STAFFORD, Va. — More school resource officers are coming to six Stafford County Middle Schools.
A new $1.3 million grant from the Virginia Criminal Justice Services Board will partially fund the officers in all eight of the county’s middle schools. Currently, all five county high schools have resource officers, and two officers are assigned to a DARE program in the county’s 17 elementary schools to help educate children on the dangers of drug abuse.
“With hiring and training requirements it is anticipated that the six new school resource officers slated for the six remaining middle schools will be in place for the 2014-2015 school year,” said Stafford sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy in a press release.
The grant will fund half the cost of implementing the new officers. The department did not say how much the new officers is expected to cost county taxpayers.
Sheriff Charles E. Jett submitted the grant application to the state to receive funding for the project with the approval of elected leaders, said Kennedy. The same elected officials will have to make the final approval to grant’s terms and to accept the new funding.
