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To let West Chester and Liberty Township residents catch up with the news that they need to know, WestChesterBuzz.com will list and link to all of last week’s top local stories every Monday.

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Cop rounds in Butler County now include schools – There are now frequent visitors at Lakota Schools who are armed but very welcome, Michael D. Clark reported last week for The Enquirer. Butler County Sheriff Deputy Mark Gilbert pulled his cruiser into the parking lot of Liberty Early Childhood School about 1 p.m. on a recent school day as part of his daily rounds in Butler County’s Liberty Township. It’s the latest strategy to strengthen school safety, say sheriff officials, who launched the new program last week for the county’s school districts and private schools.

PHOTO GALLERY: Mellencamp making a name for himself – In 2011, John Cougar Mellencamp called his brother in West Chester to let him know he had just seen his nephew on a billboard in Los Angeles. The billboard, which was also on display in New York City, Paris and China, was part of a Calvin Klein campaign that helped launch Ian Mellencamp’s modeling career that year.

Liberty trustee: It’s ‘immoral’ to accept federal funds – Liberty Township will apply for a federal grant to pay for construction and installation of a sidewalk, Sue Kiesewetter reported last week. But if the township is awarded the grant it is uncertain whether it would be accepted. Trustee David Kern voted this week against applying for a transportation alternative grant that would help pay for construction of sidewalks from the Liberty Junior School crosswalk at the Yankee Road/Dutchland Boulevard intersection to Cincinnati-Dayton Road, a distance of 3,250 feet.

VIDEOS: Zack Cozart visits West Chester – Immediately after Opening Day last season, rookie shortstop Zack Cozart admitted that he was exhausted. After the game, he went back to his apartment and crashed. This year, despite the longer day (game lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes), Cozart said he had more energy after Monday’s opener.

VIDEO: Coyotes welcome at VOA park – Six coyotes are roaming the fields of Voice of America Park. But these coyotes are there for the park’s protection. MetroParks officials are going as far to say, these coyotes are park “employees’’. These six employees are plastic and have to be moved by park staff. However, their job duties are to protecting the park’s $3 million project, which includes 22 new multipurpose natural grass athletic fields.

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Michael D. Clark reports:

There are now frequent visitors at Lakota Schools who are armed but very welcome.

Butler County Sheriff Deputy Mark Gilbert pulled his cruiser into the parking lot of Liberty Early Childhood School about 1 p.m. on a recent school day as part of his daily rounds in Butler County’s Liberty Township.

His next visit will be at a different time during the school day.

It’s the latest strategy to strengthen school safety, say sheriff officials, who launched the new program last week for the county’s school districts and private schools.

Schools nationwide have re-evaluated security in the wake of the December shooting deaths of 26 students and adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.

In March, South Dakota became the first state to pass a law with provisions that specifically authorize teachers to possess a firearm in a K-12 school.

No sheriff department, however, in Greater Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky has been as publicly aggressive as Butler County’s in launching new school security plans.

“It’s letting the public know we have a good police presence in our schools now and we are doing what we can to keep our schools safe,” says Gilbert.

The new twist to school safety was prompted in part by the lack of action for another idea from Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones. He wanted to place armed substitute teachers in schools. That idea, unveiled in January, requires approval from local school boards but so far none have taken it to a vote.

“Not yet,” Jones says.

Gilbert is glad to add school stops among his daily rounds, which if time allows also includes classroom visits and maybe a quick sit-down lunch with students.

His first classroom visit had him fielding questions from youngsters he doesn’t normally get from patrolling the local community.

“Can you arrest squirrels?” asks one student, upset that a class project to feed birds was hijacked by hungry rodents.

Liberty School PTA President Daniel Colpi, who has a child at the school, says he appreciates seeing a police cruiser parked in the school lot and the impression it may have on anyone thinking about committing violence on school grounds.

“I hate to think about what could happen, so if it deters people from going to school to do such things then it’s valuable,” Colpi says.

