ELDON – Wapello county has approved the Cardinal Community School District’s request to have a school resource officer.
“After the Parkland tradgey, all of us school administrators started thinking about, are we ready for a situation like that?” said Superintendent Joel Pedersen.
Pederson admits his school district was not, so he quickly made changes. Those changes include new safety features from security cameras, secured entrances, and a pull station for police similar to what schools now have for fires.
He wanted more to protect the school’s kids, so he’s been pushing for a student resource officer and was successful in doing so.
The school district plans to have the officer start work this fall, and that officer will be from the Wapello County Sheriff’s office.
The school and the sheriff’s office have split the costs to hire the new school resource officer.