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Winders to catch drugs in schools earlier

By Sarah A. Wise
NL Staff Writer

9 August 2007 — During the school year, deputies from the Wayne County Sheriff’s department patrol the area high schools, reinforcing safety on the campuses. But resource officers may soon be patrolling the halls of area middle schools as well.

Sheriff Carey Winders came before the Wayne County Commissioners on Tuesday to present information about gangs and drugs in area schools. Overall, he said, he feels that Wayne County has a lot of good things going in drug and gang education and prevention in the schools.

“I don’t think our county is as bad as many others,” he said. “We’re ahead of the game on a lot of things–for example, our gang education programs.”

However, he said that there are several specific areas that the department is looking to improve upon with regard to drug prevention in Wayne County Schools.

Sheriff Winders said the department is considering installing school resource officers in the nine county middle schools. Having the officers in the schools would begin enforcing the idea of a drug-free campus when the students are younger, hopefully decreasing incidents in both middle and high schools.

“If the parents want to see the officers there, it’s definitely something we can look at,” said Sheriff Winders.

He emphasized that he feels it is important to have a law enforcement presence on all of the school campuses through deputy walk-throughs. However, he said that the department would need to look at the number of incidents on the middle school campuses to see if the schools actually warrant full-time officers.

“Some counties already have middle school officers, but here that would require training and paying nine officers,” he said. “You’ve got to see if it’s going to be cost-effective.”

The department is also looking at finding more effective ways to coordinate school searches for drugs and weapons.

Currently, the department must notify a school 24 hours in advance of a planned search. This is intended to keep from interrupting exams or school functions that are planned during the day.
However, Sheriff Winders said, it often results in students finding out somehow that the department is coming.

“It seems like in the past when we arrived, everyone knew we were on the way,” he said. “My own children have come home the day before and said they knew we were coming out there.”

He said the department hopes to work with the school board to see if the policy can be changed. They would like the department to have a schedule of planned events and exam periods so they could plan searches around them and not have to notify the school 24 hours in advance. Commissioners Jack Best and Andy Anderson voiced agreement with this plan of action.

Sheriff Winders said the department is also looking at expanding its gang education programs. Currently, the county provides a gang and drug education program in the elementary schools. Sheriff Winders said that Wayne and Duplin Counties are the only counties in the area who have a youth program in the elementary schools.

However, he is looking to take the program further. He said the department is exploring implementing a program at the middle and high school levels as well, to reinforce the knowledge base from the elementary level.

He acknowledges, though, that such a program would be difficult to work into the current curriculum.

“The problem lies in the tightness of the school curriculum,” he said. “The teachers can’t afford to lose several weeks of classroom time with the students.”

Commissioner J.D. Evans thanked Sheriff Winders for the information, and he encouraged him to keep the department on the current edge of gang and drug prevention in the schools.

Commissioner Best added that he would like the board to work with the department on whatever they need.

“Their whole purpose is to eradicate drugs on the school grounds, and I think we should do whatever we can to help them with that purpose,” he said.

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