Liberty School parent Susanne Page prefers this type of school policing to arming substitute teachers.

“I like weapons in the hands of lawmen that are trained and I like the idea that these are police officers from our community,” she says.

Posted in: Crime, News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, Guns in Lakota schools, guns in schools, Lakota Local Schools, Lakota schools, Richard Jones, Sheriff Richard Jones

Miller suggests using retired police officers as armed substitutes

Michael D. Clark reports:

There has been plenty of talk but little else since Butler County’s sheriff publicly floated the idea of retired cops working as armed substitute teachers.

Still, the man behind the idea remains optimistic. Scott Miller’s positive attitude is borne from painful adversity.

The former Mason Police officer was twice hit by cars during a two-year stretch while on duty, breaking his back and leaving his lower spine mangled and held together by metal. Forced into disability retirement in 2010, Miller recently came up with the novel idea, which has garnered statewide attention, during the days after the Sandy Hook school massacre in December.

In January, Miller approached his former boss, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, with his idea. Soon after, Jones called a press conference to announce his department’s full backing and urged public and private schools in the county to enact the program as allowed by state law.

Districts haven’t had time to consider idea
So far, none of the 10 public school boards in Butler County, nor any private schools or the Butler Tech school board, has voted to adopt the program allowing qualified and armed ex-officers to work as substitute teachers. Some district officials say discussions may be held in coming board meetings. Most school systems’ governing boards say they need more time, since Jones announced the program only Jan. 17.

District officials also say they are reluctant to discuss any school security measures publicly for fear of jeopardizing student safety by pointing out what their schools currently lack.

“I knew schools would move slowly,” said Miller from his Fairfield Township home. “It’s a different concept and will take some time for them to digest, but some school districts will eventually sign on.”

Paul Otten, superintendent of the 9,900-student Fairfield City School District, says his board has not had an opportunity to address the issue. He says the board is expected to include discussion about the idea at its next meeting, Feb. 12.

Randy Oppenheimer, spokesman for Lakota Local School District, Southwest Ohio’s second-largest, says “the board has not taken any action on the sheriff’s plan, (and) I’m not aware of any scheduled vote.” Lakota, he says, is “fairly reluctant to go into a lot of details about the meeting topics” pertaining to security.

Hamilton City School District spokeswoman Joni Copas says “our district has a safety committee that we have reconvened after the Sandy Hook tragedy.” Copas says the committee is “looking at all aspects of school safety and security” and is expected to present recommendations before the end of the current school year.

Sheriff Jones is neither surprised nor discouraged. “It’s a great idea, but I want to take it slow and see how it goes.

“I have had calls from school boards and emails from (school officials) in other states about it, and it has been nothing but positive reaction,” Jones says.

Subbing already to get better grasp of the job
Miller has painfully learned that disappointment can precede any success.

A Mason motorcycle patrolman, Miller was struck by a car in 2008. That accident left him with a broken, surgically repaired back. He returned to duty in 2010 only to be hit again by a car, ending his career and leaving him with metal “pins, screws and hooks at the bottom of my spine” and extensive nerve damage in one leg.

He has to do rehab daily but still misses police work. Seeing a TV news image of a military veteran standing guard – without a firearm – in front of a school in the days after Sandy Hook prompted his idea.

“Being a substitute is revenue-neutral for school districts, and they can have a certified and armed police officer in their schools,” Miller says.

In recent weeks, he has filled in as a substitute – unarmed – for a few days at Fairfield and Lakota schools to familiarize himself with the job, which pays about $75 per day. He is eager to pull double duty as an armed substitute so he can also add to a school’s security.

“We have to do something,” Miller says. “Kids shouldn’t have to worry about not being safe at school, and parents shouldn’t have to worry about maybe never seeing their kid again after sending them off to school.”

Posted in: Crime, News, Schools |

Tags: Tags: Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, Guns in Lakota schools, guns in schools, Lakota Local Schools, Lakota schools, Richard Jones, Sheriff Richard Jones