Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office releases School Resource Program report

Clarksville, TN – The School Resource Program started in Montgomery County in 1994 with four deputies serving at the four high schools open at the time. Today 39 School Resource Officers (SRO), five SRO Sergeants, and one SRO Lieutenant serve at 39 district schools.

The School Resource Division provides a bridge between school districts and law enforcement agencies to establish and maintain a secure and safe learning environment. All deputies are P.O.S.T (Peace Officer Standards and Training) Certified and complete a minimum of 40 hours of training annually.

Year-to-date, for the 2021-22 school year, School Resource Officers have:

• Confiscated seven weapons
  • One firearm from a student’s vehicle in the parking lot of Montgomery Central High School
  • One firearm in possession of a West Creek High School student during a basketball jamboree at Austin Peay State University Dunn Center
  • One firearm in possession of a parent in the parking lot at Northeast High School
  • Five total knives confiscated; two at Rossview High School, one at Rossview Middle School, one at Kenwood Middle School, and one at Northeast Middle School.
• Conducted the following investigations
  • 53 assault incidents
  • 58 drug cases
  • 22 threats of violence on school property
• Filed 353 charges against juveniles and eight charges against adults

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind students and parents, effective July 1st, 2021, threats of violence, even non-credible threats of violence, on school property is a chargeable offense. Year-to-date, seven students have been charged with making a threat of violence on school property.

School Resource Officers have also provided over 800 hours of counseling and conflict resolution. During these sessions, SRO’s will meet with students to provide informal counseling, support, guidance, and positive feedback.

“By design, the School Resource Officer Program was implemented to be a resource for our schools and to have two important impacts on a student’s education,” said Sheriff John Fuson.  “The first impact is to help positively influence and mentor students, and the second is to create a safe learning environment for the facility, students, and staff.”

“Unfortunately, it has become necessary for most SRO Programs, ours included, to focus primarily on safety. It can be challenging to keep our nearly 38,000 students and 5,100 educators and staff safe, but our SRO’s work hard to do exactly that each and every day,” Sheriff Fuson stated.