As Alachua County students resumed classes Thursday, city and county law enforcement agencies began stationing officers at local elementary schools to provide extra security for the new year.
The additional staffing was in response to concerns surrounding the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn., which left 26 people dead.
Gainesville Police added officers to 12 elementary schools across the city, said GPD spokesman Ben Tobias.
Tobias said GPD wants to keep officers at the schools for at least six weeks, but that will depend on funding and the number of officers available to work.
During that time, Gainesville Police will staff schools with uniformed officers through temporary or overtime reassignments, Tobias said.
“It’s one of those balancing acts,” he said, adding that staffing officers could strain other areas of the department.
The addition of 12 officers would be a 4 percent increase to the 300-member police force, which would cost GPD about $1 million per year, Tobias said.
“In a perfect world, where funding isn’t even an issue, this is what we’d like to do,” he said. “But that’s a huge, huge number for us.”
In a similar move, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office also stationed deputies at 12 elementary schools across the county Thursday, according to an ASO news release.
The sheriff’s office has uniformed officers at the following elementary schools: Alachua, Archer, Chiles, Hidden Oak, Idylwild, Irby, Lake Forest, Meadowbrook, Newberry, Shell, Waldo and Wiles.
The staffing will be funded through the sheriff office’s current budget.
Representatives from GPD, ASO, Alachua Police, High Springs Police and other local law enforcement agencies formed a joint work group with Alachua County Public Schools to create a more long-term solution, according to an Alachua County Public Schools press release.
The school district said the group will also work with local mental health experts to seek more state support for mental health services.
Tobias said he hopes the temporary plan to station officers in elementary schools will turn into a permanent solution.
GPD Chief Tony Jones said his department is committed to students’ safety.
“Protecting these children needs to be our top priority,” he said in a statement. “They are our most vulnerable citizens.”
Contact Kathryn Varn at kvarn@alligator.org.
Dept. Jackson of the Alachua County Sherifs Office interacts with students at lunch on Friday at the Meadowbrook Elementary cafeteria during his second day of being stationed at the school.
