Dr. Gary Speers, Scottsboro Board of Education member, recently appeared at the Scottsboro City Council meeting to speak to council members regarding the School Resource Officer program. Speers began by thanking the Council for allowing him to speak. He then stated, \u201cI would like to start by asking a question to the council. How many of you have children, grandchildren and family members that are involved in the Scottsboro City School System? I\u2019m concerned about the slashing of the SRO programs in our school districts to provide savings to the City of Scottsboro\u2019s budget to the tune of approximately $100,000 per year. At what price do we withdraw or sacrifice the safety of our children, schools, staff members to generate greater savings into the city\u2019s coffers? An example might be asking Chief Latimer or the staff of the Scottsboro Police Department to adjourn for tonight and go home and remain until 7 o\u2019clock in the morning before reporting for duty. We can agree, police presence is needed. In 2023, I got this report from Education Week, of school shootings this year. There have been 35 school shootings this year, that resulted in injuries and deaths according to this report. There have been 179 such shootings since 2018. There were 51 shootings with injuries or death last year, the most in any single year since Education Weekly began tracking this in 2018. There were 35 in 2021, 10 in 2020, 24 each for 2019 and 2018. The latest situation that has taken place has been a 15-year-old male student was shot in the parking lot in Indianapolis, Indiana. The closest shooting according to this analysis is in Tennessee and Georgia. They\u2019re our neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council President Richard Bailey interrupted Speers and said, \u201cDr. Speers, do you mind me stepping in for just a second? Apparently, you\u2019ve got some misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers replied, \u201cOkay, well I\u2019m going to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey responded, \u201cOkay, and then I\u2019ll tell you what your misinformation is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers stated, \u201cOkay. I\u2019m glad you said that, because I hope I do have misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy interjected, \u201cI\u2019d like to know where this misinformation is coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers then stated, \u201cI talked to all of the administrators today and it is imperative that we keep our school program, our SRO program at the schools. Yes, virtually impossible to do without it. Most definitely it\u2019s needed. Absolutely needed, much like another teacher, another set of eyes, they have a good repour, they\u2019re trusted. They\u2019re valuable employees and cannot imagine doing the job without them. So, we may not have any shootings, but there are some threats, some intimidation, disorderly conduct, and there has been, as recently as last week, a third grader bringing knives to school. Some of these threats are pretty prominent in the fourth and fifth grade. And, as I prepare to close, Mr. Bailey, what is the status of the safety program and funding the SRO programs for Scottsboro City Schools? If I recall this is generally the time for budgets, this is the time that budgets are developed, and I don\u2019t know if they\u2019ve been approved yet. But cooperation, collaboration and communication are crucial during these times. Are the cost-cutting measures fiduciary and a requirement, are they personal, are they politically motivated and do they serve the interests of a few or the best interest of our city? I\u2019m asking you to reconsider eliminating this very vital component of our school district\u2019s safety plan. Thank you for your time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey then began, \u201cI appreciate your speech and like I said, I could have stopped you early. Whatever misinformation you\u2019ve been given, this council, mayor and police chief are actually working on a program right now that will put SROs in your schools longer than they are right now. Yes, it will save the city money. That is our job, is to save the city money.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers questioned, \u201cIs that longer in the fact that they can remain longer but not be full time employees?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey replied, \u201cThere will be a different title. Yes, they can make more money than a regular retiree. So, we are going to look at a program that can actually keep them in our schools for a lot longer than they are now. So, your kids are covered more for less money.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCamy interjected, \u201cI would be interested to know where you got this information?\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers replied, \u201cThese facts I brought to you today, on these reports right here, you can get them on the internet. And that\u2019s why I said I was concerned because I was hearing we were eliminating our SRO program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey responded, \u201cNo sir.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council member Donna Frederick could be heard stating, \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey than stated, \u201cDr. Speers, I believe you\u2019ve been hoodooed into coming to this meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers stated, \u201cMaybe misinformed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey laughed and said, \u201cWe can put it that way if you\u2019d like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council member Ralph Dawe stated, \u201cWe have no intention of eliminating the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey also stated, \u201cWe are looking at trying to keep our kids more covered and save the city money at the same time. That\u2019s a plus plus, wouldn\u2019t you say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers agreed, \u201cI would say plus plus. So, those individuals that are part time working six hours a day, will they be bumped up to eight hours a day?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey replied, \u201cThat will be something we will have to discuss with Mrs. Childress and your board.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCamy stated, \u201cMr. President if I could, they can only work 29\u00bd hours a week now. This will increase that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council member Nita Tolliver stated, \u201cDr. Speers, me working for the city, and I have a child in there, I would not ever turn a blind eye and not have an SRO officer in our schools. I know how important it is. I work eight hours a day and I want an SRO officer there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey interjected, \u201cI have a wife there. I don\u2019t want to pull them out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tolliver continued, \u201cI mean we\u2019d be going backwards in time if we did something like that. And I hate that you have been sitting here with information that was not correct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Council member Mike Ashburn stated, \u201cIn my first term, my first year, I was the one who made the motion to add the SRO program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers questioned, \u201cSo, am I hearing that we will have five SROs, full time or more?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashburn responded, \u201cIt is according to what you designate full time. We are saying they\u2019re going to have more hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey agreed, \u201cWe will have them in the schools more hours than what you do now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers then stated, \u201cI\u2019m not going to get specific on that, I\u2019ll let the council and the board and Mrs. Childress and the Mayor work that out. But you\u2019re saying they\u2019ll have more hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey again responded, \u201cThere will be more hours available to be used. Now your board will have to make decisions because you\u2019re financially responsible for three, where we are responsible for two. So, your board will have to make those decisions on how many hours you want them there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers questioned, \u201cWhat about training? Who would be responsible for training? Would our board be responsible for training for these three?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey answered, \u201cThey\u2019ll still be employees of the city. Your board would have no authorization to train an SRO to start with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawe stated that the officers would be trained through the police department.<\/p>\n
Speers replied, \u201cI guess the other misinformation that I had is that some of the officers were fully trained and receive training and others are not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bailey answered, \u201cEvery officer is a retired police officer or a current police officer now. They all have training.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawe stated, \u201cThey all have access to training.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashburn stated, \u201cThe board of education is welcome, if they want to hire ten you can. We\u2019ve got people that are already in line that would like to have that position now. That are retired police officers that are certified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers stated, \u201cAlright, I\u2019m going to take my seat now. I should have been here last week, but I was probably misinformed then, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawe stated, \u201cThe state has allowed a retired officer to work more hours and still collect their retirement. We would use retired police officers to fill in the gaps that we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers replied, \u201cAs a retired administrator, I know that when I first started working outside of my retirement, I was limited in the hours that I could work. Since that time, it has been increased. I\u2019m hoping that is what\u2019s happening here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawe replied, \u201cLaw enforcement is a different animal, so I think they went even higher than that. There is an expectation for municipalities to hire retired police officers and put them in the schools so we can get more of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speers ended by stating, \u201cI\u2019ll take my seat. Thank you very much.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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