LIVINGSTON PARISH, LA (WAFB) -
Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason
Ard met with the school board Thursday night, intent on doing what he can to
make area schools ready for anything.
"Let's do what's best for the
safety of our kids and our community," Ard told members of the board.
Ard, who has two children in
Livingston schools, presented a plan that would hire four new deputies to would
serve as school resource officers to join three already in place in Denham
Springs, Walker and Watson.
"We're basically coming up
with a plan where each of these officers would take care more than one school,
up to five school and some even six schools and they will take care of those on
a daily basis," said Ard.
The costs, according to Ard, would
be split down the middle with the school board and the sheriff's department
each funding around $160,000. That is money Parish Superintendent John Watson
believes would be well spent.
"We've been very blessed
throughout the years with community schools. We have very safe schools and we
try to stay vigilant," said Watson.
"I could use more road deputies
or more detectives but I think this is more important right now I think our
kids' safety is priority for me, so I'm ready to make this commitment and doing
everything I can to make it work and I feel pretty confident the school board
is going to do the same thing," added Ard.
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