CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield school board has plans to bolster school security before the start of the new academic year.
Next Monday it will consider a new five-year pact with the Lawrence Township police to provide two school resource officers.
The board plans to have an SRO stationed on both the junior-senior high and elementary campuses.
Charles Marshall started as SRO for Clearfield schools in 2018, and will be joined this coming year by fellow township officer Levi Olson.
Superintendent Terry Struble said Marshall would officially introduce Olson to the board next Monday.
School security became a concern again after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, Struble said.
This prompted board member Greg Clarke to call attention to a Texas House report detailing the failed response to the shooting.
“There were 376 officers there from the FBI to state troopers and local law enforcement,” he said.
“It was one incident with one shooter and 376 responding armed officers … and their inaction has been savaged by this report.
“They didn’t do anything; they weren’t sure who was in charge … because there was no commander in chief.”
Clarke continued, saying this really “paralyzed” everybody and ended in the death of 19 children and two teachers.
He went on to ask about the district’s own command structure and if the senior SRO could be designated as commander in chief.
“This is an officer who’s known to our children and who knows our buildings,” he said. “I’d like to see someone like that.”
Facilities Director Scott Fenton said last summer local police were part of an active shooter drill at the junior-senior high school.
“It took members of our local, our regional law enforcement through the very steps that they are trained to take.
“The current instruction is as soon as the second person is on-scene, you go to the noise and you remove the threat.”
“In Uvalde they failed to do that and ended up with 376 officers on-scene with no one responding…”
Fenton disagreed with Clarke’s suggestion of designating a “person” in command instead of a “position.”
For instance, he said the commander could be off-duty or unable to respond and no one may assume their position.
He said the first-arriving officer on-scene acts as commander at least initially, noting the “[position] is transferable.”
As other agencies respond, they continue to roll out operations as set forth in the command structure.
“It’s a standing order,” Fenton said. “If there’s an active shooter, you respond to the noise and remove the threat.”
“Our officers are community officers,” added board member Gail Ralston, “and I have great certainty that they would react.”
Clarke, however, felt the chaos really broke out in Uvalde with the arrival of outside agencies. “They couldn’t play together.”
“Their police chief down there has said he didn’t believe he was site commander,” Struble said, “and no one else assumed the title.
“So, they had a small militia with no one taking charge. It was a complete breakdown of process and procedure.”
Because the schools’ SROs are township officers, Struble said they will follow the command structure of their department.
Struble did note that the National Incident Management System (NIMs) training is the same for all local law enforcement agencies.
“The training is in place and I know in all their hearts – they are responding. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind.
“… Out of 376 in Clearfield, I think there would be a large number who would be taking down that door somehow or other.”