CHESAPEAKE, Va. - Days after the Chesapeake School District revealed a new partnership to bring Sheriff's deputies into elementary schools, Sheriff Jim O'Sullivan says the deputies are already trained.
O'Sullivan revealed the eight deputies selected for the program finished school resource officer training in Chantilly, VA on Friday.
The district is set to officially announce the partnership at Monday's school board meeting.
The city's 28 elementary schools have been divided into seven boroughs, O'Sullivan says, with seven deputies each taking a few schools to oversee. The eighth deputy will act as a relief officer.
Right now, Chesapeake Police provide officers in the middle and high schools, but Chesapeake School Board member Mike Lamonea tells News 3 that this will be the first time law enforcement is brought into elementary schools.
And it's all about keeping kids and staff safe, he says.
"Everybody's been clamoring about additional security in schools," he told News 3. "It's very hard on a police department, especially if there are staffing shortages."
Fresh off his election to the school board in November, Lamonea says he got to work on a solution, using connections he built through 26 years working for the Department of Homeland Security.
While in that role, Lamonea says he worked with deputies on various task forces. He also chairs Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's Commission on Human Trafficking Prevention and Survivor Support.
"I've spent the majority of my life at this point, not just my career, protecting kids and families and other members of the community," he said. I've got four kids myself, as well. All four of them went to the school [E.W. Chittum Elementary in Chesapeake]."
And so, he says, safety has always been top of mind.
Though the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office is mostly known for staffing the courts and jail, Lamonea tells News 3 he knew that deputies would be well-equipped to aid police in putting school resource officers in schools.
Chesapeake Public Schools is paying for the partnership, he says.
According to Sheriff O'Sullivan, he learned which staff members of his would be interested in working in the schools, and then hand-selected the eight chosen for the program.
He expects them in uniform and meeting the children at the start of the coming school year.
"They know that we are there to help them," he said. "It's extremely important that they see us for who we are. We're not there to conceal or say that we aren't law enforcement."
