PARENTS WANT HIGH SCHOOLS TO GET POLICE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, February 11, 1992                   TAG: 9202110299
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
PARENTS WANT HIGH SCHOOLS TO GET POLICE
In Roanoke's middle schools, they're not known as cops but more politely as "resource officers."
In the elementary schools, they're "DARE officers."
In the two high schools, they're neither.
Roanoke parents are trying to change that by turning up the heat in their years-long campaign to get city police officers at William Fleming and Patrick Henry high schools. Their campaign is partly in response to recent public discussions about students bringing guns to school and the arrest of a teen who brought a pistol to Patrick Henry High School and stashed it in a locker.
"With the increase in guns . . . just having [officers] there would be a deterrent," said Roanoke Central Council PTA president Pat Witten.
Witten said PTA members have met in recent weeks with city and school officials to convince them of the increasing need for officers at the high schools.
Problems with drugs, violence and guns occur more in high schools than in middle or elementary schools. And that, Witten said, is where such officers could be most effective, filling a number of understaffed roles: drug counselor, crime preventer, gun-safety teacher, role model, mentor and friend.
The School Board's budget proposal, which is scheduled for release today, will include a $186,500 request for three officers at each high school. The board may discuss the proposal at tonight's meeting, some board members said.
Parents pushed for this a few years ago, but the idea never caught on. This year, some PTA members have taken the campaign into their own hands. Partly, Whitten said, because "we just feel like nothing is being done."
Parents have met with school Superintendent Frank Tota, City Manager Bob Herbert, Police Chief M. David Hooper, and Chip Snead, the city's director of administration and public safety.
Witten said that school officials support the plans so far, but city officials are less enthused. She said Hooper told parents that he might be willing to allow middle school officers to spend part of their day at the high schools. But Witten thinks that would dilute the effect of program.
"We feel like he [Hooper] is not that supportive of the program," Witten said.
Hooper said it was too early to state his position, but said, "It's a concern that they have and certainly one that I'm sympathetic with."
Hooper said he supports the program putting officers at the middle schools, where they've been since 1978. And he's in favor of sending officers into elementary schools to run the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.
But he declined to say if he thought officers could be equally as effective in high schools.
Al Holland, a pupil mentor at Addison Aerospace Magnet Middle School, said resource officers could be most effective if they were assigned to one class of students in middle school and followed that class into high school. The officer would become so recognizable to students in that class, he would be able to be a friend to the students and could prevent crimes, he said.
Holland also serves on the Community Relations Task Force, which has recommended putting officers in city high schools.
"I think it's money well-spent," Holland said. "If we can prevent five [students] from going into crime, then I think it's well worth it."
Witten said parents are determined to convince Hooper and other city officials that the program is worth the cost.
"The parents want it," she said. "We're not going to let it drop."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB