School Safety A Top Concern

Ken Greenleaf is headed back to school, but he isn't packing a new spiral notebook or worrying where to sit at lunch.

He's the guy dressed in blue, wearing a badge, and armed with a gun.

In response to school shootings across the nation, rural states like Maine have asked police departments to detail an officer to spend the day at school.

They aren't necessarily patrolling the parking lot and hallways; some are advising students, interacting with parents, and acting as a deterrent.

"We are trying to get ahead of the curve," said Westbrook Police Chief Steven Roberts. "This is prevention rather than response. We've had no crime problems, and we want to keep it this way."

After fatal shootings at schools in Pearl, Miss.; West Paducah, Ky.; Jonesboro, Ark.; Springfield, Ore., and a school dance in Edinboro, Pa., teachers, parents and students in rural places realized they aren't immune to what was once perceived as simply an inner-city problem.

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Since the shootings, school administrators have been pressed to come up with strategies to deter violence and prepare for worst-case scenarios.

In Georgia, officials set up a toll-free safety hotline that students can call to provide anonymous tips on threats in the public school system.

And in Marshall County, Ky., backpacks and large book bags are forbidden because they are convenient hiding places for weapons.

An officer patrolling school is only one way to reduce the possibility of violence, Verdugo said. Other strategies include crisis management plans and workshops with parents, authorities, and social service agencies.

At least 40 states have full-time police patrolmen dubbed "school resource officers" in high schools and middle schools, according to Dr. Pam Riley, at the Center for the Prevention of School Violence in Raleigh, N.C.

In Maine, Officer Greenleaf will be the first full-time school resource officer at South Portland High School. Schools in the Portland suburbs of Scarborough and Westbrook will begin similar plans.

"I'm here as a police officer to become part of the school and to be proactive as well as reactive," said Greenleaf. "People who think that they are going to come to the school and cause problems may think twice if there's a policeman here."

Fresh from a special training course for school officers in North Carolina, Greenleaf said his new job wn't end when the final bell rings. He said he will be highly involved, even attending extracurricular activities like football games, barbecues and dances.

Still, the program isn't without its critics. Maine's Attorney General, Andrew Ketterer, for one, isn't sold on the program.

"I don't know if Maine is ready for that or really needs that at this point," Ketterer said.

Ketterer said the way to reduce violence is by increasing communication between adults and children, and letting kids know they are important. Just having an officer inside the school, he added, might not save lives.

Written by Victoria Brett