Onslow County Schools Consider Armed Officers At Elementary Schools

By: Alize Proisy

Updated: Fri 10:12 PM, Jan 11, 2013

After the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, some local school districts are discussing school security at the elementary level.

The Onslow County School Board talked Friday about the future of security and safety. All Onslow County middle and high schools already have armed resource officers. Now they're considering adding officers at all 20 public elementary schools in the district. For the rest of the year, that move is expected to cost $300,000, but that's not the only issue.

"There's also the fact that we have limited personnel to cover those 20 sites. Pulling those officers off the street or their regular duties to come into a school we're going to have to certainly talk to law enforcement about how we approach that issue," said Dr. Barry Collins with Onslow County Schools Assistant Superintendent.

The board plans to meet with the police chief and sheriff in the next few weeks to talk about adding officers to schools.The school board also plans to meet with county commissioners about setting aside $6 million for cameras and door locks in all schools.

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