MOULTRIE, GA (WALB) - While some people are calling for gun control to decrease the possibility of school shootings, others are calling for an increase in the number of school resource officers, or even a combination of both.
The Colquitt County Sheriff's Office wants the community to know that the children in the county's schools are being adequately and effectively protected.
There are approximately nine student resource officers who work in the schools in the Moultrie and Colquitt County area, all whom have undergone 'ALERRT' training, a training program that teaches how to effectively neutralize a shooter or other threat in any given circumstance, according to Lt. David Kent.
Kent is the director of the school resource officers and also teaches the C.H.A.M.P.S. program at the schools.
There are four resource officers at Colquitt County High School, two at C. A. Gray Jr. High, one at Willie J. Williams Middle School, and one at the Colquitt County Achievement Center.
Sheriff Rod Howell said his office is currently reviewing the need for more resource officers at the schools and will make a final decision this summer.
Howell said he would like to possibly have a couple more officers offset the need for the elementary schools. Kent and another officer teach the C.H.A.M.P.S. program at the local schools, which could potentially leave a school undermanned at times.
Howell's concern with the distance of some of the schools is another reason he would like to implement a few more resource officers.
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