Who’s protecting our kids? Ohio schools lack security regulations
Six years after T.J. Lane brought a gun into the cafeteria at Chardon High School and killed three students, the tragedy remains part of the school’s conscious.
“If anything, it would be in the cafeteria,” said Cameron Niehus, a senior at Chardon High School. “Someone has a bag of chips and they smack it…and it makes a popping noise.” Matthew Reminder, a sophomore, agreed with his friend.
“People have popped a balloon before, and it’s like they jump,” he said. “It’s not almost like PTSD, but…you’re more aware.”
“I’m definitely more alert,” Niehus said.
“You pay attention to the little things,” Reminder said.
The students say they feel safe at school. They said the shooting united Chardon, and they credited one person for their feelings of security. Mike Shaw, a Chardon police officer, was hired as school resource officer (SRO) several months after the shooting. “I know he would take a bullet for any one of us,” Niehus said.
Shaw took a 40-hour basic course with the Ohio School Resource Officers Association and has continued to take new classes each year. He currently serves as the association’s vice president. While law enforcement is still an important part of his job, he said an SRO also plays the role of counselor and teacher.
“My purpose here [at Chardon High School] is still law enforcement,” Shaw said. “But it’s not the No. 1 thing, and that’s what the kids and staff learn.”
On the day we visited the high school, we found Shaw teaching a health class on opioids.
“We interact with the kids,” he said. “We don’t just go sit in an office and wait for the main office to call and go, ‘We got a problem.’”
“I walk around. Talk to the kids. Let them know, ‘Hey, how’s it going? How’s your day?’” Shaw said. To build solid relationships with students, Shaw is willing to do just about anything. In February, he received national attention when he temporarily joined the school’s dance team.
Their routine, choreographed to the 80s songs Shaw grew up listening to, made national news.
“It reminds them that’s a person,” he said. “It’s not just this robot that walks around in uniform.” Shaw may be highly trained, but the same is not true of security staff at all of Ohio’s schools. Our investigation found Ohio has no requirements regarding who schools hire to protect students. For example, there is no requirement for schools to hire a trained school resource officer.
In addition, there is no requirement for schools to hire a certified law enforcement officer.
News 5 Cleveland conducted the first survey regarding who schools employ to provide security on their campuses. Our team reviewed the training certificates for security staff at the 50 largest Ohio high schools. We found 42 schools employ one – or sometimes two – full-time trained school resource officers.
We uncovered a hodgepodge of security staffing plans at the remaining schools:
- •One school had no security staff
- •Two schools employ part-time school resource officers
- •Two schools employ security directors who oversee several school buildings
- •Five schools, including four in Northeast Ohio, employ a pool of off-duty police officers, most of whom have no school resource officer training
News 5 has chosen not to reveal details about the schools included in our survey, for the purpose of school safety.