Lower Saucon Police Chief Thomas Barndt addressed members of Lower Saucon Council at this week’s regularly scheduled meeting to update them on discussions with Saucon Valley School District concerning a school resource officer (SRO).
Earlier this year, Council had instructed Chief Barndt to contact the Saucon Valley School District to open discussion into having an SRO on-campus. Chief Barndt reported that he had met with both district Superintendent Jaime Vlasaty and district Business Manager David Bonenberger, and that “the discussion was very well received.”
Chief Barndt reported that Ms. Vlasaty said she would evaluate the district’s needs and talk to other administrators and the school board and get back to him.
According to the Chief, on April 29th, “Ms. Vlasaty informed me that an update was provided to the school board and a school resource officer will be considered as one of the options for the 2024-2025 school year.”
The Chief explained he had no further updates or communication from Vlasaty or the school district since that communication but that the conversations were constructive. He added his support to the idea of having a Lower Saucon Police officer on school campus, stating, “I am in full support of a school resource program.”
Saucon Valley School District has debated the use of an SRO in the past, but for the past several years the school district has employed 3rd-party private security on campus during in-use hours of the facilities.
A school resource officer, or SRO as they are commonly called, is a professionally trained and accredited police officer. In addition to having all the same training and legal rights as any other police officer, SROs have additional and specific training to work in a school environment.
In addition to being able to respond immediately in the event of a school threat, due to the nature of the role of an SRO being a member of the Lower Saucon Township Police force, they would also be able to act as an immediate coordinator on-scene, directing response during a crisis and saving precious time.
SROs have also been shown to be able to positively impact students’ interactions and perceptions of police officers while simultaneously getting to know the student body through daily interactions. This type of relationship building has at other districts locally, enabled SROs to identify potential issues and address them before further incident.
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