SROs For Local Schools Hired

After a long and difficult search, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office has hired two new School Resources Officers (SRO) for area schools. According to the United States Department of Justice, SROs are, “Sworn law enforcement officers responsible for safety and crime prevention in schools.” On Wednesday, January 5, 2022, a new Deputy on the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office team was sworn in at the County Courthouse by Judge Linda Bauer. The new Deputy is Matthew Veit. He will be attending the Law Enforcement Training Center in May and, once he graduates, will be the new School Resources Officer (SRO) for Fairbury Public Schools. At a recent meeting of the Law Enforcement Committee, Sheriff Nick Georgi said of Veit, “He's really ambitious. He's doing a bunch of online training for, like, dealing with youth in school, mental health youth. And so we keep him busy with that stuff. The Sheriff said, “He should graduate in the end of July. So he'll get a little bit of training. He should be squared away for next school year.” FPS not had a SRO for several years, although the possibility had broached previously, such as in 2019, when FPS began testing students for nicotine use. Two other area schools, Tri County Public Schools and Meridian Public Schools, share another SRO, Deputy Nathan Van Anne, who is already working at the school. Deputy Van Anne will alternate between the two schools. The Sheriff said, “It's going really well. He's young. He's 21. But he's just surprised how much the kids come up to him just to interact.” Both Tri County and Meridian have been without a SRO since the previous SRO, Deputy Kruz Schoenrock, resigned last year.

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