SAFE SCHOOLS FOR DESCHUTES

Every School. Every Child. Every Day.

Petition for Dedicated School-Safety Officers at Every Public K–12 Campus in Deschutes County

Every morning, parents across Deschutes County send their children to school with an expectation that should be simple:

They will come home.

Our community has experienced unimaginable heartbreak, and many parents are asking the same question:

What more can we do to protect our children while they are at school?

We believe one step deserves immediate consideration.

We are asking our local school districts, law-enforcement agencies and government leaders to work together toward providing a dedicated, appropriately trained School Resource Officer or School Resource Deputy at every public K–12 school in Deschutes County during school hours.

Our community already has School Resource Officer programs and partnerships between our schools and local law enforcement.

We are grateful for those officers, deputies, educators, first responders and school staff members who work every day to protect our children.

But having an SRO program is not necessarily the same as having a dedicated officer physically present at every individual campus.

We want to understand the gap and work together to close it.

We are asking our local leaders to:

Publicly identify how many public K–12 campuses in Deschutes County currently have a dedicated School Resource Officer or Deputy physically assigned to that campus during school hours.
Identify which schools currently share or rotate law-enforcement coverage and which campuses do not have a dedicated officer.
Determine how many additional appropriately trained officers or deputies would be necessary to provide dedicated coverage at every public K–12 campus.
Determine the estimated cost of providing that coverage.
Examine available district, city, county, state, grant and other funding sources so expanding school safety does not require taking resources away from teachers, counselors, special education or other essential student services.
Bring our school districts, local law-enforcement agencies, local government leaders, parents, educators and school-safety professionals together to develop a realistic implementation plan.
Establish clear expectations for training, responsibilities and accountability for officers assigned to schools, with their role centered on school safety, emergency preparedness, threat assessment, relationship-building and emergency response.
Oregon Has Considered This Before

In 2025, Oregon House Bill 2179 proposed requiring school districts to adopt safety policies providing a School Resource Officer or other law-enforcement coverage for every school.

The proposal also authorized the Oregon Department of Education to distribute State School Fund money to help districts pay costs associated with that coverage.

HB 2179 did not become law.

Today, we are not asking to solve every school-safety issue in Oregon.

We are asking to start here. At home.

Deschutes County is our community.

These are our schools.

These are our teachers.

And these are our children.

We recognize that no single policy can guarantee that violence will never occur. We also recognize that meaningful school safety involves prevention, mental-health resources, preparedness, secure facilities, communication, trained staff, law enforcement and many other layers working together.

A dedicated, appropriately trained school-safety officer can be one of those layers.

This petition asks our community leaders to determine what it would take to make dedicated coverage possible at every public school in Deschutes County and to work together toward making it happen.

This effort is not about political parties.

It is about asking what more we can reasonably do, together, to protect every child who leaves home to go to school.

No parent should have to wonder whether their child will come home.

No parent should have to stand behind caution tape outside their child’s school, waiting for answers.

No parent should have to experience the terror of learning that their child’s school is in lockdown because of an active threat.

We can do more. And our children are worth doing more for.

Every School. Every Child. Every Day.

Sign the petition.

Children and a teacher in our community went to school and did not come home.

That reality changes the weight of this conversation.

If you believe there is more we can do to protect our children while they are at school, please stand with us.

If you believe having a dedicated, appropriately trained School Resource Officer or Deputy physically present at every public school is one more layer of protection worth fighting for, add your name.

Sign for our children.

For the five-year-olds walking into kindergarten with backpacks almost as big as they are.

For the elementary students learning to read, the middle schoolers finding their way, and the high school students preparing to step into their futures.

For every child whose safety is entrusted to our schools when they leave our homes each morning.

For the teachers and school staff who dedicate their lives to educating and caring for them.

Our children are the future of this community. Protecting that future is worth showing up for.

And after you sign, share this petition.

Send it to another parent. A teacher. A first responder. A neighbor. Someone who believes we can do more.

We cannot change what has already happened.

But we can decide what we do next.

Let’s start here.

Let’s start at home.

Safe Schools for Deschutes

Every School. Every Child. Every Day.