(FreedomBeacon.com)- A Louisiana charter school will become the first in the entire state to arm their school resource officers, or SROs, with rifles.
Ironically enough, the name of the town is Slaughter.
Recently, the school board for the Slaughter Community Charged unanimously voted to approve SROs to carry rifles. That vote was the culmination of discussions that went on for nearly a year about how the school could take better security precautions.
The discussions there first began followed the mass shooting in May of 2022 that happened at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Since then, many school leaders at the Louisiana charter school wanted to make some changes that would ensure that they had stronger protections in place.
Speaking recently with local news outlet WAFB 9, Officer Willie Brooks said:
“[The principal] came to me and said we have to increase the security at our school.”
Brooks pointed out that many of the school shooters use assault rifles during their attacks. As such, the SROs need to make sure they have the proper firearms so they aren’t outgunned and can do something about the situation if need be.
As Brooks continued:
“We realized that you can’t take a handgun to a rifle fight because most of the bad guys are coming into the schools with assault rifles.”
Dr. Stephanie Goudreau, who serves as Slaughter Community Charter School’s principal, also explained:
“It’s strange. It’s unfortunate, or different, that it’s something you have to consider, but our goal is always the safety of our students and our staff.”
Gordeau also said neither she nor the board have received pushback at all since they first implemented the change – or even started discussing it. In fact, the principal said that both students and parents have responded positively to the changes.
Some parents told WAFB 9 that they feel safer after these changes were implemented, feeling their children are better protected. One of those parents was Emmie Chaney, who has two children who attend the charter school.
She commented on the school resource officer:
“He’s here for them, and now he’s able to protect them in a better way, and that’s just really comforting.”
Brooks, who serves as the SRO at the charter school, has been in law enforcement in various capacities for more than 15 years. He started working at the school five years ago, and has been advocating to allow SROs to have rifles ever since he started.
As he explained:
“It really irritated me because as an officer, and as an active shooter instructor, if somebody were to come on this campus and start shooting, you can’t run to your unit, a locked unit, to get your rifle and come back and engage a shooter.
“One of my things, you can be a hero two different ways – either a dead hero or a live hero. Having this rifle on me now makes me feel a whole lot better if someone were to bring a rifle and hurt the students on this campus.”
