DESOTO COUNTY, Miss.– The DeSoto County school board voted Thursday morning to approve $2 million in funding for school resource officers.
While school is out for the summer in DeSoto County, many are already looking to the future. Security is top of mind for district leaders as they head into the next school year.
Back in 2017, the district said they only had 15 school resource officers. Since then, that number has increased to 30. DeSoto County Schools’ superintendent Cory Uselton said the additional funding will allow them to have an officer at all 39 campuses.
“We wanna make sure we do everything we can that our students are protected, and our teachers are protected and that our parents know that we’re making every effort to make sure we have measures in place,” Uselton said.
These changes come nearly a month after 19 children and 2 teachers were killed during a shooting at a Texas school. Uselton said tragic incidents like those reaffirm his belief about the importance of having law enforcement at schools.
“That’s intensified those discussions. It really make even more necessary to have that type of protection, something we have been striving for a long time,” he said.
The district said the funding will be dispersed across the different municipalities and law enforcement agencies across DCS and then each school will tweak its security based on its needs.
“There will be some upgrades that are made in certain areas where principals feel like the campuses will be more secure if we do certain things on that campus,” Uselton said.
The superintendent told us they are aiming to have every school with a resource officer by the end of the year.