The Town of Swanzey is home to the Monadnock Regional Middle/High School. The school, one of the largest regional schools in New Hampshire, educates students (grades 7-12) from several regional communities: Swanzey, Fitzwilliam, Troy, Richmond and Gilsum. We met with the Superintendent of Schools and the principal of the high school to discuss the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the SRO.. We signed the MOU and SRO Charles Johnson’s first day was August 25th.
History
In March of 1999, the Swanzey Police Department and the Supervisory Administrative Unit 38 entered into a Memorandum of Understanding which was based on the agreement that there needed to be a close cooperative relationship between the Swanzey Police Department and Monadnock Regional High School. The agreement paved the way for a full-time police presence in the school in the form of a School Resource Officer (SRO.)
The SRO was a sworn, certified officer of the Swanzey Police Department. The SRO possessed all the required knowledge, skills and physical abilities incumbent upon the position of a police officer in New Hampshire and was responsible for maintaining effective resources between school officials, students, parents and law enforcement officials. The SRO also performed operations and public relations duties and tasks specific to the position. Among those duties and responsibilities, the SRO taught appropriate classes to students, counseled students, attended disciplinary hearings, attended social and athletic events, attended PTA and school board meetings, gathered intelligence, enforced laws, investigated crimes and complaints and prepared statistical reports.
The program ran successfully for 12 years with three officers serving as SRO's (Wayne Kassotis, James Fisher, Jr and Robert O'Connor) until the residents of the Monadnock Regional School District voted to end the School Resource Officer program. Since then, the school district has incorporated a civilian School Security Officer, a position currently held by Frank DeTurris. The Swanzey Police Department has a great working relationship with Mr. DeTurris who has been with the school for a number of years. As a retired member of NYPD, Frank makes a great liaison between the Swanzey Police Department and MRMHS.
