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PLEASANT GROVE, Utah (AP) -- All police resource officers are to leave Pleasant Grove schools on Wednesday because the city and the Alpine School District have failed to agree on district reimbursement.
The officers are at Pleasant Grove High School, Oak Canyon Junior High and Pleasant Grove Junior High.
Alpine Administrator Sam Jarman said the district will try to negotiate terms to reinstate the officers at the high school.
"We feel that the presence of a school resource officer in the high school is important for the safety of all students," Jarman said.
"We were under the understanding that Pleasant Grove would remove the (officers) out of the junior high schools, but leave them at the high school. We feel that this all may be a misunderstanding and realize negotiations need to take place," he said.
Pleasant Grove High School Principal Jess Christen said the incident at Lehi High School on Thursday, in which the school was closed down while officers searched for a girl with a gun, "is a prime example of how officers are absolutely critical in the high schools.
Christen said the resource officer at Lehi High "responded to that situation within minutes. We are dealing with adolescents with high emotions and just the presence of an officer eliminates most bad things from potentially occurring."
Christen said the number of criminal incidents has declined over the years since Pleasant Grove assigned a full-time officer to the schools. This year there has been only one incident involving alcohol and it was not during the school day, he said.
"We are not strong arming or playing a political game with the district, but are looking at the practical matter at hand," Mayor Michael Daniels said. "Our position is from the perspective that a certain amount of money is being allocated and it is insufficient."
The city has had police in the schools for the past three years and began talking to the school district about a lack of funding from the district two years ago, said Frank Mills, city administrator. The city requested an increase in money to pay for officers.
After the district failed to respond, the City Council voted unanimously last week to pull the officers out of the schools beginning March 1 and use them in regular patrol and investigation duties.
Mills said the resource officers' salaries have been paid through a combination of city budget resources, grant funding and a small subsidy from the district.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
