Grant Will Pay For Second School Resource Officer

By Andrew Gorosko

The town has been awarded a federal grant to cover the cost of providing a second school resource officer for the public schools.

 The town now has a school resource officer who splits her time between the high school and middle school. A youth officer covers Kindergarten through Grade 5.

Congressman James Maloney announced Monday that Newtown will receive a $125,000 grant from the US Department of Justice’s office of community policing services. The grant will cover three years’ salary and fringe benefit costs for a second school resource officer.

As part of the grant program, the town agrees to assume the officer’s salary and benefits for the following three years, said Detective Sergeant Henry Stormer. Sgt Stormer heads the police detective bureau to which school resource officers are assigned.

Newtown was one of the first towns in the area to have a school resource officer. Former police chief Michael DeJoseph named Joe Rios to that post in 1994.

 “This important grant will assist the Newtown school system in working collaboratively to develop comprehensive approaches to reducing youth violence, juvenile crime, and encouraging positive behavior in our young people,” Mr Maloney said in a statement.

School resource officers combine the functions of law enforcement and education.

The grant will allow the police department to designate one resource officer to cover the high school, and the other resource officer to cover the middle school, Sgt Stormer said.

“This will be a great thing,” Sgt Stormer said of the grant award. “Right now, Gladys is spread thin,” he said of Officer Gladys Pisani’s working as a resource officer at both the high school and middle school.

Besides working in the schools, officers in the police department’s youth division handle criminal investigations involving young people.

“School resource officers work within the school system to safeguard young people from violent or exploitative behavior. School [resource] officers provide students with on-site security and help them to foster healthy relationships with their peers and teachers,” Mr Maloney said.

Resource officers become mentors to young people and provide drug abuse prevention programs, anger management instruction, and conflict resolution classes, according to Mr Maloney.