GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It has been a year since a gunman killed 14 students and three staff members at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre renewed the debate on guns, and students have been leading the push for change. It also put the focus on school security across the country, including in West Michigan.
School leaders have spent years updating more obvious security measures, like entrances to buildings and door locks. Districts have also made changes to emergency drills.
Kent County Sheriff Deputy Tim Erhardt is aschool resource officerfor Kenowa Hills Public Schools. He implemented the run-hide-fight drills. It teaches students where to go if they should leave the building and what tools are at their disposal to ward off an intruder.
The Kent County Sheriff's Office continues to expand its School Resource Officer Program, adding three more in January. It brings the total to 14 resource officers in 11 districts.
"I would like to remind people that a SRO is not simply an armed security officer", said KCSO Lt. Russell Larson.
School resource officers focus on three main categories: counseling and mentoring, education and law enforcement. Larson says officers spend most of their time on counseling and mentoring.
Mental health has been a focus for Rockford Public Schools as well. Sarah Young, a guidance counselor, created the Peer Listening Program at the district four years ago.
"We have more than 100 one-on-one meetings per year, peer-to-peer. Students come down and ask to have a meeting with another student and talk privately. It's a lot easier to talk to a kid when you are a kid than it’s to go to a grownup that you don't know,” Young explained.
She believes that program is especially important in a district like Rockford where they have more than 1,300 students in their senior high school alone. She says there have been plenty of occasions where a student requests one of these meetings, and the need is evident for intervention.
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