New Screven County school resource officers prepare for back to school

SCREVEN COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - With school starting in just a couple weeks, some law enforcement agencies in our area are taking this time to practice safety protocols inside schools.

This includes in Screven County, where the district’s first ever school resource officers worked through protocols Wednesday.

WTOC spoke to leaders about what this means for your kids’ safety.

Three new staff members will be walking the halls of each one of the schools in Screven County for the first time ever this fall.

Each one with a badge.

“This is about doing everything that we can do to make our school system the safest place it could be for our kids,” said Screven County Superintendent Jim Thompson.

Thompson said this is something the school district has wanted for a long time.

In the past, there was one school resource officer on call for all three public schools in the county, but now each school will have its own.

This is something the superintendent said a lot of rural school districts deal with.

“There’s just a lot of peace of mind knowing that we got someone that’s going to be in each school every day, all day long,” said Thompson.

Wednesday, the new SROs trained alongside other deputies and officers at the high school.

They practiced the exact steps to take during an active shooter situation.

Screven County Sheriff Norman Royal said that having more safety measures around the schools, including the SRO’s, has been his “easiest accomplishment yet.”

“I made a campaign promise a year and a half ago that if I was elected I would do whatever it took to bring one to all three schools,” said Sheriff Royal.

Sheriff Royal said these SROs will also be teaching a safety class program called CHAMPS, at each school starting this fall.

“It goes through ATV safety, to alcohol abuse. You know learning about vapes and cigarettes with the dangers of tobacco, gun safety. You know, a lot of the basic issues that you deal with on the day to day,” said Sheriff Royal.