New police

In an open letter to Russell and the school board, Wright-Riggins wrote: “Collegeville Borough has its own police department and so does Lower Frederick. In an emergency, these officers are prepared to respond to a crisis in the district. Does the PVSD intend to increase/raise taxes for residents of Collegeville and Lower Frederick so these residents would be paying for two police departments?”

Wright-Riggins also had questions about training and whether “women and people of color be specifically recruited and hired.”

Keenan said in-depth discussions about using Collegeville and/or Lower Frederick officers had already happened in closed-door executive sessions discussing personnel and the idea was rejected. However, argued Kolar, “At the time the board was told Lower Frederick didn’t have any interest.”

Campli said at the time, the board also had not heard “student voices” on the proposal or community reaction.

“I am not in favor of SROs” because “we need to have control over who is in our district and working with our kids,” said White.

According to the district’s March 7 public presentation on the topic, school resource officers are municipal police officers who are assigned to schools. However, school police officers, which is what Perkiomen Valley voted Tuesday night to hire, are district employees who are selected and specifically trained to operate in the school environment.

Russell told the school board and the public Tuesday that “conversations with Collegeville are coming late because it was presumed as a part-time police department, Lower Frederick would not be interested in providing an SRO and Collegeville is not home to any school buildings. But “Lower Frederick reached out and expressed interest we did not think they would have,” she said.

Questions about which department would have jurisdiction if an incident were to occur at a school in Lower Frederick also were raised.

Board President Saylor indicated that a survey of employees in the district found all school buildings in favor of enacting the school police policy as presented.

“I don’t see unless I read this wrong, any administrator saying they are against having the SPO,” Saylor said. “As the only high school in the area without this, we become a soft target.”

Like with so many recent school board meetings in the district, the vote did not become before significant public comment.

Prior to the vote, 13 people spoke, including students and candidates in the upcoming school board election. Not all of them spoke about the creation of a school police department. Of those who did, seven spoke against the board’s action that night, two in favor and two urged the board to bring the community together in support of the inevitable result of the vote.

After the vote, five members of the public spoke. Of those who spoke about the police issue, two spoke against it, one in favor, and one urged that the community be engaged in future discussions on the subject.

Candidates who spoke during public comment — Robert Liggett, Treena Sadler and Todd McKinney — are all members of a team of candidates running together called “PV Forward.” White, who is running for reelection, is also a member of that team. The other member is Wayde Weston.

Board Vice President Mares and Matt Dorr are running on a team called “Vote 5 for PV.” Other candidates on that team are Heidi Brown, Russ Larson and Jay Cohen.

Both Liggett and Sadler spoke of the need to engage the community in these discussions as much as possible to build trust with the new police force.

“I need to know exactly what is going to be going on, job descriptions, training,” Sadler said.

“We have an opportunity between now and the fall to engage with the entire community to make clear what we want,” said Liggett.

After the vote, McKinney expressed concern that school police will disproportionately discipline students of color, noting “I can’t even count the number of times my son has been called the N-word. Shame,” he said.

Prior to the vote, Mike Sheridan told the board that during a recent shooting at a school in the Midwest, “we’ve all read it was a textbook operation by police. They did everything right. School did lockdown perfectly. But six people died.”

He said more likely would have died had it not been for armed police and school procedures.

Jim Meehan, a former corrections officer, said he supports the proposal because school police officers bring “more to the table than just firearms.” He also spoke in favor of an increased focus on mental health issues and “inclusion.”

“Odds of these school police engaging with a shooter is probably minimal,” said Luke Pepper. “This has been rushed through.”

Senior Class Treasurer Riya Shringari told the board she is disappointed in the board for failing to recognize the impact of armed guards in schools.

“SPOs are linked to exacerbating racial disparities,” Shringari said, noting the program will contribute to the “school-to-prison pipeline.”