CHESAPEAKE, Va — More deputies will be in Chesapeake schools when kids go back in just a few weeks courtesy of the sheriff's office, as the program expands due to last year's success.
Parents we spoke to from the school district told us that it is such a relief seeing these deputies at their child's school when they drop them off.
"Having someone in the school who is trained to deal with situations should they arise it eases my mind and makes me feel safer sending my kids to school," said mom Laura Lerf.
Watch: What parents are saying about deputies being added to Chesapeake elementary schools
Lerf says it's one less thing she has to worry about and it's all thanks to the success of the Chesapeake Sheriff's Office School Resource Deputy Program. A program that didn't exists until last year.
David Rosado with the sheriff's office says his deputies and himself jumped at the chance to help make students feel safer
'There were no school resource officers in any of the elementary schools," explained Rosado. "Police officers or SROs would have to leave their job assignments at the middle and high schools in order to come to the elementary school,"
Watch: Chesapeake students welcomed back by new school resource officers
Last year, eight school resource deputies served the twenty-eight schools in Chesapeake. That's nearly doubled this year as the program hosts 14 deputies.
This means that one deputy will cover two schools.
"Originally you had one deputy that had up to 3-5 schools that they were responsible for," explained Rosado.
Both schools the deputy covers will be close to each other and easy to commute to, according to Superintendent Jared Cotton.
Watch: Chesapeake deputies ready for new role in elementary schools
"What they did (the sheriff's office) was try to match their experiences and in some cases where they lived in the communities kind of fell into that decision as well," explained Dr. Cotton.
Dr. Cotton says visibility is so important and having a deputy and officer in each school one day could be in the cards.
"It's always a possibility and there have been conversations about having one per school there are lots of challenges involved in that but my initial goal is to get as many as I can," explained Dr. Cotton.
While at the schools, the deputies help with incidents and also help educate the students on the dangers of bullying, but the best part of it for these deputies is being a buddy to the students.
