Dale schools ask commission for SROs

“Help securing county schools and protecting the students and employees,” was the issue that Dale County Schools Superintendent Ben Baker brought to the Dale County Commission at the meeting July 24.

Baker asked the commission for financial support in providing a school resource officers at each of the seven schools in the Dale County system.

The Dale County Board of Education is committed to budgeting $50,000 to fund the SROs, Baker said.

There are 3,500 students and 370 employees in the county school system, Baker said. “In the world we live in there are a lot of evil things going on.”

Baker said that although the preference is to have “an armed, well trained deputy or police officer in each of the schools,” the school system could operate with SROs designated for Ariton and Skipperville and the remaining two working between the remaining schools. “The reason we want a full time deputy at Ariton and Skipperville is that they do not have a local police department,” Baker explained

“I have reached out to the municipalities and the commission and hope we all can come together on this,” Baker said. “The good people of Geneva County and Houston County have done this, working with the municipalities.

“We don’t want another tragedy in Dale County,” Baker said, referring to a 2013 incident during which an armed gunman shot and killed Dale County School Bus Driver Charles Albert Poland Jr. and abducted a young boy that he held hostage in an underground bunker at his home.

The commission did not take action on Baker’s request.

The next meeting of the Dale County Commission is Aug. 14 at the Dale County Government Building in Ozark. A work session begins at 10 a.m. and is followed immediately by a voting meeting. Both meetings are open to the public.