SROs brush up on their skills to return to school next week

All this week school resource officers from Mississippi and Alabama have been brushing up on their skills in West Point

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- All this week school resource officers from Mississippi and Alabama have been brushing up on their skills in West Point, and the officers feel that courses have given them new tools that they can take back to their school districts.

The city of West Point was chosen because it made for a convenient, centralized location. These SROs are working to stay up to date on procedures and tactics to make sure they can keep the students and staff at their schools safe, and they’re learning how to prepare for the unexpected.

“This course will equip officers to develop relationships with diverse students and students with disabilities, mental health, substance abuse, de-escalation, and emergency preparations planning,” said coordinator Tara Sloan.

Over 25 officers from Mississippi and Alabama have been attending the class at city hall in West Point

Sloan said that the class was to teach new and existing officers some new ways of dealing with kids because the landscape is changing.

“With this new generation, new ways and new threats come to us without warning so we have to adjust to them as they are presented to us. We do the best of our ability to make sure that students and staff along with our staff are safe at the end that’s what this class along with other training we attend prepare us for,” said Sloan.

Officers, like Timothy Greene, say they’re learning a lot.

“The differences in our form of law enforcement vs the school and what we do in the street so it’s very informative and very educational and I’ve learned a lot from it this week,” said Greene.

Unfortunately, school incidents prompted the organization of the class, and the resource officers are hoping it will help them learn from mistakes others have made.

“The Uvalde incident brought a lot of things to light that law enforcement needed to be educated on and geared more towards when it comes to responding to active shooter incidents and school threats, there’s no time wait no time to delay action has to be taken immediately,” said Greene.

The last day of the class is Friday, November 18, 2022.

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