The Columbus Municipal School District board of trustees voted 3-2 on Friday to approve hiring off-duty Columbus Police Department officers as security on school buses despite concerns about liability, training and whether officers should be armed on a bus with students.
Made in an effort to curtail disciplinary issues on buses, the vote allows the district to hire the officers at a $30 per hour rate (plus benefits) to monitor school buses in their CPD uniforms, with department-issued weapons.
While trustees Josie Shumake and Telisa Young shared support for the idea, both said the vote should wait until the district could hammer out the details of the agreement in writing, specifically whether the officers would receive specialized training, their chain of command in the district and whether they’d be armed on the bus.
“I think we need something in writing because liability just screams out to me on this one,” Shumake said during the meeting. “Because if one thing goes wrong, and we have some kind of confrontation, this could be really bad, and I think we need training because they need to learn how to handle or how to work with kids on a bus or parents who are upset.”
During a Wednesday city council work session, City Attorney Jeff Turnage said state law allows the city to authorize the off-duty officers to work for the school district at no cost to the city and with no need for a memorandum of understanding.
In-lieu of a formal agreement, Shumake and Young pressed for some written guidance on officers’ role, who they would report to in the district and how they’d handle situations involving parents or students.
“I’m all over it. I want to do it, but I don’t want to just rush without the proper pieces in place,” Shumake said.
Transportation Director Michael Love also raised concerns during the Friday meeting about the officers being armed on the bus.
“I don’t think … our situations have gotten to that point where an officer needs a weapon on the bus,” Love said. “I feel that their presence and uniforms would be sufficient enough to … get things to calm down.”
Young questioned what the district has in writing to protect itself if something goes wrong.
“I just don’t know how we can vote on that and (not) take a minute and just sit down and put that in writing so that our students are protected first in the district,” she said.
Board attorney Chris Hemphill told Young any issues with the officers would fall on the district because at that point, it would be a personnel issue. However, he doesn’t feel hiring the officers presents a concerning liability for the district.
“It’s not any more so than normal. We’ve got armed officers in the schools now,” Hemphill said. “… I’m sure the district superintendent, personnel will work to get a description as far as exactly what all their duties are, but primarily to provide security on school buses.”
Previous discussions
Board president Robert Smith first floated the idea to the board during its July 8 meeting after mentioning a discussion he had with CPD Chief Joseph Daughtry about whether officers would be interested in the opportunity.
During that meeting, Chief Resource Officer Natashea Brown told the board she had some concerns about the idea.
“If you’re putting them in the capacity of a law enforcement officer versus the capacity of a monitor, then there should be some clear rules and understanding, some training that they need to go through,” she said. “Also, there should be a MOU clearly outlining their role.”
At the time, trustee James Richardson argued against it, saying city police officers aren’t trained to handle student behavior the same way bus monitors are.
“Just because they’re police officers, some of them are not equipped to deal with juveniles,” Richardson, a former police officer, said during the July meeting. “They can handle street stuff, but when it comes to juveniles, it’s a whole different ballgame. That would be my only concern is what would be the process to vet those that we know would be able to handle juvenile situations.”
However during Friday’s meeting, Richardson changed his tune, noting he had been “researching and rethinking” his position. When Shumake revisited his earlier point about training, he argued it is unnecessary.
“All police officers are academy trained to handle juveniles as well as adults,” Richardson said Friday. “Secondly, we (can’t) procrastinate and act like we ain’t got a real situation cause … it’s obvious there’s some other reasoning going on. … We do have a real threat.”
He and Smith both argued the safety concerns on buses are too urgent to delay the vote a week, which was Shumake’s request.
“We’ve had three or four incidents where bus drivers have been threatened by parents,” Smith said. “As a matter of fact, this week, we had a parent go on the bus. … So what are we supposed to do, sit around and wait for something to happen and say, ‘Sorry we should have done something?’”
Smith, Richardson and trustee Cynthia Brown voted to approve the agreement, while Shumake and Young voted against.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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