For the first time in years a town police officer is not stationed at Seymour High School.
“We should really think about another youth officer,” Lt. Paul Satkowski told the Board of Police Commissioners earlier this month.
“For eight years we had people in the schools,” he said. “We were in the forefront in that area and now, without having anyone, I think it is a step backward.”
The police department pulled the officer stationed at the school for budgetary reasons, Chief Michael Metzler said.
Police Commissioner James Simpson questioned whether it would be wise to bring it back, given Seymour’s budget restraints.
“Other districts are cutting back on youth officers,” he said. “Who is going to pay for it? That is always the issue.”
Commissioner Lucy McConologue said she would like to know how school officials feel about it before taking any action.
“We are concerned, but it is officially their program,” she said. “I would like to know if they are concerned.”
“With the audience here you can see how many people are concerned,” Commissioner Frank Conroy said, gesturing to empty audience at the meeting.
School officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
It’s a concern, Satkowski said, because police are aware of a few issues inside the school.
For instance, there is a situation of a man who was sent to prison for stalking two female students. He’ll be released soon, and has said he will continue to stalk them once he is released, according to Satkowski.
The department will deal with the matter, but having an officer in the school helps, Satkowski said.
Police commissioners will confer with school district officials about police presence at the high school. It may come up at the commission’s next meeting.
Why in the world would you need a full-time officer standing around all day, every day, at one spot? And a school no less, where they already have adults to supervise the children? It makes no sense. I have never heard of a having a cop stationed permanently at a school, ever, anywhere I’ve ever lived. The very idea is completely nonsensical.
“For instance, there is a situation of a man who was sent to prison for stalking two female students. He’ll be released soon, and has said he will continue to stalk them once he is released, according to Satkowski”
Are you serious??? There is a grown man stalking students and we dont feel we should have a bit of presense in a high school?? VAlley resident i agree that the 55,000 that officer makes a year could go elsewhere but we are talking about 15-18 old teenagers. We have all seen the violence and drugs run through the valley high school. The question should be why should we not have an office there?
Use common sense, please.
Why is the man being let out of prison if he is claiming he will break the law again? And even if he is let out, and if he breaks the law, then he will go back to prison.
So, tell me why we need to pay $55,000/year, every year, for a cop to sit at a school, when we could pay $55,000/year for a cop to patrol the whole town and make everyone safer, who could easily respond to a 911 call to the school, just like they respond to 911 calls for every place else.
Using your logic, we’d need even more cops – a cop at the middle school, 3 more at each of the elementary schools, and heck, why not hire a cop for every school bus, just “in case the stalker tries to get on the busses.”
When does the paranoia end and reason take over? We do not need a full time cop sitting in a single location, doing nothing but drinking coffee, eating doughnuts and making paranoid people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
“Valley Resident,” you obviously don’t have children in Seymour High School or you wouldn’t be feeling the way you do. School Resource Officers do NOT “stand around all day in one spot.” They are everywhere on the school grounds and never follow the same routine. You may see them and you may not see them. Kids deserve to feel safe at school, bring back the SRO and no, I don’t live in Seymour but I am a parent.
Valley Resident, you should pay closer attention to your community…there are school resource officers throughout the Valley schools. Shelton High and Shelton Intermediate have them, as well as Ansonia High. Those are the ones I am sure of, ans I’d bet that the rest of the Valley High Schools have them as well. They are a presence at the school during the school year and are on regular patrol during the summer. I’m certainly no fan of the dramatic shift in society’s overall behavior that led to school resource officers being the norm, but the norm it definitely is…
Rita, my child will go to Seymour High next year, so you know what they say when you “assume” …
And I oppose having a cop at a school. Its 100% unnecessary, and a complete waste of taxpayer money, regardless of how many other schools do it. If your friends all jumped off a bridge, would you? (Funny, I learned that saying from my parents).
Just because other towns are wasting money on cops at schools doesn’t meant it makes sense. That’s called a logical fallacy called the Fallacy of Appeal to Common Practice. Its when someone claims “other people do it, therefore we should do it.” The basic idea behind the fallacy is that the fact that most people do X is used as “evidence” to support the action or practice. It is a fallacy because the mere fact that most people do something does not make it correct, moral, justified, or reasonable.
Valley Resident:
Your points are very good on why we should not follow suit with other towns and how an officer in school full time is not a good use of our tax dollars. i guess we can just agree to disagree on this matter.
But the whole point of this article is not whether there should be an officer or not, its the fact they are cutting that job. In preivious comments it was said we can take that 55,000 and have a cop roaming the whole town to make the whole town safer. The fact is they are cuttin the job for budget reasons not the fact that we do or son’t need a resource officer in the school
If Seymour High School is such a dangerous place then I think there is something wrong with the way it is being run. One more reason as a taxpayer, I chose to send my children out of town for high school. There is no police officer necessary at the school where my children go and the staff is able to control the school — hummm makes you wonder what’s really going on up at Seymour High School.