Deputy to be stationed in Pataskala schools

NEWARK — The Licking County Commissioners on Thursday approved placing a sheriff’s deputy in a Pataskala high school.

Sheriff Randy Thorp said the agreement provides Southwest Licking schools with a fulltime resource officer who will be based in Watkins Memorial High School and circulate among all the district’s schools.

It’s no guarantee that there won’t be violence, but having an officer on hand each day boosts school security and provides a way to address issues before they escalate, Thorp said.

“You’re building relationships, you’re working on helping students be better students,” he said.

The sheriff’s office already has deputies serving extra duty at Lakewood and Northridge schools, Thorp said. Those officers are on campus for set periods.

Other schools, including Newark Memorial High School, have resource officers on site throughout the school day. Grants in years past covered some of the costs involved. Those grants have been harder to come by, and schools that had officers in their buildings fulltime in the past no longer do, Thorp said.

For Southwest Local, the district will cover 75 percent of the cost of the resource officer. Thorp said a deputy’s salary typically runs about $90,000.

There’s a larger countywide issue concerning security in schools and public buildings, said Commissioner Tim Bubb. Job and Family Services pays out of its budget to have a deputy in its offices in Newark, he said.

“There’s a cost to that,” Bubb said. “... That’s just a real good example — that’s one building out of 13 that we’ve got.”

Thorp said school officials have informally discussed a countywide levy and other means to cover the cost of having full-time officers in buildings. This list is compiled from voluntary submissions by parents to hospitals.

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