Charleston County School Board votes to place police officers in North Charleston elementary schools

The Charleston County School Board decided tonight to allow police to be stationed in its North Charleston elementary schools.

Charleston County School Superintendent Nancy McGinley recommended that the school board accept the offer from North Charleston to place officers in its elementary schools.

In response to the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., North Charleston City Council approved in December adding school resource officers to the district’s elementary schools. Most of the district’s middle and high schools already have full-time officers.

The superintendent hadn’t taken a position on the issue until today. In a memo to the school board, she and her staff wrote the school resource officers are one of many ways to make school campuses safer.

They wrote that the officers can intervene in potentially dangerous situations and investigate potential criminal acts. Those officers also can help ensure all safety measures, such as door locks, alarms and security cameras, are functioning properly, they wrote.

“And, in many other ways, properly trained law enforcement officers are an asset to CCSD campuses,” they wrote.

Additionally, legal issues could be associated with refusing the offer for protection, particularly because it is free, they wrote.

North Charleston gave its approval last week to spend the roughly half-million necessary to buy cars for the officers at elementary schools.

The school board meets at 5:15 p.m. at 75 Calhount St.

Read more in upcoming editions of The Post and Courier and get the latest education updates by following @Diette on Twitter.