Yancey County leaders are working to enhance safety measures in local schools by hiring additional school resource officers.
“We want our kids and our faculty and staff there at the schools to feel safe when they go to school,” County Manager Lynn Austin said.
With the addition of two school resource officers, all Yancey County schools will have a dedicated officer.
“Everything but the high school is shared. So, there’s one school resource officer for two schools right now,” Sheriff Shane Hilliard said.
That will change for the upcoming school year according to Hilliard. The idea to add resource officers has been in motion since a threat put Blue Ridge Elementary School and Cane River Middle School on lockdown last month. The two schools currently share a resource officer, which presented challenges with the dual lockdowns.
“We realized when the officer left one school to go to the other school, then the school he left was obviously left vulnerable,” Hilliard said.
The two additional deputy positions are included in Yancey County’s proposed budget. County Manager Lynn Austin said the budget should be approved soon. County leaders are also looking into grants to help fund the school resource officer positions.
“Our health and public safety and well-being of our students and our community and our teachers and staff is top priority for us here in Yancey County,” she said.
The school resource officer positions will be filled in time for the upcoming school year, according to county leaders.
Henderson County Public Schools Safety
Henderson County Public Schools has school resource officer coverage at all 22 school campuses. Since 2019, HCPS has been reconfiguring all school building entryways to single-point entry systems. The school system is also installing new camera systems at all school campuses.
Henderson County Public Schools recently received a $115,000 school safety grant to implement a consistent visitor management system across all schools.
Buncombe County Schools Safety
All Buncombe County Schools were evaluated by security consultant TRC in 2019 for potential safety upgrades. Recommendations included an upgraded visitor screening process. All campuses now have video buzz-in systems.
The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office provides school resource officers and has implemented a video monitoring system that lets law enforcement see inside schools in the event of an emergency.