Just two weeks before students head back to class, the Newberry County Sheriff's Office is looking for more school resource officers.

Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster says, right now, they are looking to fill four school resource officer positions, but the possibility of hiring candidates before school starts is slim to none.

Derrick Davis, a school resource officer at Newberry High School says right now, it’s one of the most important duties he can have.

"If they don't feel safe and secure while I'm there, I feel like I'm not doing my job," SRO Davis said.

However, this year the Newberry County Sheriff's Office is struggling to fill several school resource officer positions in the district.

"For whatever reason our society is becoming more and more violent and for whatever reason people are targeting schools," Foster said.

Sheriff Foster says the shortage he’s seeing falls in line with a shortage around the country.

Typically, Newberry County has at least one SRO like Derrick Davis per school from elementary to high school that work alongside students and staff.

"We do a lot more than that. We build rapport with the students, we help administrators and sometimes we are there just for someone to talk to," said Sheriff Foster.

Sheriff Foster says paying school resource officers isn't the problem, finding qualified candidates is. In order to qualify for the job you need to have at least a year of law enforcement experience and have your own children.

"We also like to look for someone that has an extreme amount of compassion and patience so they can help the student," Foster said.

Sheriff Foster says they are not likely to fill the positions before the school year starts on August 15th, so they will adjust their schedules and work with other law enforcement agencies to make sure schools are safe and secure.