INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced nearly $30 million will go towards matching state grants, marking the fifth straight year of record-breaking investments in the safety of Indiana schools.
63 different school districts and schools in Marion County applied and secured the state funding.
MSD Wayne Township will invest in school resource officers with the money.
"I can recall when it was a bad thing to have a police car in front of the school because people thought something was going on and it wasn’t safe," Dr. Jeff Butts, Superintendent of MSD Wayne Township, said. "We're at a point in time now where if there isn't a police car in front of the school, people are worried something is pulling that officer away and something might be going on inside."
So far this school year, eight students have been found with guns at schools in central Indiana. It's a rate that school resource officers have told WRTV is alarming.
PREVIOUS | More guns are being found at central Indiana schools this year (wrtv.com)
Butts says sometimes it has more do with getting to school than bringing the gun there.
"When we talk to those individuals, it's not about them not feeling safe in school. It’s about them not feeling safe potentially getting to or from school, or in their neighborhood," Butts said. "I think over time what we’ve seen is more and more of our youth are looking at pulling out a weapon to solve conflict as a first tier intervention."
Wayne Township will use $100,000 to continuing paying for their eight full-time officers, and funding part-time officers for after school hours and weekends. They're staffed seven days a week, 24-hours a day.
"Our focus on school safety is critically important so that we can provide that level of safety and security for our students to be able to focus on what’s happening in the classroom and try to mitigate as much as possible on any safety concerns inside the building," Butts said.
Butts says they're putting an emphasis on see something, say something.
He says staff members are always working on building relationships with students to talk about conflict resolution.
