A school district in De Pere is asking for more armed officers in the wake of the deadly Florida school shootings.
The West De Pere district is asking for three new school resource officers, each would carry a gun. The district says all of its students and staff have active shooter response training, and now a city committee is trying to figure out how to pay these officers a total of nearly $154,000.
"If we have school resource officers that we take from patrol and we put into the schools, then obviously patrol has some gaps that we would need to fulfill, and we would do that through new hires,” said De Pere Police Chief Derek Beiderwieden
The district superintendent wasn't at Tuesday night's meeting, but in a letter said, he'd like to see the new resource officers inside the schools as early as September. The police chief says that would take some work, especially if the city's other district makes the same request.
"Currently, we have three liaisons for all of the schools, and if West De Pere is asking for some, maybe unified would ask for some also, I don't know,” Beiderwieden said.
Governor Walker signed a school safety law that calls for grant money for improve security.
We reached out to the superintendent to ask if he has applied for a grant, he did not return our call.
