CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A stream of bubbles sparked excitement for students at Treakle Elementary School as they walked into the building for the first day of school. The Chesapeake School division which Treakle is a part of has increased security with a partnership with the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office and ID badges for elementary students.
School staff and a Chesapeake Sheriff’s deputy greeted the kids as they started their day.
“We just wanted the parents to feel at ease about students returning to school," said Felecia Frazier, the principal of Treakle Elementary School. "We also wanted the students to feel at home.”
Angela Espinosa Alvarado expects a good year for her kindergartener, Sofia.
“It’s her first year, new things for her," she said. "She’s already pretty smart.”
She’s also glad to know about the new safety efforts implemented this year. One of them involves a partnership with the Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office.
“We’re adding 8 sheriff’s deputies to serve our elementary schools," said Chesapeake Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Jared Cotton. "They’re each going to be assigned to different boroughs throughout the school division.”
“We protect and serve in the streets, in the jails, in the courthouse and now in the hallways,” said Chesapeake Undersheriff David Rosado.
Deputy Porsche Granum is one of the school resource officers walking the halls. She's assigned to Treakle Elementary School. Deputy Granum said her goal is to build a relationship with students at the school
“I want the children to see me as a law enforcement officer that they can look up to, that they can trust, that they can talk to if they needed to,” she said.
Undersheriff Rosado said it was important to be a part of the solution to safety for the school division.
"We want to make sure that kids are able to run toward us to see this uniform instead of running away," he said. "I think that's going to make that interaction very easy to accomplish."
Dr. Cotton said leaders with the Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office helped in many ways. Earlier this year, the school board changed some policies to allow school security officers, hired by the school division, to potentially carry weapons. Dr. Cotton said thanks to these deputies, those security officers don’t have to be armed.
“We’ve discovered that we can work through that partnership and let the experts deal with that rather than us trying to arm our staff,” Dr. Cotton said.
Dr. Cotton said the division is still in the process of filling additional school security officer positions after they received funding to hire more. He said these officers will stick to what they normally do which is checking the perimeter of the building, making sure doors are locked and checking in visitors.
Dr. Cotton said the division will also print out ID badges for elementary school students as part of a new program where students are required to carry a badge. They'll use it to swipe when they get on and off school buses. They'll also use it to check out a library book and get lunch from the cafeteria.
