By NICOLE GUGINO
OBSERVER Assistant News Editor
SILVER CREEK - Silver Creek resident Anna Frederickson, like many, has been following the news on the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
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OBSERVER Photo by
Nicole Gugino
Silver Creek resident Anna Frederickson urged the Silver Creek Village Board and others to support the School Resource Officer program in the future in light of the tra-gedy in Newtown, Conn.
Also like many she has thought of ways to make local schools safer from the same kinds of events.
"Once again this country has experienced a senseless school shooting that took the lives of 20 6- and 7-year olds. This brings us back to the protection of our own district," she said at the Silver Creek Village Board meeting Monday.
Frederickson said she believes a School Resource Officer at the school could have saved some of the lives lost and is a valuable program to maintain.
"The cost would be between $48-50,000, there are four entities in our school district; town, village, school and Seneca Nation. No one contributed to this program except the school," she said.
"(Trustee Thomas) Harmon mentioned at a previous board meeting that no other school has a School Resource Officer and didn't think that we needed one either, because there was no money to fund it. I guess he feels nothing of this magnitude could happen in Silver Creek, but when you can use over $38,000 of taxpayers' money to demolish one person's building and not be guaranteed repayment of the taxpayers' money, where is the sanity in this statement?" she asked.
She encouraged all four entities to contribute to the SRO program in the future.
"I'm not saying the village and the school should foot the bill for the whole program. You also have the town and the Seneca Nation and both of these entities have children in our school. Therefore I am asking the town, the village and the Seneca Nation to step up to the plate and support this program," Frederickson added.
This year Silver Creek Central School funded the SRO program to maintain a part-time Silver Creek Police officer in the school.
In the past the village budgeted money to contribute to the program but did not for the 2012-13 budget. This enabled the school to have the officer in the school for more days of the week.
This year the school was able to contract for 10 hours per week beginning Nov. 15.
The village board will begin its budget process in the new year. The next meeting of the Silver Creek Village Board will be held Jan. 7.
