MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- School systems throughout Middle Tennessee are wrestling with how to better protect their children in the wake of the murder of 26 students and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.
Williamson County moved quickly last week, allocating $2,3 million dollars from its reserve fund to put an armed police officer in every school building.
WSMV-TV says the Sumner County School Board will vote Tuesday Night on a hastily drawn up plan to put more officers in its school buildings as well. That plan will reportedly cost the county $5 million for 20 additional school resource officers and security upgrades.
Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold held a press conference Tuesday morning to say that he’d drawn up plans to put an armed officer in every county school at the request of the County Safety Committee.
“We will be bringing that proposal to the Budget and Finance Committee meeting on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The proposal is for 11 new SROs for the elementary schools. The total budget for that is about $1.2 million.”
Arnold notes that Rutherford was the first county in the state to begin placing resource officers in schools in 1993.