Lacey renews contract to provide North Thurston school resource officers

Lacey City Council approved a new contract with North Thurston Public Schools Thursday that will continue to provide the school district with Lacey police officers — known as school resource officers — who largely serve the district’s high schools and middle schools.

Under the terms of the contract, the district will pay the city $140,000 for the service. The district has three SROs, including Ed McCLanahan, who is assigned to North Thurston High School.

The importance of having an SRO program was made clear April 27 when a North Thurston High School student fired a gun on campus. North Thurston teacher Brady Olson tackled and detained the student with McClanahan’s help.

SRO programs were the outgrowth of two earlier school-focused programs — DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and GREAT (Gang Resistance Education and Training), said Lacey Police Chief Dusty Pierpoint.

But SRO programs really expanded after the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, he said.

In addition to providing law enforcement services to the school district, the program also helps build public trust, said Pierpoint, a former school resource officer.

“It helps students realize that we are like everyone else, except we put on a uniform,” he said.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 11:24 PM with the headline "Lacey renews contract to provide North Thurston school resource officers."