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High school must make do with one officer
By LEANORA MINAI, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- The principal of St. Petersburg High School has asked the Police Department for another school resource officer to help with a growing student population and potential for more crime. "We are inner-city schools. We have inner-city problems," Linda Benware said last week. "We need to have that additional security." But St. Petersburg High, which has 2,351 students, will have to do without. Police Chief Chuck Harmon is unwilling to add a second, full-time officer to the campus at 2501 Fifth Ave. N. If the school needs an extra officer for an event or problem, the neighborhood's community officer can help, Harmon said. "Data shows that the officers are busy at the schools, but they can meet the current demands with what they have," Harmon said. "We have to look at what the demand is and compare that with other priorities in the Police Department." The number of officers assigned to Pinellas County's high schools varies. Some schools have two Pinellas County sheriff's deputies. A federal grant helps pay for them. Those high schools include Boca Ciega, Dixie Hollins, Dunedin, East Lake, Osceola, Palm Harbor University, Seminole and Tarpon Springs. High schools under contract with St. Petersburg police have one officer. They are St. Petersburg, Lakewood, Gibbs and Northeast. The School Board and city of St. Petersburg, which does not have the same grant to add another officer, split the salary and benefits for each school officer. Benware, the St. Petersburg High principal, said her school needs another officer because an additional 110 students are expected next year. She also said the high school has one of the highest rates of student reassignment in Pinellas because of drugs, alcohol, weapons or other serious misconduct. "My concern about increased population is that students have more physical contact, and knowing that we do deal with adolescents, I was trying to be precautionary," Benware said. "I felt that warranted me going to the Police Department to say I need additional security." Her school resource officer, Richard Berthelot, said he is busy enough to justify a partner. "One of my jobs is to actually teach and try to cultivate relationships between the kids and Police Department," he said. "I can't do that because I don't have time." School officials understand that budget constraints prevent the Police Department from assigning a second full-time officer to the school. But principals with two law enforcement officers wouldn't want to go back to having just one. "Having gone from one to two (deputies), it makes all the difference in the world," said Boca Ciega principal Barbara Paonessa. "A lot of times officers get tied up in their office writing reports or interviewing parents or students or teachers." Dixie Hollins principal Jeff Haynes said that with two deputies, he is able to have more areas of campus covered. One deputy works the student parking lot while the other stands where the 19 buses pull in, he said. "It makes it safer," Haynes said. "It's hard to be two places at once." Boca Ciega and Dixie Hollins have two deputies apiece. They also have fewer students than St. Petersburg High. Chief Harmon said Benware is the only principal in St. Petersburg to have asked for a second school resource officer. He said his department will work with Benware to provide extra officers when needed. "We're going to continue with the single SROs and look for ways to assist them through community officers and patrol officers," Harmon said.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
