ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. — Orangeburg County Representative Russell Ott says recent events have highlighted a need for school resource officers in every school and it's time to start taking the necessary steps to make sure that need is fulfilled.
“We’ve got to work collaboratively from the state level, the local level, the county council level, city and the school districts to figure out how do we accomplish that," said Ott.
“There has to be an officer at every school, period.”
According to Ott, there are multiple schools in the Orangeburg County School District that do not have SRO's. He also says the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors has announced there is expected to be an additional $1 billion in revenue collected for the fiscal year budget year 2022-2023.
With the additional dollars, he proposes there could be more funding allocated to make sure a school resource officer is placed at every school.
According to Holly Hill Mayor Billy Chavis, there is currently no SRO at Holly Hill Roberts Middle School. Iva White is concerned parent of a child who goes to school there.
“I would like to see one there. Especially with everything that is kind of going on now, someone who’s trained," said White.
Kenya Williams is a parent of a child at Lake Marion High School where she says there is an SRO assigned, but feels they may benefit from having more officers on campus.
“Alot of things go unnoticed because she’s one place and she can’t be over here if this happened but another SRO there would cut back on a lot of behavior as well," said Williams.
Orangeburg County School District has told us in response to recent safety concerns, there will be enhanced police patrols at school campuses over the next two weeks. The last day of school is June 3.