Expanding officer presence on school campuses

Program will bring in off-duty officers to schools in 11 counties, including Yuma County

SOMERTON, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne announced a new program for public schools statewide to help keep schools safe.

The program is expanding school resource officers and filling vacant positions in school districts across the state.

In Yuma County, the only district that is part of this program is the Somerton Elementary School District.

They have three officers and they share them among the seven schools in the district.

They say ideally each school would have its own officer and this new initiative will make that possible.

“You know the nightmare is that some maniac walks into a school and kills 20 kids, this has happened in other states and can happen here… and there’s no one there to protect the kids," stated Horne.

“We appreciate his effort to provide that kind of support because it’s not something that we can afford out of our funding that we get from the state. So having that as an asset is really helpful," stated Dr. Laura Noel, Somerton Elementary School District Superintendent.

Despite an ongoing officer shortage, the positions will be filled by off-duty officers.

According to the gun violence archive, there have been nearly 2,000 school shootings this year in the United States.

Officers in schools will receive special training and will also be armed.

You can watch the live stream here: