The news came in a press release Thursday from U.S. Sen. John Edwards’ office in Washington. Edwards is a former resident of Robbins.
The Moore County portion of the grant is $471,642, to be spread over three years. It will be used to hire four commissioned police officers for the middle schools. The school system already has the three high schools covered with what school board policy terms “company police.” They are commissioned and trained police officers, but they wear special uniforms.
Deputy School Superintendent Dr. Larry Upchurch said Thursday he didn’t know the system had been awarded the grant, which it applied for in May, until a reporter called him.
He said the grant was for the exact amount the Moore County Schools applied for.
The grant will allow the school system to station one full-time officer each at New Century, West Pine, and Southern middle schools, and a fourth officer to travel between Westmoore, Highfalls and Elise Middle schools in northern Moore County, Upchurch said.
It will also allow the school system to fulfill a part of the strategic improvement plan, which aims to provide a security officer at each high school and middle school in the county, with only one traveling officer among the three smaller middle schools in northern Moore.
Upchurch said a commissioned police officer who now travels between a high school and the middle schools will probably be one of the officers hired with the grant.
Funds are provided by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing (COPS) program. Twenty-three law-enforcement officers will serve full-time in North Carolina schools as a result of the three-year grants.
Officers serving in the schools receive special training to protect students, teachers and staff and handle school violence. Many officers also serve as coaches, counselors and mentors and teach classes on crime prevention and substance abuse.
“Our children deserve a secure place to learn,” Edwards said in the news release, “and we as parents deserve to feel safe when we send our kids to school.”
