No Summer Rest for the VCSO School Resource Unit

The Victoria County Sheriff’s Office School Resource Unit is having a busy summer! The unit is made up of 10 deputies and is supervised by 1 Sergeant and 1 Corporal. The School Resource Unit is responsible for approximately 14,118 students in the Victoria Independent School District, spread out among 23 campuses, and another 890 students at Bloomington ISD. Most may think the Deputies have the summer off like the students whom they protect; however, the reality is quite the opposite.

Deputies completed reports and investigations of over 180 criminal cases that occurred on our campuses this past year. Of those, 120 cases were referred to the Victoria County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and juvenile authorities for prosecutorial consideration.

The Deputies attended the Texas School Safety Training Conference on June 23–27, 2019. Areas of study included “A Comprehensive System for Threat Assessment and Management “by law enforcement, school administration, mental health counselors, and educators; “Unified Incident Command System in Schools”; and “Behavioral Health Threat Assessment” to name a few.

The School Resource Unit joined the VCSO SWAT Team in July to train in different tactics for response to various different active shooter scenarios. This tactical training is vital to the safety of our schools and is practiced each summer.

The unit will attend more training at the Texas Association of School Resource Officers Conference on July 22 -25, 2019 for specialized training of safety in a school environment. The National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) recommended to the United States Department of Justice a ratio of 1 officer per 1,000 students, or at least a minimum of 1 officer for every campus.

Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor stated, “The Victoria County Sheriff’s Office takes the protection of our students and educators very seriously as evidenced by this specialized training.” Sheriff O’Connor added “We have to be as prepared as possible in the event of a worst case scenario.”