This week—May 10-14—we’re celebrating National School Police Week and the contributions of the folks in the district’s Office of Safety and Security!
Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) is committed to safe, secure, successful schools. Our 96 certified School Resource Officers (SROs) are supported by five full-time office staff, four full-time dispatchers, and four part-time dispatchers. Safety and Security also oversees the 25 employees serving the School Crossing Guards program. This team of safety professionals is responsible for providing a safe and secure learning environment for our students and staff.
Our SROs are highly qualified professionals who have five or more years of experience in law enforcement and hold postsecondary degrees (about a third with master’s degrees). Our SROs are housed in schools—two SROs at every high school, one SRO at every middle school, and an SRO housed at some elementaries. SROs housed at middle and high schools also serve elementaries and other school facilities in the cluster. Officers take a multifaceted approach to community policing in our schools, engaging in three types of activities: law enforcement, counseling/mentoring, and law-related education for both students and the community.
The Gwinnett County School Police Department maintains State of Georgia Law Enforcement Certification, a distinction currently held by only five public school system police agencies in the state. Being state certified ensures an agency continues to meet critical standards in law enforcement and non-critical standards in administration.
We appreciate all that the Safety and Security team does to ensure that our schools remain safe and secure!
Check out this appreciation message for our safety team from CEO/Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks.
#ThankAnSRO
Say ‘thanks’ with an eCard or handwritten note
Now, more than ever, your thanks, encouragement, and celebration of GCPS staff members is a meaningful way to show how much our community values public education and appreciates those who have helped our students this school year. On the GCPSStrong web page, families can find two ways to send employees a special note of appreciation as we approach the end of the school year:
Say thank you with an eCard! Select one of five designs and complete the eCard submission form.
Send a handwritten note! Download printable thank you sheets.
Need help finding an email address for your SRO?
Most employee email addresses use this format—firstname.lastname@gcpsk12.org—although some staff members also have a middle initial.
You also may be able to confirm an SRO’s email address by going to the Safety and Security web page and checking the staff directory. (Click on the link for the appropriate Zone, based on your student’s school cluster.)
If you don’t know the employee’s first and last name or can’t find an email address, we have another great option for you to share your appreciation… a printable Thank You sheet that you can download!