SCHOOL SAFETY- This week tens of thousands of students in the Red River Radio listening area begin a new school year. And while many kids, parents and teachers are focusing on bus schedules, school supplies and the like. But for school resource officers their primary concern is school safety.
A training exercise took place last week at Parkway High School in Bossier City, La. It was part of a two-week training program conducted by the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for Bossier Parish Deputies who also serve as School Resource Officers. Lt. Adam Johnson, Director of Security for Bossier Parish Schools, explains what the program was designed for.
"A lot of it is room clearing, responding to the actual threat, tactics in doing so. Precision-type shooting,
things such as that because you have to understand that these deputies are faced with these daunting tasks while there's numerous students and innocent bystanders in their surroundings.," Johnson said. " So it's very critical that they are precise in wha they do, they are quick in what they do and perfect practice makes perfect."
Deputy. Craig Oberlander is one of 44 School Resource Officers for Bossier Parish Schools and is the new SRO this year for Parkway High School. He weighed in on the quality of the training exercise.
Oberlander said "This training here, I can tell you that based on the concensus of the guys here that this think that this here is some of the best that
we've done in a long time, in this type of environment, in this type of training. I think that it means a lot because this is a community that I live in so that I think it means a lot that I get to come in and do this. I think that parents seem to have their trust in us that when the day comes that we will be able to do our job, and that’s why they have us in the schools for."
Bossier Parish is one of only two parishes in Louisiana that has a Peace Officer Standards and Training Council certified deputy assigned to every elementary, middle and high school in Bossier Parish; Rapides Parish is the other.
