Education
Resource officers follow zero tolerance policy on safety
People read about threats, fights and other incidents in Georgetown County schools and ask the sheriff “what’s going on?”
Nothing that isn’t going on in schools across the state, Sheriff Carter Weaver tells them, “we’re just better at writing reports.”
That might sound flippant, he said, but it’s grounded in policy.
“The sheriff’s office has zero tolerance for children disturbing school,” Weaver told the county GOP club this week. “We report every incident. We prosecute every incident.”
There are resource officers in all Georgetown County schools, a program that was developed in early 1999 and gained support from the state following the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that April. It started in four high schools and two middle schools and expanded over the years.
“I’m not here for test scores. I’m here to make sure they have a conducive learning environment,” Weaver said.
Feeling safe is just as important as being safe, he added.
Often discipline is handled by the schools, particularly in the case of younger children.
In one recent incident, the resource officer at Coastal Montessori Charter School investigated a girl’s claim that a boy had rubbed her arm and leg on a school bus. The officer reviewed video from the bus. It was inconclusive, but the boy got a warning from the officer that he shouldn’t be touching anyone.
Last week at Carvers Bay High, the resource officer investigated a report that a girl was raped by a boy in the band room. That case was turned over to an investigator.
