By BRITTANY LEWIS
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
A local school resource officer has been sharing his perspective on school safety at the national level.
Sgt. D.J. Schoeff with the Carmel Police Department serves as the first vice president of NASRO, the National Association of School Resource Officers.
Schoeff spoke about the duties of a school resource officer, including the law enforcement as-pect, informal counseling and guest speaking in classrooms. (Photo provided)
It was in that role that he recently spoke at a listening session organized by the Federal Commission on School Safety in Lexington, Ky.
He said he talked about what exactly a school resource officer does, including the law enforcement aspect, informal counseling and guest speaking in classrooms.
“What I saw most was the desire for school resource officers from all different camps, from legislators to elected officials to law enforcement to mental health professionals,” said Schoeff, “This is a starting point for us, an opportunity for us to put police officers inside schools, carefully select them, specially train them, and then help to further establish safety measures inside the school to harden the target and to help establish the awareness and the safety climate within the school.”
Schoeff says that includes training teachers on school safety, teaching them about awareness and general safety measures like not locking classroom doors and what to observe in hallways.