School Resource Officer is to maintain an immediate police presence and response at Cathedral City High School, as well as other district sites within the city limits.

CATHEDRAL CITY — Leadership in this community, which includes everyone from the police chief to the City Council and school administrators, are working to ensure Cathedral City High School, as well as other district sites within the city limits, doesn’t become the next Uvalde, Texas.

To that end, the City Council today, Wednesday, Sept. 28, is poised to enter into an agreement with Palm Springs Unified School District for the Police Department to provide the District one trained police officer on a full-time basis as a School Resource Officer for FY 2022/23 and FY 2023/24.

For the past 21 years, the Cathedral City Police Department and Palm Springs Unified School District have partnered to provide a specially trained full-time police officer, called a School Resource Officer (SRO), to maintain an immediate police presence and response at Cathedral City High School, as well as other district sites within the city limits.

As part of this partnership, the PSUSD has agreed to fund for two years the position of SRO for the ten months that make up each respective school year, mostly covering the salary and benefits of the officer working the assignment.

The City Council today will consider authorizing an agreement, in the amount not to exceed, $324,400, between the City of Cathedral City and Palm Springs Unified School District.

School Resource Officer Assigned to CCHS

Police Chief George Crum

Cathedral City Police Chief George Crum has long advocated for a school resource officer. In August 2021, in the wake of the Palm Springs Unified School District deciding against having school resource officers on campus, Crum implored PSUSD to reconsider its “grave decision.”

The recent decision by the PSUSD to “defund” their School Resource Officer program is deeply concerning as it correlates to the safety of our local schools and the welfare of the students and staff in attendance,” Crum said in a statement at the time.

“There should be nothing more important to our community than protecting our children, who historically tend to be among the most vulnerable people in our community,” Crum said.

In a study published by the FBI in May 2021, California leads the nation in active shooter incidents from 2000-2019. In this study, schools ranked third in the nation as likely targets of an active shooter. The presence of an SRO on a campus strongly mitigates potential harm to our children as they are highly trained officers ready and willing to actively protect our children and staff if the most unfortunate situation occurs, a potential deadly breach of security.

In July, Crum’s department trained for a mass shooting. 

“I want our community to know that we are not naïve to the fact mass shooting events could occur at our schools, businesses, and events,” Crum said at the time.

 

 

Image Sources

  • Chief George Crum: City of Cathedral City
  • School shooter: Shutterstock