By Jill Ricker
Tuesday, January 7, 2003
LYNN -- Eight Lynn Police
officers are set to begin patrolling the district's hallways this week when
the School Resource Officers program under way.
Superintendent of Schools
Nicholas Kostan had a meeting with the SROs, along with principals from the
city's seven secondary schools and the Ford Elementary School, and the
assistant district attorney for Lynn District Court to get one last overview
of the program before it goes into effect later this week.
"We just went over a few
ground rules and so forth," Kostan said. "We discussed how they
were going to interact with the kids and the principals and the staff. We
are looking forward to the program being implemented in the school
department hopefully sometime this week, possibly even (Tuesday)."
It was announced in March that
Lynn would receive an $875,000 grant to fund the Cops in Schools program -
the largest sum of the nearly $4 million allotted to Massachusetts schools
from the Department of Justice. The grant will support the salaries and
benefits of seven full-time police officers stationed in the Lynn's
secondary schools over the next three years.
In October, Lynn Police Chief
John Suslak announced that money from a separate grant would be used to
place an officer at the Ford Elementary School.
According to the Cops in
Schools grant, the SROs will serve primarily to provide a safe school
atmosphere free of drugs and violence, and will act as a direct link to
local law enforcement agencies.
It is also possible that the
SROs may have a part in teaching crime prevention and substance abuse
classes, similar to the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) training the
students currently receive in elementary school.
Although a specific curriculum
has not been formally established, Kostan said he was given a course manual
that describes the many roles and responsibilities of the SROs. "They
will work closely with school principals and meet with them on a timely
basis," he said. "They will attend meetings of parent groups and
faculty and act as a communication liaison. They will gather information
regarding potential problems and they will refer students and families to
appropriate agencies for assistance when a need is determined. These are
just a couple of things they'll do."
The officers have a range of
experience, from four years up to 17 years, and have attended three training
sessions so far. They will also receive additional training throughout the
rest of the school year.
"We view this as an
extension of community policing within our schools," Kostan said.
"They're not there because there are serious problems. They're there as
another resource."
Kostan said he is looking
forward to the program being a huge success.
"The program has been very
successful nationally, as well as with several other communities within the
commonwealth," he said. "We hope to make it work to be a
successful program for the Lynn School Department."
Kostan also said the schools
are taking a laidback approach to implementing the program.
"This is a new program, so
we're just taking it very slowly and taking small steps," he said.
"We're hoping it turns into a great collaborative for us."
