speers replied, “As a retired administrator, I know that when I first started working outside of my retirement, I was limited in the hours that I could work. Since that time, it has been increased. I’m hoping that is what’s happening here.”

Dawe replied, “Law enforcement is a different animal, so I think they went even higher than that. There is an expectation for municipalities to hire retired police officers and put them in the schools so we can get more of them.”

Speers ended by stating, “I’ll take my seat. Thank you very much.”